It wasn't a full 1K, but pretty close. The totals for my drive from the SF Bay area to the LA area was 400 miles each way and 150 miles around the LA area. I left as a solo driver on Friday morning around 10:30 AM and returned home on Sunday night at 11:30 PM. Here are some of my thoughts about the vehicle.
1) It's a very comfortable riding/driving car for a long road trip. I was mainly on I-5 through the central valley of California. My drive down was a total of 7 hours, with the last 2 hours in stop and go traffic in the Friday afternoon LA rush hour congestion. I felt fine and barely tired. I thought I could go at least another 2 hours driving that day.
2) The Intelligent Cruise Control worked really well. Mostly I had it set for 80-85 mph (thank you BEL radar detector) and it would slow down and speed up appropriately when I changed lanes to pass other vehicles. It even worked real well in the bumper to bumper traffic averaging 25 mph on the LA freeways.
3) The CVT is a bit sluggish from a stop, but once it got up to highway speeds it was smooth and top end acceleration was great. With the cruise going at 80-85, the CVT only had rpms at 2500, but would quickly pick up and accelerate when I wanted more speed to pass.
4) I briefly broke 100 to check it out and the car was smooth, stable, and surprisingly had little wind noise! The 20 inch wheels and tires were very quiet and smooth and transmitted little of the road irregularities into my body.
5) Lane departure warning get a bit annoying when I change lanes but do not use the turn signal because there are no cars around me.
6) Blind spot indicator works well in most situations. I don't recall any time a vehicle was in my blind spot and the indicator was not on. However, there was a short stretch when I had to drive close to a concrete barrier with no shoulder because of road construction. The indicator stayed on constantly for that mile or so, but it was working the way it should since there was a concrete barrier in my blind spot that whole time.
7) Upgraded audio system in the Deluxe touring package was very enjoyable for the whole trip, listening to mostly XM, but also a little iPhone audio via USB and Bluetooth. What I found annoying was that everytime I plugged in my iPhone to charge, it automatically went to USB audio and I had to push the XM button to get that back.
8) My kids enjoyed DVD movies on the theater system and gave rave reviews to having their own screen directly in front of them on the headrest rather than a single overhead screen like in our last car. The IR headphones worked well, as did the plugging in earphones or the Bose QC15 headphones (received from Infiniti to pre-ordering the vehicle) by cable into the jacks under the rear climate control system. Both commercial DVDs and ones I had burned myself played well. It's too bad that there was no blu-ray.
9) The rear cargo area behind the 2nd row is spacious. Two 30" rolling duffels, two 21" rolling carry-on suitcases, and 2 smaller 18 inch duffel bags all fit on the floor of the cargo area without stacking on top of each other.
10) The air-conditioned seatback with the Deluxe Touring package was awesome. That's what kept me from feeling tired after such long drives.
11) My gas mileage for the trip overall was 18.2 mpg and my average driving speed was 54 mph. Considering that I set the cruise at 80-85, I am pleased with those numbers. It used to be around 14-15 mpg for the same trip on our 2005 MDX.
12) My first experience with backup collision intervention worked well. Pulling out of parking space in a mall, a small car decided to speed up and zip past me. The brakes kicked in and stopped me. A+
Overall, a 9/10 for my rating scale! I'm looking forward to the same trip again in a few weeks!
1) It's a very comfortable riding/driving car for a long road trip. I was mainly on I-5 through the central valley of California. My drive down was a total of 7 hours, with the last 2 hours in stop and go traffic in the Friday afternoon LA rush hour congestion. I felt fine and barely tired. I thought I could go at least another 2 hours driving that day.
2) The Intelligent Cruise Control worked really well. Mostly I had it set for 80-85 mph (thank you BEL radar detector) and it would slow down and speed up appropriately when I changed lanes to pass other vehicles. It even worked real well in the bumper to bumper traffic averaging 25 mph on the LA freeways.
3) The CVT is a bit sluggish from a stop, but once it got up to highway speeds it was smooth and top end acceleration was great. With the cruise going at 80-85, the CVT only had rpms at 2500, but would quickly pick up and accelerate when I wanted more speed to pass.
4) I briefly broke 100 to check it out and the car was smooth, stable, and surprisingly had little wind noise! The 20 inch wheels and tires were very quiet and smooth and transmitted little of the road irregularities into my body.
5) Lane departure warning get a bit annoying when I change lanes but do not use the turn signal because there are no cars around me.
6) Blind spot indicator works well in most situations. I don't recall any time a vehicle was in my blind spot and the indicator was not on. However, there was a short stretch when I had to drive close to a concrete barrier with no shoulder because of road construction. The indicator stayed on constantly for that mile or so, but it was working the way it should since there was a concrete barrier in my blind spot that whole time.
7) Upgraded audio system in the Deluxe touring package was very enjoyable for the whole trip, listening to mostly XM, but also a little iPhone audio via USB and Bluetooth. What I found annoying was that everytime I plugged in my iPhone to charge, it automatically went to USB audio and I had to push the XM button to get that back.
8) My kids enjoyed DVD movies on the theater system and gave rave reviews to having their own screen directly in front of them on the headrest rather than a single overhead screen like in our last car. The IR headphones worked well, as did the plugging in earphones or the Bose QC15 headphones (received from Infiniti to pre-ordering the vehicle) by cable into the jacks under the rear climate control system. Both commercial DVDs and ones I had burned myself played well. It's too bad that there was no blu-ray.
9) The rear cargo area behind the 2nd row is spacious. Two 30" rolling duffels, two 21" rolling carry-on suitcases, and 2 smaller 18 inch duffel bags all fit on the floor of the cargo area without stacking on top of each other.
10) The air-conditioned seatback with the Deluxe Touring package was awesome. That's what kept me from feeling tired after such long drives.
11) My gas mileage for the trip overall was 18.2 mpg and my average driving speed was 54 mph. Considering that I set the cruise at 80-85, I am pleased with those numbers. It used to be around 14-15 mpg for the same trip on our 2005 MDX.
12) My first experience with backup collision intervention worked well. Pulling out of parking space in a mall, a small car decided to speed up and zip past me. The brakes kicked in and stopped me. A+
Overall, a 9/10 for my rating scale! I'm looking forward to the same trip again in a few weeks!
