Driving in the US

naefeart

naefeart

naefeart

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Has anyone actually enjoyed it?

I'm in Houston for the next 3 weeks and have been running about in a horrible Toyota Corolla hire car. Not sure what cc it is ,but it sounds tinny and has little go. Looks a little like a small Lexus IS 250.

The roads here are mainly multilane highways and a really dull drive. Taking me a little while to get the hang of lane discipline and work out which motorway off ramps I am supposed to take. If you get it wrong you can end up with a long detour.

Only had one screwup so far - yesterday I mistakenly turned off the highway onto the wrong side of a residential road, but it was dark and I don't think anyone noticed :o

One thing I can say is that I'm really enjoying the autobox, its perfect for this kind of lazy driving. Oh and the road surfaces are lovely and smooth.

In May I'm coming back to the US with mates for an LA/Vegas/San Francisco road trip. Hopefully the driving will be more enjoyable. We are also going to hire a Viper GTS for the strip, if we're not broke by then. Looking forward to that.

Anyone done anything similar?

n
 
Whilst you're around Vegas, take the drive up to Area 51. Driving through the desert is a much better experience than the boring highways. Lots of nice views, photo opportunities and of course pretty much no one else around.
 
If the clips on roadwars are anything to go by then driving in America = avoid the hard shoulder, or a big rig will be up your ass the second the engine idles nomatter how much illumination you have.
 
interested in the answer to this too.

going vegas for my honeymoon this summer, want to rent something fun for a day
 
Love it, driving around LA and county was what made my Californian section of my holiday last year.

Get a decent car too with no roof.
 
I'll be driving in the US for the first time at the end of May, can't wait. Shame i'll be driving some generic Chevy saloon :p

Would people recommend taking a sat nav? I'll only be driving round Orlando mainly, maybe venture a little further out.
 
The roads are easy but i still would, means you can enjoy the scenery and have no care over where you are :)
 
Took my TomTom to Orlando in 2005 and it helped. Just don't rely on the POI to get you on the correct entry road to some of the attractions... Ended up in on Orange Farm instead of one of the parks once as the road was technically nearest the centre of the park...

Can't really help on the cars, we went all aspirational and got a minivan!

The driving is easy. There's a lot less clutter on the road than there is over here and all the junctions are simple.
 
Last week did the drive from San Diego to San Fran. Did it in a convertible mustang, highway 1 was absolutely amazing (near big sur) and your driving on the cliff side. It was an autobox, but when your in stop start traffic (esp near LA) its more of a blessing.

If your in central san fran (near union square) then you probably want to park the car up and take public transport. San fran is extremely hilly and it can get frustrating in stop start traffic.
 
who did you rent from and how far in advance did you have to book ?

Hertz seem to be fully booked on all venues in vegas for a corevette

in August !! thats 5 months away :(
 
I loved it, looking forward to doing it again.

Stuff like a 'Vette for the day just seems like a total waste of money though. Just hire a limp-wristed V6 Mustang Convertible for the week instead.
 
I went with Alamo and managed to get car for 70 dollars a day - but this was on special. Dont know how much they'd normally cost.

Get GPS
Get a convertible
and just enjoy the road. Driving in the city and on the coast with the roof down was awesome, but the long drives on the highway were just monotonous and i was just thankful that the mustang wasnt that bad of a place to be.

Watch out for driving over there. On the highway you can undertake, expect traffic around LA. On the plus side people are generally more forgiving (changing lanes at last minute etc). Watch out for when your on empty roads in the city. Its easy to go on the wrong side of the road
 
[TW]Fox;16248229 said:
I loved it, looking forward to doing it again.

Stuff like a 'Vette for the day just seems like a total waste of money though. Just hire a limp-wristed V6 Mustang Convertible for the week instead.
Click to expand...

trouble is the mustang falls into one of those groups thats much cheaper

get the feeling it'll get substituted with a chrysler or something.
 
Sounds like we'll def enjoy the trip then - we are taking the costal route back from San Fran to LA, via big sur, Monterey, Santa Barbara etc.

Sadly we'll have a Ford explorer type 4x4 for the journey - we needed the space for all the luggage.

We're also going to check out Death Valley, Napa wine valley and a US military plane graveyard I found on googlemaps.

Roll on May!

n
 
MrLOL said:
trouble is the mustang falls into one of those groups thats much cheaper

get the feeling it'll get substituted with a chrysler or something.
Click to expand...

If Hertz LAX are anything to go by they pretty much didnt have any sebrings. Everybody i saw getting into convertibles got mustangs, us included.
 
My buddy from uni and I took my A6 From Charlotte and up to DC, Marlyand, back down through the Carolinas, up to Tennessee, Nashville/Mephis etc (the drive from Clemson to Nashville on US-129 was epic), down through Mississippi (worst roads ever), into Louisiana (New Orleans an epic place to get drunk), across to Texas (Houston, Austin, San Antonio, some random hick towns) and all that jazz..... Texas a good state to drive fast in. We spent most of one day at 120-130mph and didn't get pulled over on advice of locals who said certain roads were unpatrolled. Who cares when fuel was under $2 a gallon? (It's a fair bit more now, maybe $2.50!!), anyway then into New Mexico, Phoenix AZ was pretty awesome, up through the mountains on some unpaved roads (haha seriously suggest everyone goes and finds the ghost town called Cleator in Arizona and goes to meet the bar owner Big Dave - the FUNNIEST person we met of the trip. Just briefly we turned up and at the bar it was basically him and a cop drinking, with a whole load of assault rifles behind the bar, awesome experience), then anyhow we did the whole Grand Canyon thing, went to Vegas for a few days until we were broke, explored California for a while (the channel islands are imazing - rent a boat), did the whole west coast thing up Highway 1, bolted it up to Vancouver then my buddy flew home and I went and lived in Banff until January this year when I ran out of cash and drove back 2600 miles to Charlotte NC! Was about 14'000 miles in all, pretty good trip. There's every kind of road in America. Smoothest ones are in Georgia, Most annoying cops are in Virginia and Minnesota........ what do you all want to know?
 
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