You know, we had a pandemic.
There was two years of
lost travel for people.
And now what's happening
is called revenge travel.
And people just need to catch up
with the two years they missed.
You heard it here first.
Revenge travel from the
airports to the highways,
Americans are making up for
time loss during the pandemic.
Travelers are taking advantage f
these summer months to take vacations.
But before you book that trip,
you've got to make sure your
vehicle is ready to hit the roa.
I'm Lauren Coleman,
and with us today is Consumer
Reports auto expert Keith Berry.
For the next 30 minutes,
he will be answering all of your
questions about summer travel ad
what you need to know about your cars.
And if you're watching at home,
just text us with your
questions to this number,
336-379-5775. So let's get right to it.
So Keith, what steps do you need to take
to prepare your card for a road trip?
Yeah, So what I like to do
is start from the bottom up.
You know, what you have to
do is start with the rubber,
literally hits the road.
Start with the tires.
Start with a spare 1st.
And and I say that because it ms
actually checking these days.
It actually means checking to se
if your car actually has one.
A lot of new cars don't have spare tires,
and you don't want to find thatt
when you have a flat and you're
stuck on the side of the road and you
open the trunk and there's nothing there,
There's just a, you know, a patch kit.
So check that out first.
But what you want to do also
is check the pressure.
Check the tire pressure,
inspect the tread.
You're going to want to look for
any visible signs of damage andr
anything that's really obvious,
like a nail or a screw sticking
out of your tire.
Not go on a road trip if that's happening.
Until you get it taken care of,
look for any cuts or any bulgesn
the sidewall of the of the tire.
You're also going to want to check the tread,
and there's an easy way to do t.
It's as long as you have a penn.
Put a penny with Lincoln's head
facing upside down towards the tread.
If you can see any of the coin
sticking out above his head.
Your tires are worn out and thee
dangerously worn out,
so you're going to want to get w
ones before you go on your trip.
Make sure that you've got that
you know a pressure gauge to to
check your tire pressure.
It's a good thing to have
with you on the road as well.
So that's that's kind of where d
start at least is with the tire.
Great
advice there. So whenever I go a
road trip, my parents always sau
need to take your car to the sh.
You need to make sure you
take your car to the shop.
Would you recommend taking your car into
an auto shop for service before the trip?
I mean, absolutely.
It's good to kind of get to know
a little bit about your car 1st
and there's some easy things tht
almost anyone can do at home.
And that is stuff like, you kno,
topping off the windshield wiper fluid.
You don't want to find out thatr
car's out of windshield wiper fd
when you've got bugs all over te
windscreen and you can't see anu
go to clean it and nothing happs
and it smears all over the the glass.
And we, I mean,
we think we've all had that hap.
So, you know, get that taken care of first.
You can do that yourself.
You can also replace your
wiper blades yourself.
You know, if they're at least six months old,
might need new ones.
The time to find out if they don't work,
it's that's, you know,
that's not in a rainstorm.
It's this preventative stuff.
But for other stuff, yeah, absolutely.
Now is the time to go to the shop you trust.
With a mechanic you trust and you know
is going to charge you a fair r,
you don't want to have something
little turn into something big,
you know, 200 miles from home ad
you get towed to a shop somewhe.
You don't, you don't know whethr
the mechanics any good,
how much they're going to charge you.
You want to be on your home tur.
You don't want to have an emergency happen.
So you know,
things like accessory belts, ho,
a little crack can turn into a really
big problem and they can have lifespans of,
you know, five years or 50,000 miles.
These are these are items that .
Need to be changed.
So you know, have a mechanic check your oil,
check your coolant, you know your fluids,
a lot of the stuff, you know,
a lot of people can do this at .
But if you don't feel comfortable with that,
go to a mechanic and it's it's
worth it to spend, you know,
an hour on your, you know,
take a long lunch break.
You know it's worth the money to deal with
that ahead of time before you head out there.
And you know that ounce of prevention thing,
you know,
getting that done because you
don't want to delay that trip ay
longer than it has to be.
You don't want to get stuck and
have the kids wondering why.
You know why we're spending the night
in the motel somewhere instead a
Disney World of Carowinds or Grandma's house,
You know,
yeah, we definitely don't want .
So keep There's so many
different cars out there.
What are the best cars for Rd.
trips and why
it's interesting. So Consumer Reports,
we buy and test vehicles and wee
not only put them through these.
You know instrumented tests at our test
track and have our engineers dot
but we also have keep the cars
for a while and put some miles
on them and and and take Rd.
trips ourselves.
I actually took a road trip this
weekend at an Outofstate wedding
to go to and put about 250 miles
on a on a car from our test flet
and learned a lot about that ca.
And what's what's interesting in Consumer
Reports we've are sort of root consensus
is that some of the best cars for Rd.
trips these days are hybrids.
You know, gone are the days of
hybrids being just the Toyota Ps
or just being about fuel sippin.
We found that a lot of the hybrids out
there actually give you more po.
They give you smoother acceleran
and better gas mileage,
and they don't cost that much more than
the conventional version of a vehicle.
So for instance.
You know, the Honda Accord,
that's a perennial classic out there.
You know, recommended by Consumer Reports.
The Accord Hybrid gets better gs
mileage and it's kind of better
to drive to Something else we
like about the Accord is that te
interior is very well laid out there.
No, you know, there's nothing.
It's really confusing when you get into it.
There's buttons where you expect it to be.
A time traveler from the 70s could get in
the car and know exactly where everything is.
And you know,
opting for that hybrid powertra,
you get better acceleration and it's just,
you know, it's a better vehicle.
If you're looking for an SUV,
the Hyundai Tucson,
the Hyundai Tucson Hybrid,
we really like it.
It's 5 passenger vehicle.
You get some fuel savings over e
gas only version, but it's also quicker.
It's quieter.
Something that's important in a
road trip is those front seats.
They're nice and supportive on a long drive.
I think we've all been there.
You get in the car and you feel nice and
then after like an hour you're on my back,
my legs,
whatever.
Rides really comfy and it has te
advanced safety features that ce
standard as a lot of cars have these days.
Something like blind spot warni,
especially when you've got
your car loaded up with stuff.
Those little lights that come on
your side view mirrors that telu
if there's another vehicle in yr
blind spot can be really helpfu,
especially when you've got,
you know all the suitcases and
stuff in the in the back that cd
be obscuring some of your view.
You're looking for a larger
vehicle for a three row SUV tha.
Highlander and the Toyota Highlr
Hybrid is has been an obvious
choice for many years and a long
time Consumer Reports favorite.
It's got these easy to use cont.
You can even add a,
you know, Wi-Fi hotspot too.
So these are, you know,
some good vehicles for your road trip.
Great answers Will Keith,
we're about to take our first
break and we have a lot of
questions that are already comig
in from viewers, so hold tight,
we'll be right back after this break.