RoadKing01
Member
- :
- 08 CX-9 GT Black on Black
I just took the family ( me, wife, 5yo and 9mo ) from Pittsburgh to Myrtle Beach. I make this trip annually and sometimes twice a year so I know it pretty well.
The CX9 proved a very worthy steed for this trip. I really needed the extra cargo room with all of the asstd. baby stuff that you have to haul on a trip like this. The trip down was uneventful but we did catch some fog in WV that the HIDs made a lot more bearable. Used all 3 cigarette lighters the whole trip to power my Bluetooth Ipod adapter, Garmin GPS, and a heated cooler full of warm bottles for the baby. RES was great at keeping the 5yo entertained and she really didnt complain much the whole trip. The seats up front for comfy for myself and the wife too. Here are a few pros and cons I found
Pros
Cruise maintained at steady speed with very little variance despite a lot of ups and downs in WV
Very comfortable and dual zone climate control kept me cool and wife warm
HIDs gave great vision at night
BSM sensors keep an eye on blind spots for me which helped a lot with the RES down and stuff piled up high in back
Yoko Parada SpecXs performed flawlessly. Dealt with a lot of rain on return trip and they gripped perfectly. The car felt like it was on rails. I'm sure AWD helped too.
Very versatile seating arrangement once we got there. Had lots of family there too so the ability to seat 7 came in very handy.
Tranny did a decent job of keeping RPMs down except for major hill climbs
Wife was able to jump in back seat between the girls to feed the baby and I could keep driving after letting her switch seats. Saved lots of time that way.
Cons
MPG was a big disappointment. I understand that city driving results in low mpg but i hoped to average over 20 mpg highway. I only got about 18
Windshield kept fogging up the whole trip. Almost had to run defrosters non stop until I figured out to turn on defrost and then shut the whole system down. This allowed the vented air to hit the windshield and kept it clear for the most part afterwards.
When climbing long hills at speed the tranny kept dropping to 4th gear making the rpms skyrocket when it didnt really seem necessary.
Wind noise - The windows seemed very noisy at speed.
NAV\Stereo - Hate to keep harping on this but I hate having to use a 3rd device to skip songs on my ipod when my Nissan used to let me use the steering wheel controls.
Never used nav as maps are so out of date. At least my Garmin allows lifetime updates.
Overall it was a great trip and the CX9 worked very well. I was glad to have it and did not miss my Altima much except for the long hill climbs. ( The VQ + CVT combo was great in that car) I was glad to have all of the extra room and seats, just found a few areas where some improvement would go a long ways. I look forward to my next trip later this year and the rest of my family does too.
The CX9 proved a very worthy steed for this trip. I really needed the extra cargo room with all of the asstd. baby stuff that you have to haul on a trip like this. The trip down was uneventful but we did catch some fog in WV that the HIDs made a lot more bearable. Used all 3 cigarette lighters the whole trip to power my Bluetooth Ipod adapter, Garmin GPS, and a heated cooler full of warm bottles for the baby. RES was great at keeping the 5yo entertained and she really didnt complain much the whole trip. The seats up front for comfy for myself and the wife too. Here are a few pros and cons I found
Pros
Cruise maintained at steady speed with very little variance despite a lot of ups and downs in WV
Very comfortable and dual zone climate control kept me cool and wife warm
HIDs gave great vision at night
BSM sensors keep an eye on blind spots for me which helped a lot with the RES down and stuff piled up high in back
Yoko Parada SpecXs performed flawlessly. Dealt with a lot of rain on return trip and they gripped perfectly. The car felt like it was on rails. I'm sure AWD helped too.
Very versatile seating arrangement once we got there. Had lots of family there too so the ability to seat 7 came in very handy.
Tranny did a decent job of keeping RPMs down except for major hill climbs
Wife was able to jump in back seat between the girls to feed the baby and I could keep driving after letting her switch seats. Saved lots of time that way.
Cons
MPG was a big disappointment. I understand that city driving results in low mpg but i hoped to average over 20 mpg highway. I only got about 18
Windshield kept fogging up the whole trip. Almost had to run defrosters non stop until I figured out to turn on defrost and then shut the whole system down. This allowed the vented air to hit the windshield and kept it clear for the most part afterwards.
When climbing long hills at speed the tranny kept dropping to 4th gear making the rpms skyrocket when it didnt really seem necessary.
Wind noise - The windows seemed very noisy at speed.
NAV\Stereo - Hate to keep harping on this but I hate having to use a 3rd device to skip songs on my ipod when my Nissan used to let me use the steering wheel controls.
Never used nav as maps are so out of date. At least my Garmin allows lifetime updates.
Overall it was a great trip and the CX9 worked very well. I was glad to have it and did not miss my Altima much except for the long hill climbs. ( The VQ + CVT combo was great in that car) I was glad to have all of the extra room and seats, just found a few areas where some improvement would go a long ways. I look forward to my next trip later this year and the rest of my family does too.
