# 900+ miles of driving in the next few days



## juvefan20 (Mar 24, 2001)

Taking the wife and kids to visit family. I will report back with thoughts. Our van has about 1,300 miles it so this will be good test. 

I am pretty excited except for the fact the fact that I have yet to hard-wire my radar detector. I did get the clear bra on 2 weeks ago though which will be a life saver to the front end.


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## aeitingon (Mar 21, 2005)

minivan + thanksgiving weekend = very little chance you will need a radar detector. enjoy the trip.


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## juvefan20 (Mar 24, 2001)

I should be ok in terms of speeding. Speed limits here are 65 in most of the roads I will travel and I tend to lock cruise on 73-74. I just like knowing when they are around. Guess I am that insecure :laugh:


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## juvefan20 (Mar 24, 2001)

First long trip with the van. Logged 860 miles and overall I enjoyed it. The part I hated the most was driving in the rain with the stock headlights. Those lights should be outlawed they are so bad. I will have to look around to correct this issue.

The van handled speeds well. I never went over 78 mph and I got 25.4 mpg over the entire trip which took me from Rochester through the Poconos to Long Island. Considering the elevation changes I am pleased with the fuel economy since we had 2 adults, 2 children, the dog, and a packed cargo area. 

Seats were comfortable since we are in them for just over 5 hours. I was worried they would be short for me but somehow they worked well. The leatherette got a little warm but nothing too bad that I don't encounter with real leather. Through some tighter turns I was held in just fine and the van felt controlled the whole time. 

We are very pleased overall and don't think I/we would have been much happier going with the Acadia which was the other vehicle on our shortlist.


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## taxman100 (Apr 30, 2011)

We just round-tripped from Columbus, Ohio to Boston, MA - the drive there we stopped half-way. However, the drive home on Saturday was done strait-through - left around 11:30 a.m Saturday and arrived home around 12:45 a.m Sunday. That included 3 stops, as I have a 3 year old, and a 1 year old. Overall was almost 800 miles in one day. 

The van ate up the miles without a problem - the seats were fine as well. I am very happy I bought the RSE system, and the driver's seat is 8 way power, as I had to adjust it a little during the trip. We would have made better time except the way home we went through CT and north of NYC, and the traffic was rather heavy there. 

Average mileage? A hair over 26 mpg, per the trip computer. I drop 7-10 miles over the speed limit the entire way, so normally 73-75 mph.


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## juvefan20 (Mar 24, 2001)

So I am going to assume you used I-90. If that was the case you could have taken a break at my house 

I agree with the RSE, I enjoyed being able to make adjustments while driving. I too was traveling with young kids (5 months and 2 1/2) in the car this the RSE came in handy. 

Glad we both had safe travels. I could not believe how many speed traps were out there which was the reason I kept cruise locked in at 74 which was just enough to stay with traffic for the most part. Passing the big rigs was when I hit the gas a little which was the reason for installing the detector. I hate hearing the car get hit with debris which the clear bra saved me from most of it. 

But those headlights and rain, man I still can't get over how bad that was.


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## tuanies (Oct 16, 2009)

I hear ya about the headlights. I wonder if we could just swap in SEL HID enclosures, and just bypass the factory ballasts and install aftermarket ballasts so we wouldn't have to get them activated.

Too bad the projector housings are pricey.


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## juvefan20 (Mar 24, 2001)

tuanies said:


> I hear ya about the headlights. I wonder if we could just swap in SEL HID enclosures, and just bypass the factory ballasts and install aftermarket ballasts so we wouldn't have to get them activated.
> 
> Too bad the projector housings are pricey.


Yeah the projector housings are very costly but that would be the correct to go about it. I wonder if anyone has tried a 4300k aftermarket HID kit and if that was ok. I assume the beam pattern would not be very good but who knows. I remember the first Acura TL that had HID's and no projectors and those seems to no be too bad.


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## TCM GLX (Jan 2, 2000)

juvefan20 said:


> Yeah the projector housings are very costly but that would be the correct to go about it. I wonder if anyone has tried a 4300k aftermarket HID kit and if that was ok. I assume the beam pattern would not be very good but who knows. I remember the first Acura TL that had HID's and no projectors and those seems to no be too bad.


I have 300K bubs in both my low beams and fogs. I adjusted the headlights down to avoid blinding folks, and it is better than stock, but the patter still sucks.

I am considering buying a spare set of headlgihts and doing a retrofit on them. Seams like it would be the best way to go, since it really needs the help!!


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## trbochrg (Dec 1, 2004)

Ugh, when i drove my wife's routan at night in the rain for the first time I thought she had a bulb out...turns out they really are just that bad.

We took our Routan on vacation last month...had 2300 miles on it when we left and just over 3000 when we returned. The RSE was great with the kids (8 and 5).


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## 58kafer (Jun 27, 2007)

I've got two words: *FOG LIGHTS*. 

I noticed a good increase in the lower road lighting when I installed ours. I can't vouch for nighttime rain driving, but it was a vast improvement over the headlights alone. Eventually I will upgrade to some Sylvania Silverstars or Ultrastars. I bought my fogs thru Adam at Checkered Flag (one of the banneer advertisers in the Routan forums:thumbup::thumbup, he gave a great price and cheap shipping too. It still was cheaper than my local dealer---with shipping included. The kit also has the 9145 bulbs which you can get an upgraded Silverstar 9145ST. I'm not saying it will make your lights like HIDS but it will help.


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## taxman100 (Apr 30, 2011)

juvefan20 said:


> So I am going to assume you used I-90. If that was the case you could have taken a break at my house
> 
> I agree with the RSE, I enjoyed being able to make adjustments while driving. I too was traveling with young kids (5 months and 2 1/2) in the car this the RSE came in handy.
> 
> ...


Actually, for the drive east we took NY 17, or "The Southern Tier Expressway", stopping in Binghamton. There was almost no traffic due to the late hours we were driving, and I managed to get all the way across New York State from west to east with only 85 cents in tolls. The drive back we went through CT and across the neck of New York then I-80 through PA. Traffic in CT and NY to the exit south to NYC was heavy. 

So far, so good on the van. The only real nagging issue is when you first start the car, if you want to use the back-up camera, you have to wait a few seconds for the system to power up.


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## juvefan20 (Mar 24, 2001)

We traveled similar roads. 

I used 90 from Rochester to Syracuse. Once in Cuse is used 690 to 81 and then 80(Pa) into NYC. We also traveled late hours on Tuesday night which was great for traffic, bad because of the weather that day. 

On Saturday on the way back we left the Tristate area around Noon and were home by 5:30. 

I spent a ton on tolls thanks to the bridges I had to cross. (GW and Throgs Neck)


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## Steveaut (Sep 16, 2010)

The headlights are a problem. I really want to upgrade them, but at a reasonable cost. I can't afford to spend a lot. I don't know about the silverstars. The fogs make sense to help out. My fogs on the Journey improved the lighting quite a bit. That's probably the best bang for the buck. But if the silverstars work well, I would love to know.


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## MozartMan (Jul 31, 2010)

Steveaut said:


> But if the silverstars work well, I would love to know.


I installed Silverstars. They are not HIDs, but they are whiter and brighter than stock bulbs.


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## mr.mms (Sep 13, 2011)

Juvefan20, for the mpg, did you measure it or just from the instrument panel reading that you are getting the 25.4? my experience has been 1-2mpg lower when i measure it compare to the instrument over a full tank. Mine is also 2011 SE RSE and Nav. For around town (Rochester) I'm getting around 19mpg as measured. This include mostly highway driving on 590 (90% of miles are highway around 65mph).


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## juvefan20 (Mar 24, 2001)

mr.mms said:


> Juvefan20, for the mpg, did you measure it or just from the instrument panel reading that you are getting the 25.4? my experience has been 1-2mpg lower when i measure it compare to the instrument over a full tank. Mine is also 2011 SE RSE and Nav. For around town (Rochester) I'm getting around 19mpg as measured. This include mostly highway driving on 590 (90% of miles are highway around 65mph).


Measured it myself for the trip. Just as reference, my wife uses the Routan to travel from Penfield to Woodcliff and gets 19.2 mpg regularly since we have had the van.

I hit such high numbers I think because I coasting downhill on the highway and driving very conservatively since I wanted to make it to LI on one tank which I managed to do.


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## Steveaut (Sep 16, 2010)

Our 2010 SEL does significantly better on the highway than around town. We can get 24-25 easily on the freeway on a long trip. But our usually mpg is 19-20 with a mix of city and highway driving, probably 40/60, city to highway ratio.


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## sladethesleeper (Oct 28, 2011)

MozartMan said:


> I installed Silverstars. They are not HIDs, but they are whiter and brighter than stock bulbs.


I've had good luck with these on other cars with poor lights. I'm considering putting them in on the Routan this weekend. So very unhappy with the lighting. My highbeams on the Routan = low beams on my Volvo.

My wife took it on a road trip last weekend. She said it was nice. Got about the same mileage as my volvo does on the same trip (around 27MPG going 68MPH on average). The kids (3 & 8) loved the RSE as did my wife as a result. No more stringing up the lap top, or the ipad with a connection to the front stereo. My 3 year old loves having the sun shade and tinted windows. She was traveling with our dogs, who were placed in the rear basin behind the last row and luggage placed in the rear seat. She just opened the rear windows to keep the dog smell down while driving. 

Basically, everything we wanted in a minivan, without spending $36k to get it in a Honda or Toyota.

Only downside...we are going to blow through 36k miles before 2 years are even up.


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## Steveaut (Sep 16, 2010)

sladethesleeper said:


> Only downside...we are going to blow through 36k miles before 2 years are even up.


We have the same problem. We have only owned the Routan since Aug 2010 and we are at 26k already. Our 36k mile warranty will be gone in about 6 months, if we are lucky. The motor and tranny has a 50k warranty, though. 

The big down side is that the car depreciated so fast that there is no hope of trading it when the warranties expire, even at 50k miles. If the Routan is around when that time comes, I will seriously consider another one. Hopefully there will be a new van, six passenger seating and a TDI.


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## sladethesleeper (Oct 28, 2011)

Steveaut said:


> The big down side is that the car depreciated so fast that there is no hope of trading it when the warranties expire, even at 50k miles. If the Routan is around when that time comes, I will seriously consider another one. Hopefully there will be a new van, six passenger seating and a TDI.


Hopefully they consider updating the Eurovan with a TDI.

But, I'm just hoping my present one lasts decently long enough to overcome the depreciation issue before becoming a major maintenance nightmare. I usually keep cars for a long time (>10 years). Just when I had two volvos, we would alternate family trips in them. Now, the Routan is the undisputed king of the family travel to anywhere. The only exception so far as been when we went to the christmas tree farm to cut down a tree. Then I took the pickup because tossing a tree in the bed is much easier than securing it to the roof of anything. 

At least for 36k miles (2 years) I won't have to do any work on the car myself. Though, that's good. My truck has 310k miles on it (2004 Chevy, with original engine) that needs loving from time to time.


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