Drove down to FL last week. Total mileage for the trip, about 1280 (each way) from Brooklyn, NY to Aventura, FL (Exit 16 off I-95). Made it in about 18 hours. I have done it quicker, but the drive down started off a bit bumpy. Last year while driving back I got nailed with Laser and got a ticket. My V1 was helpless, as that's the weakness for most radars. It went off, but was too late. I got caught in a trap that the speed limit dropped and I couldn't react quick enough.

Anywho this year I installed a K40 Laser Defuser (The newest EX model). So saturday night I start setting up the V1 for the trip, I did my usual ghetto hardwiring by using the longer cord and wedging it around the trim of the window and A-Pillar to make it's way to the cigarette lighter (I hate cords in my face when looking out of the windshield). I run all the wires, and - nothing happens. Dead. It takes me a while to realize that the fuse on the lighter adapter was blown, it's 10:30pm on Saturday night and try finding some place that has a 2 amp mini blade fuse. Fortunately I found a repair shop open 24 hours, he didn't have a 2 amp, but had a 5 amp. I tried it, and surprisingly it blew also. I went back to him to see if I can get another 5 amp fuse thinking I did something wrong in the setup, he offers me a 7.5 amp fuse, I figured it was too powerful, but he insists it'll work. I was reluctant to try it, but figured I'd give it a shot. It worked alright, I completely fried the lighter adapter. No longer useable. Really Dead now. So I had no choice but to drive w/o any protection. I figured the safest way to go is 5-10mph over the limit MAX.

A few hours into the ride, I remembered Trapster, which I have had in past phones, I just never re-installed it when I changed my phone earlier this year. (For those of you that hasn't heard of it, go to www.trapster.com - good stuff). I downloaded it and used it for the ride down. Worked flawlessly as expected. Great to use for these kinds of trips. It picked up just about every speed trap (whether there was anyone there or not was another story, but the pre-warning is great), red light camera and speed camera on the way down. It also warned me of a trap in NC, which I saw while driving at about 80 (70mph zone), I started to slow down to about 75, passed the trap, saw 2 patrol cars and kept going my way. A few minutes later one of the highway patrol cars come behind me and pulls me over. Says he clocked me going 78, which I didn't deny, but couldn't believe that I was getting pulled over for going 8 over. He ended up being a decent guy, we exchanged a few words (good words), he gave me a warning and sent me on my way.

So for the trip down, I filled up 4 times (once before I left, 3x on the ride down), averaged between 19-21 mpg and ranged from speeds of 70-90 at any given time. I got to my destination on fumes and filled up a 5th time to use the fuel for the local driving I was planning on doing. Not sure if you all know this or not, but the best fuel economy will NOT be achieveded by using cruise control. When I had cruise on, I was getting closer to 19mpg. When my own foot was controlling the speed, it was closer to 21. Obviously the slower I went, the higher the average was (60-70mph is the most ideal for the best economy, IMO). Total trip miles per fillup was anywhere from 310-340 miles.

On the way back up, I called V1 and bought a new lighter adapter which worked fine. Oddly enough the laser defuser nor the V1 picked up anything because there were no cops using radar for the entire trip back. I was warned by my family that the East Coast got hit with some white stuff and extreme cold. We hit it in SC all the way up into NJ. I must have seen about 20+ cars in ditches, flipped or crashed because I-95 was a skating rink. It was a bit scary to be driving 60mph and with very little warning hit multiple patches of ice. There were some points in VA where 95 was completely packed with snow and only 1 clear lane to drive through. Thank g-d all went well, I drove in a safe enough manner to get us home in one piece. One scare that I had when filling up the 2nd time was a BP station that must have been low in 93 or having problems with their tanks because the pump was running VERY slow. I gave up after about 5 minutes and only $10 worth of gas (I wasn't well dressed and it was about 14 degrees outside). I started up the car and it nearly sputtered and died. The idle was very rough and erratic. I went down the block to a Shell station and finished filling up the tank, and thankfully the engine was operating normally. Because of the lower speeds most of the way, we got home in 19 hours. The highest average mph was the last tankful, which was between 22.5-23 mpg. When my wife drove she had it on cruise the whole time, but when I drove I controlled the speed on my own.

Total miles in the 7 day trip was about 4,900.

Anyway, to the pics. I don't think I EVER saw my car looking like this, even in the worst winter. I felt like we went through all 4 seasons in the drive..










So, do I win?

 

I thought my car was dirty after a week of rain...

 

Thats not that bad. That is the way my car looks for at a minimum of 4 months every year.

 

Up here your car would look like that after a 30min drive.

 

Rest assured, as soon as I got home I went to get it hand washed. It's a heck of a lot more expensive to do, but they clean it so well, it's cleaner than the day I picked it up from the dealer...I use them more for my Mini though, because it's too low for the automated wash. This place I just drive in, and about a dozen people clean the car spick and span in about 20 minutes, in and out.

 

Damn, dude...that's DIRRRTY.

 

Nice trip but damn the RDX is horrible on gas!! What's up with that?

 

just wondering how do you get that bad of mileage? heavy foot?

 

Berverly Hills Car Wash off the GCP....best car wash EVAR!! Is it sad that I miss my old car wash more then anything?

 

I wish I can give you an answer...but as I said, between 60-70mph is the sweet spot for the best economy.

This is my wife's car...She uses it only locally. She gets an average of 13mpg from the local only driving. She had an X3 before this and it was just as bad. The only time you would see a big difference is when you get onto the highway, which she seldom does.

 

That's pretty dirty. I think my neighbor's car looked worse this morning, though. She drives just about every weekend from Rochester, NY down to Jersey because she took a job up there and just comes home on the weekends. It feels good to get the car cleaned after that, though. I got mine washed Friday evening, then had a road trip to NY (moving to a house), and it's dirty again, but luckily just on the bottom half or so of the car.

 

My car looks like that a lot. The last time it got cleaned was a couple weeks ago when it rained. I left it outside and washed the salt off it.

 

I absolutely love your plate.

 

Ed, which car wash did you take it to?

This is what my TL-S looked like yesterday after a trip from Brooklyn to Atlantic City and back. We didn't encounter any snow fall, but there was snow besides the road and because my car is silver it hides dirt pretty well








And like you, I got pulled over also. My V1, didn't pick up a speed trap either. He pulled me over for 85 in a 65, and to my surprise, gave me a ticket just for "obstruction of license plate". Very nice gentleman to deal with, and surprisingly generous. He asked me where we were headed - and when I told him "ac" he said with a smile, "figures." This was actually towards the beginning of the Garden State, so I was going 65-70 the whole way to ac. I had 2 grandpas in Devilles and numerous buses pass me.

 

The car wash I go to is called "Crystal Clear", their address: 2440 Stillwell Avenue
- Brooklyn, NY 11223. If you can handle paying between $20-$30 for a good hand/carwash, than this place is for you, and like I said, they do excellent work. I use them when it's too cold to wash it myself..

 

Funny you say that...while the cop that pulled me over had me next to his car/behind my car, he also commented on it, and my reply was something like this: "don't think it's suggesting that I like to drive fast, with this being my wife's car, while we were dating I would spend late nights at her house and I used to always tell her, 'honey, I gotta go', so she chose this plate".

He chuckled...

True story

 

Where in Rochester? I used to live in that area!

 

I didn't know RDX was that horrible in terms of gas mileage.. that's really bad..

 

Holy shit. That's terrible.

 

Really? Small world! I'm not sure where my neighbor lives up there, but she works for FedEx (not a delivery person). I used to live there as well (in Greece). My family moved in 1990 when I was 11, so I don't remember much except it being super cold and snowy.

 

I couldn't deal with that.

 

Dirty. Reminds me of how my TL looks when I get back from a weekend in Tahoe

 

NO!!!!!!!!:thumbsdowI suggest you return the K40 and buy a different jammer if you want laser protection. Also, be aware of Instant on radar. Its more dangerous that laser. wink

 

Shoofin, one more thing. No matter if you get a more effective jammer or not, the head needs to be sticking out a little more in order to receive overpass and over the hill shots. I know my post count says I'm a noob but I'm not a noob at avoiding leos.

By the way, I think you should put your car on autopia and ask what they think of it.