bdub-WO
Senior Member
UPDATE: Over all a driving experience that was 8-10. I found if I didn't pay attention, I'd be going close to 70 because the handling, noise, comfort, etc was better than expected. I'd go for some clips at 55 and between 55-65 or so. I didn't use the cruise control until about 3 hours into the trip. At that point, it was a matter of some fatigue from the long day (up at 4am to fly to DAL, it was about close to 5pm by the time I hit the road to Lafayette). I hit the cruise around 61mph and holy cow if that wasn't a magic number! Semi-jetstreams were really manageable, apart from one or two truckers that like hugging the yellow line, and the overall engine performance and cabin noise was just awesome at that speed.
Stopped in Alexandria for a bit of a stretch and some caffeine and sugar. Only stop I made on the 7 hour journey home. Seating was that comfy!
Had one close call coming out of Shreveport with a pickup truck that seemed married to my blind spot. I was needing to exit and he was needing to enter the highway. He missed the memo on yielding and merging so I missed the exit. Did a exit and uturn that maybe added a mile onto the journey.
Lesson learned: take my time, know that the world is full of people who apparently have life saving brain surgeries to get to, and there'll be another chance up the road to get back on track.
Things I am marking down, that kept from being an 8 out of 10. Cab issues (dang it ford!):
First, the AC only blew hot at one point, had to shut it down and restart it to get a warm mix instead of blast furnace hot (even when cranked all the way to the left on the temp selector).
Second, ambient lighting is coming from instrumentation only. Maybe these things are driven mostly during the day, but I didn't like how dark it felt. I had a vw cc that had these really dim and pinpoint red leds that made an awesome difference in night driving. Gonna look into a similar add here I think.
Lastly and probably the most dangerous, Bluetooth connectivity. The head unit just would not stay paired with my iPhone. It was great for having my tunes, but I was also navigating with my phone, so getting the turn by turn over the speakers was helpful to keep my eyes on the road. Reconnecting is not a one click process so picking the phone up, getting the right menu selected and then selecting the right Bluetooth device was really stressful. I probably had to do that 10-12 times on the trip.
A final word on night driving up high....I had never been so panick stricken to see all the deer down on the shoulders of the highway at night. Good golly that upped my pucker factor to think of tangling with Bambi on my first voyage in the Willemium Falcon!
Stopped in Alexandria for a bit of a stretch and some caffeine and sugar. Only stop I made on the 7 hour journey home. Seating was that comfy!
Had one close call coming out of Shreveport with a pickup truck that seemed married to my blind spot. I was needing to exit and he was needing to enter the highway. He missed the memo on yielding and merging so I missed the exit. Did a exit and uturn that maybe added a mile onto the journey.
Lesson learned: take my time, know that the world is full of people who apparently have life saving brain surgeries to get to, and there'll be another chance up the road to get back on track.
Things I am marking down, that kept from being an 8 out of 10. Cab issues (dang it ford!):
First, the AC only blew hot at one point, had to shut it down and restart it to get a warm mix instead of blast furnace hot (even when cranked all the way to the left on the temp selector).
Second, ambient lighting is coming from instrumentation only. Maybe these things are driven mostly during the day, but I didn't like how dark it felt. I had a vw cc that had these really dim and pinpoint red leds that made an awesome difference in night driving. Gonna look into a similar add here I think.
Lastly and probably the most dangerous, Bluetooth connectivity. The head unit just would not stay paired with my iPhone. It was great for having my tunes, but I was also navigating with my phone, so getting the turn by turn over the speakers was helpful to keep my eyes on the road. Reconnecting is not a one click process so picking the phone up, getting the right menu selected and then selecting the right Bluetooth device was really stressful. I probably had to do that 10-12 times on the trip.
A final word on night driving up high....I had never been so panick stricken to see all the deer down on the shoulders of the highway at night. Good golly that upped my pucker factor to think of tangling with Bambi on my first voyage in the Willemium Falcon!
