Road Trip
 

Just got back from the 2nd trip to Tennessee from AZ (1500 miles one way). We put on a new timing belt/tensioner/water pump. Also, the car needed a new set of tires. We went back a month ago as a family member was having serious heart surgery. He did well on the surgery, but got hospital pneumonia and passed two weeks later, which necessitated a 2nd trip for the memorial.

I went with what I had on there before (Kumho's) that I bought at Discount Tire. The tire is the Kumho Ecsta ASX. The tire is a W rated high-speed tire so it has better construction. The size I have been running is a 225/50/17, a bit smaller width but no noticeable driving difference. The tire is definitely quieter.

The gas between here and TN is huge as I drove with mid grade all the way there and back. The cost average was about $2.10/gal. Arizona and New Mexico have the best performing fuel for mileage. The trip meter said on that gas we averaged out 31+ mpg at 80 mph. The gasoline in Texas, Oklahoma, and Arkansas was not as good averaging 27 mpg. We stayed with gas from Love's truck stops as they were convenient for fuel and refreshments. One tank was Shell in Mississippi at the state line near Memphis. The gas between the next gas station across the line a half mile down the road was 20 cents cheaper in MS.

The car now has 210,000 miles and did not use a drop of oil the entire trip.

I love my Acura and didn't see another RL the entire two trips back to TN. A few TL's, MDX but that was about it.

Just makes you appreciate it more and more everyday... :thumbsup:

The longest trip I've done with the RL has been no more than a few hours but I never want to stop driving, it's just such a great cruiser. Planning a road trip out to the west coast next year & by then she'll have well over 300,000 KM but I have zero doubt that she'll have an issue.

Sorry to hear about your relative :( My grandfather passed the same way, as a result of something he got after his heart surgery which also went fine.

It's funny you posted this now, I just drove my RL on a 400 mile road trip last weekend, and I'm currently driving my dad's LS on a road trip for Memorial Day weekend that will total about 1000 miles (surprise surprise, I'm actually driving our own cars on a road trip for a hot second :rofl:)

While the LS goes into cruiser mode so quickly, the second I needed to do anything remotely close to an aggressive maneuver, it becomes sloppy and it feels out of control. Both cars weight about the same. The LS has 2 cylinders and 0.8L of displacement on the RL but they got comparable gas mileage with me driving both of them on a comparable highway drive. I'll chalk that up to awd vs rwd and the fact that my dad has all seasons vs my RL which is running aggressive High Performance Summers.

While I get why people like my dad pay for the comfort of an LS, I can't part with the sheer driveability and agility of the RL. In my mind it's as close as I can get to a BMW without the German reliability gremlins.

Year and a half ago we woke up one morning (Saturday) and simply decided to drive down to New Orleans from Northern IL lol - RL took it like a champ, and we really enjoyed comfort over any rental we would usually go for when doing road trips :)