Road Trip Recap
06-08-2015, 07:56 AM
#1
Burning Brakes
Thread Starter
Road Trip Recap
Just got back from 9 days of cruising through upper NY State. Just under 1500 miles of interstate, state and local roads. Wanted to give a few impressions on the Vette (most is stuff you already know, but it was my first real road trip).
- Overall, a great road car (but I thought my C5 and C6 were great touring machines too.) Got 31.5 mpg on the first leg which was all interstate. Was in "economy" mode on all interstate driving. Overall, I got just under 28 mpg in mixed driving. Usually running 5 to 10 mph over limit. The AFM switch from V8 to V4 is almost unnoticeable.
-The electronic stuff was cool to play around with and I thought the ergonomics of the driver area were good. I really liked the ability to turn the NPP "off" and "on" - allowed the Vette to quiet down on the highway. This was particularly welcome when the pavement noise was excessive.
- Seats were comfortable for the most part although an inch or so of additional recline would have been appreciated. Ventilated seats were welcome. Passenger side is a little tight left to right although leg room was OK.
- The NAV actually worked really well. I was a little concerned about it given the past posts about the difficultly in using it and the sometimes erratic behavior. I even looked up venues using the POI function. Again, it worked. Had the Garmin as a back up but never pulled it out.
- After coming off of 2 Lemans Blue Metallic Vettes, this Arctic White Vette is an easy color to live with. After 9 days of being on the road in a variety of conditions (including rain), the Vette didn't look dirty (except the back end - had to wipe the camera lens clean several times). My LBM Vettes would have been gray from road grime!
- I had one glitch - going through PA, my NAV screen went blank for about 10 seconds. Lost Nav and XM. Came back on - never had another issue. I assume (hope!) it was just a lost signal since I was in the mountains and about to enter a tunnel.
- Although the NAV worked well, a couple of things. Several times, the INITIAL route selection was not the best, in fact, it was bordering on illogical. However, the route would change as I progressed to the actual best route. This was somewhat disturbing since my initial reaction to the route selection was to not follow it, read the map and plug in the Garmin. Also, I haven't used it enough to know how to force it to calculate an "alternative" route. The Garmin makes it easy. I am sure its not that difficult with the factory NAV and its one thing I will have to learn.
- I wish the factory NAV had a feature like Google maps where you can select from one or more alternative routes. That said, I think there is a way to upload planned routes - I just don't know have to do it. I have let my OnStar subscription expire and don't plan on renewing it so I can't do it through that route.
- The National Baseball Hall of Fame is a great place to visit, even if you are just a casual fan. Also, if you are into history, the Adirondack Museum is a really interesting place.
- Overall, a great road car (but I thought my C5 and C6 were great touring machines too.) Got 31.5 mpg on the first leg which was all interstate. Was in "economy" mode on all interstate driving. Overall, I got just under 28 mpg in mixed driving. Usually running 5 to 10 mph over limit. The AFM switch from V8 to V4 is almost unnoticeable.
-The electronic stuff was cool to play around with and I thought the ergonomics of the driver area were good. I really liked the ability to turn the NPP "off" and "on" - allowed the Vette to quiet down on the highway. This was particularly welcome when the pavement noise was excessive.
- Seats were comfortable for the most part although an inch or so of additional recline would have been appreciated. Ventilated seats were welcome. Passenger side is a little tight left to right although leg room was OK.
- The NAV actually worked really well. I was a little concerned about it given the past posts about the difficultly in using it and the sometimes erratic behavior. I even looked up venues using the POI function. Again, it worked. Had the Garmin as a back up but never pulled it out.
- After coming off of 2 Lemans Blue Metallic Vettes, this Arctic White Vette is an easy color to live with. After 9 days of being on the road in a variety of conditions (including rain), the Vette didn't look dirty (except the back end - had to wipe the camera lens clean several times). My LBM Vettes would have been gray from road grime!
- I had one glitch - going through PA, my NAV screen went blank for about 10 seconds. Lost Nav and XM. Came back on - never had another issue. I assume (hope!) it was just a lost signal since I was in the mountains and about to enter a tunnel.
- Although the NAV worked well, a couple of things. Several times, the INITIAL route selection was not the best, in fact, it was bordering on illogical. However, the route would change as I progressed to the actual best route. This was somewhat disturbing since my initial reaction to the route selection was to not follow it, read the map and plug in the Garmin. Also, I haven't used it enough to know how to force it to calculate an "alternative" route. The Garmin makes it easy. I am sure its not that difficult with the factory NAV and its one thing I will have to learn.
- I wish the factory NAV had a feature like Google maps where you can select from one or more alternative routes. That said, I think there is a way to upload planned routes - I just don't know have to do it. I have let my OnStar subscription expire and don't plan on renewing it so I can't do it through that route.
- The National Baseball Hall of Fame is a great place to visit, even if you are just a casual fan. Also, if you are into history, the Adirondack Museum is a really interesting place.
06-08-2015, 08:05 AM
#2
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Sounds like you had a great time and the car performed extremely well, as it should. Thanks for the feedback and keep on enjoying your C7.
06-08-2015, 09:52 AM
#3
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Nice report. Posts like this are making the wait for delivery of my 2016 very difficult. Road trips are a great way to see the country and have fun driving while seeing the sights. Thanks for the post.