We just completed a 10 day road trip that encompassed two sets of grandparents, uncles, aunts, cousins, and three full days at Disneyland.
The most crucial gear was of course the Roadship, our 2004 Nissan Quest. We put on about 1200 miles with ease, at about 5 hours between overnight stops. We averaged about 20 MPG. Now that we are at over 10k miles I've assembled a wish list for a few more improvements:
- I mentioned the DVD audio issue - the rear speakers seems to act as surrounds, so you need to crank up the front speakers for the kids in the third row to hear. I'd rather default to use the rear speakers as more of a combination of center/left/right so I dont get blasted with "Chim Chim Cheree" as I drive down the freeway at 70 mph.
- The headphones are uncomfortable. At least according to my five year old "they need more padding". Also, the headphones are driven off of the IR emitter in the pull down screen and it's basically line of sight - keep that in mind when you test them - it won't work if you are not in front of the screen!
- The headphones are also too easy to turn off. Kids will put the headphones on and inadvertently turn them off, then complain that they don't work. The volume dial is also too easy to turn.
- The volume for the headphones are actually driven off the second row seat audio controls, NOT from the dashboard audio control - weird. You need to set the Rear Controls ON then go the second row and crank the volume. Turn down the dashboard volume unless you want to listen along. Net net, you will not be able to get the headphones to work without reading the manual, which as we know is not a common activity for Dads.
- Enough with the headphones, how about cup holders that heat or cool a beverage? Put a coil in the bottom of the cup holder and drive the current to heat or cool the beverage. Hey it works for heated seats! There might be a safety issue for heat so just keep it to the front seats, with scoend and third row cups wired for cooling only. Patent application in process.
- The car nav system should tell you what the weather is for your upcoming destination. It has a data link so this should not be a major deal to implement.
- I'd like to "push" my current location up to the system that can then be accessed via a web site or have that action generate an SMS message to a set group of recipients. This way I can notify folks where we are on the trip and how long it will be before we show up. It also solves the privacy issues since I am the one notifying my location. Again, patent application in process!
- I've mentioned this before but let's show the car nav map on the rear two screens. Kids love maps. Right now the Quest is wired so that the rear two screen are driven off a completely separate system (the DVD player under the passenger seat). It should all be integrated off the dash controls.
- The Quick Stop feature is great - check out nearby restaurants, gas stations, ATMs and set a temporary waypoint. But why not other points of interest, such as the Cabazon Dinosaurs, Alien Fresh Jerky, etc?
- In general the Quest needs some sensors in the sides to keep me from scraping the running boards into curbs. This thing is just really wide. Whatever happened to curb feelers?
Comments