Last month self, Mrs B and B Jr spent a much-needed 10 days staying with some very good mates of ours in Providence, RI. First trip to the States in 10 years for me, first ever for the rest of the household.
When it comes to big American cars I am still about 8 years old mentally, so just for the craic we hired a quite unnecessary Mercury Grand Marquis from Messrs Hertz, along with a rather scrofulous booster seat for B Jr.
Bizarrely, it was a pretty decent drive. Excellent for its road environment: despite being about twice the size of Mrs B's Panda it didn't feel unwieldy. Mechanically adequate: 4.6 V8 producing a distinctly anaemic 225 bhp; 275-odd lbs ft at not very many RPM, and a 4-speed plus overdrive column-select slushmatic that meant 1,500 rpm at the local speed limit of 65. Even managed over 30 mpg at a cruise.
Sad thing was that, having done a very capable 900 odd miles, which included a 360-mile round trip from Providence into midtown Manhattan, it conked out in 95F heat and about 100% humidity on a state highway in rural Massachusetts. Absolutely no idea what went wrong: it hadn't overheated and had half a tank of fuel left; no warning lights or anything had come on, it just spluttered to a gentle halt beside the road and wouldn't start again.
So, having had to wait 2 hours for a tow truck (during which time no fewer than 8 different people stopped and came to see if we needed any help), we were recovered back to the nearest depot. Manager, with no prompting, personally brought round a shiny new Cadillac STS and handed me the keys - OK, free upgrade to luxury-class vehicle: that'll do, I suppose...
I have never been as sorry to hand back a hire car as that Caddy. 3.6 direct injection V6 and either 302 or 315 bhp (couldn't work out which), 6-speed auto with tiptronic-a-like. Never heard a V6 of any kind that sounded so angry when revved - and this was the thing: it was a large American car with an engine that LIKED TO BE REVVED - all the way to 7,000 rpm - and WENT LIKE STINK when you did so. Handling very tidy for a big motor, too. As regards the spec: let's just say there were buttons I couldn't figure out after 4 days with the car and a read of the manual. Built-in XM radio worked much better than the last DAB unit I tried over here.
Anyway, enough of the vehicles: what about the driving experience? Well -
1) When Bill Bryson wrote in The Lost Continent that Boston's freeway system is insane, he was making a heroic understatement. It is in fact mouth-frothingly counter-intuitive and just plain contrary. Case in point: to get from I90 east to I93 south, you turn left, using a slip lane off the outside lane. Obviously. So many conflicting movements on both on and off ramps that queues are more or less permanent.
2) The tailgating. Good grief. I hope none of the folks who drive down I95 of an evening ever try what they get away with there over here. They will get themselves thumped/killed/both. That and the fact that all driver's door mirrors over there have flat glass in (so you can hardly see anything in them) makes some of the busier freeways, erm, interesting.
3) Road surfaces. You think the potholes are bad here? Granted, they have worse winters than us, but the state governments (certainly in Mass. and RI) and the federal highway authorities clearly do not enjoy ample funding for maintenance. Most of the works we saw seemed to be connected with shoring up crumbling bridges.
4) Lorries. Refreshingly rapid. Most were cruising at or slightly over the posted limits - a little scary the first time a 50-odd ton semi comes tripping merrily past you at 70+...
5) Fuel prices. Around the $2.90/gal mark. For those used to UK prices, even at that level MPG ceases to be an issue. No wonder they still have their big engines.
6) New York. Central Manhattan was some of the best fun I have had behind a wheel in a long time - having a car the same size as the taxis certainly helped. Rhythm seemed to be gas brake honk, gas brake honk, honk honk honk, gas gas gas - and repeat. Parking was much less expensive than we imagined - we found an attended garage 2 blocks up from Times Square which charged $29 (tax inclusive) from about 10.30 am to 7.30 pm.
Plenty that I've forgotten to mention, no doubt. But all in all a damn fine trip...
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What fun that sounds paulb. And so reassuring to hear that some cars are still a decent size and that their running gear has kept pace with the rest of the world.
I agree about driving in New York too. But parking could be a bit of a pain even in the seventies.
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well i enjoyed reading it
some photos in cases like these always help of course
gives you an idea of the area
i always take photos of things without me in the mugshot in case i want to use them sometime in the futures
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Thanks for that, very interesting.
Another endorsement for the CTS, i do kick meself for not having the guts to snap one of those up a couple of years ago when they were being given away.
Never seen the point in visiting the US for a one off visit and renting a shoe to drive round in when the cost of running a proper car is so cheap.
On the subject of fuel consumption is the US mile the same as ours, the US gallon is somewhat less so the 32mpg mentioned would appear very good...notice you didn't give the mpg for the CTS, enjoyed it too much?
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>> 3) Road surfaces. You think the potholes are bad here? Granted, they have worse winters
>> than us, but the state governments (certainly in Mass. and RI) and the federal highway
>> authorities clearly do not enjoy ample funding for maintenance. Most of the works we saw
>> seemed to be connected with shoring up crumbling bridges.
>>
You're not wrong!
I think that's another reason why they have low speed limits over here.
Personally I'd sooner have a rough road not constantly being dug up, than a pristine piece of motorway that is always under roadwork like in the UK, though.
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Thanks for sharing that Paul. I really enjoyed reading it. Makes me want to have another holiday...Sigh....
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Observations on 1500 miles in eastern US... - Armel Coussine
