John Phillips: The Perils of Cross-Country Trips

Last month, I drove our website's long-term Kia Sportage SX AWD from Darby, Montana, to editorial world headquarters in Ann Arbor, Michigan. There I swapped it for our long-term Mazda CX-5, which I immediately drove back to Darby—a round trip of almost 4000 miles. In five days. The urgency derived from blizzards predicted to descend the following week. Trust me, you don't know terror until the Wyoming Highway Patrol closes Interstate 90 at the snowbound Buffalo exit, where all cars and trucks are diverted into town. At which point, your choice of accommodations dwindles to (a) an L.L.Bean sleeping bag on the left side of the Kia's cargo bay, or (b) an L.L.Bean sleeping bag on the right side of the Mazda's cargo bay. I know, because it was in like fashion that I've spent numb evenings in a Nissan Frontier, a Mercedes-Benz ML500, and a Mercury Tracer with mismatched front seats. (You think manufacturers pore over press-fleet cars before delivering them to us?) READ MORE ›› from Car and Driver Blog http://blog.caranddriver.com

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