I miss my Ram 1500 (classic I guess now) for road trips. That thing was a cruiser - effortless eating of KMs on the highway, cushy suspension, great stereo, super quiet. Cruise at 120-140 all day long with no sweat. Tons of room and interior storage, I had so much room for snacks in the center console and so many cupholders to use lol.

Only time it was bad was for parking, otherwise not too bad in the city.

I miss my Hemi. Also, I hustled that Ram from Pemberton to Vancouver General in 1.5h before when my wife's Grandma was dying.

Most cars made in the last 20 years will handle S2S at 120 with no problems. The drivers not so much.

At the speeds most of these retards go at, I think a model T can handle sea to sky.

agreed! when we drove down to san fran last summer the tundra ate up those KM like it was nothing. threw everything (2 duffles, gifts, 4 coolers) in the bed and took turn using the rear seats to relax and nap.

Fair. I am thinking road trips that go off the beaten path. My friend has a Wrangler Rubicon, and while it's no S class, it's comfortable enough. Lol.

Newer half ton pickups are more comfortable in every way than a mini van.

More spacious front seats, infinitely nicer interior, better feel cruising 120+
Etc.

The only time you’d ever trade them off would be to haul 5+ people. The bench seat on the back of an F150 is more comfortable than the middle seats in most vans imo.

Traveling with kids having everything inside the cabin is much better. Even in a big truck when you do that it always feels like it's in the way and I don't want to be outside digging through a bunch of frozen stuff on the side of the highway. Especially when you're in the middle of nowhere and a toddler needs the travel toilet.

The only bad thing is that the rear seats dont recline unless you have the ram mega-cab configuration

Well yea you said the magic word, Kids lol

No one buying some touring car with a bunch of kids. An F150 with a Tonneau cover would infinitely more usable than some sport wagon

Comfort wise for a few people there isn’t a mini van on the market that competes with the fit and finish of Laramie rams or Lariat F150s

Minivans are gonna be pretty miserable drives most of the time on anything that's not straight. We don't have luxury minivans and in that sense a Ram is going to be nicer to be in.

That's where a good SUV is a better trade off if you don't have dirty stuff to throw in the trunk. My experience with SUVs is mainly with compact size and midsize stuff and most of them drive better than a van. I've never driven a pickup long distance so I can't tell. Around town though, I find pickup trucks miserable, but my experience is also limited to a 2500. I've never really driven a half ton truck.

Well yeah the only time I'd be hauling that much stuff is with kids. I'd never pick something that large just for me but if I do need something that large I'll always pick a minivan over a truck for the reasons above, a tonneau cover still won'tmake it nearly as good. I really don't like trucks though lol. I've spent a lot of hours on highways in trucks and it always sucked ass.

https://i.ibb.co/QrKK1Gx/Pacifica-PHEV.jpg

I'm in a rental Pacifica at the moment and this PHEV is a dream to drive around American roads. The hybrid powertrain is smooth for city driving and still packs a punch when flooring it on the highway. Between the smooth powertrain and interior comfort, the Pacifica would easily make it to the top of my list if I need to do a North American road trip with a family - it's definitely not a miserable experience even if it's just me in the car.

Right before this rental, I was in a Yukon Denali that Budget gave me for not having a Pacifica to loan me. I thought the Yukon would be just as good, but I wasn't a huge fan of the truck-ish ride and power delivery from the engine. It doesn't help that I'm also used to driving lower cars, so driving something tall like the Yukon felt like navigating a monster truck in comparison.

When I moved to Toronto in 2016, I ended up with a Pacifica for a bit over a week. I used it to move furniture and my stuff from the airport to the condo. I had a very similar experience to radeonboy's rental, except at the time, it was just a regular gas motor, and no PHEV option was available. I can assure you that I wasn't going to win any 0-60 challenges, or auto cross titles. Same experience for me when I got a Yukon Denali rental when I went to Dawson Creek for work once. I didn't see Katie Holmes. :okay:

The hybrid is a lot better than the normal one, the ZF9 speed in the gasser takes 2 business days to downshift. How are you finding charging?

The Odyssey drives way better than Sienna/Pacifica - feels wider, lower to the ground, and the 10 speed/J35 is a total gem but the Honda seats are iffy for a road trip.

Back in college days, I tracked a couple pre-production minivans as chase cars:

1) Dodge Caravan: terrible trans won’t hold a gear, better power than Pacifica, can’t left foot brake because the seats are terribly flat.

2) Pacifica: better seats helps this rotate. With some trail braking it will bite and come around …. but terrible trans doesn’t give you any power to pull out of it. Need to be thinking half a corner ahead with this one.

3) Last Gen Sienna: best headroom for helmet, super short gearing, best damping and reasonable steering but holy shit the brakes are bad. t/C turns itself back on at 50kmh.

Toyota brakes have always been bad, I find they are undersized and their commuters typically can only handle one, maybe two high speed stops.

Your experience using them as chase cars shows that, they are really all only great for straight interstate travel.

We had a last gen Town & Country for my bachelor party. For 5 guys just bumbling along the highway, getting food, and bumming around town it was great. Zero need for any performance.

Toyota and Honda has enough experience to make them more performance oriented, but as Toyota has shown with their latest "lifted" model with the Sienna, they know where their market is and it's not performance vans. I think more people would be interested in a Sienna with more ground clearance than one that can go around a corner quicker.

https://www.theautopian.com/did-you-...n-racing-team/

The Honda boys race the Odyssey.

https://images-stag.jazelc.com/uploa...Racing_TS2.jpg

You can race anything but that's also not streetable

I didn't charge during the trip because a) the rental didn't come with a cable (I didn't ask for one either), and b) I didn't really have a place to charge when it's parked overnight.

From the limited miles I gained from downhill regen, it was nice to have smooth and quiet EV acceleration for the first 10/km/h or so. California roads are pretty quick so I had to accelerate pretty hard which kicked the engine on.

I lived with a current-Gen Odyssey many years ago - that things was a riot for a minivan. If I needed a minivan, I would lease a Pacifica Hybrid but purchase and Odyssey for keeping long-term.

Just saying but the interior of my Durango RT V8 is surprisingly nice, and it's got a Hemi, a good 8spd trans, Brembo brakes, and can seat 7, but fold the seats down and I took a huge run of stuff to the dump recently including pallets.

-Mark

Durango's dope - it's keeping the 6.4 and 5.7 HEMI alive for another year or two.
It even does upshift braps

They're really a ML/GL with a much better transmission, motor, and responsive touchscreen.

https://www.dodge.com/content/dam/fc...image.1440.jpg

https://mkt-vehicleimages-prd.autotr...6.jpg-1024x786

Mine is a twin to this. It's not the best vehicle in the world, but for the money, it goes pretty good, makes a good noise, has a good stereo. I'm reasonably happy with it.

-Mark

they have some presence on the road too. not your generic blob suv.

Is this your fun car hauler? :)

Aren't you supposed to drive those with the doors off :awwyeah:

https://i.ytimg.com/vi/EHZs3ZDwm_U/hqdefault.jpg