Quote:
Originally Posted by Mister Will
You seem to be unfamiliar with the American tradition of a road trip.
I would drive 700 miles (N CA. OR. & WA.) to get home for Christmas. When my sister graduated from UW, I did the 1500 mile round trip in a 4 day weekend. Heck, once had the flu and thought I would miss Christmas in the SF southbay. My fever broke on the 23rd, and I hit the highway from San Diego on the 24th to drive over 500 miles. I wasn't alone on the highway and traffic was doing 90 mph.
Students, Military, contract workers going home for a long weekend. Our entire culture is based around the concept of individual mobility, the personally owned vehicle (POV). You would be surprised how many drivers operate outside of the 30 mile round trip daily commute model.
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Yep. Look back as to why American cars evolved the way they did. It became apparent back in the 1920s that, as more American roads were expanded and more people could afford cars, car companies needed to design engines and transmissions that could last for longer and longer drives over longer and longer distances without breaking down, needing constant maintenance, and being unreliable.
Then when the National Highway system was instituted, American car companies started designing cars to not only be reliable for long distances and high mileage but comfortable.
It's why over time you had American engines with good oil pressure and large radiators while in Europe they still hardly had any cooling system at all. They simply didn't need them - there weren't enough road or distance for people to travel for the engine to get too hot, and overall mileage was much less.
By the 1960s millions of people were taking long trips in their cars, on the road for 500-1000+ miles at a time without stopping (except to fill the gas tank, grab a bite to eat, and use the bathroom)
Overdrive, cruise control, air conditioning, radial tires, better suspensions, low effort steering, sound insulation..... all were features that were really developed
at least partly with long distance, constant, non-stop driving in mind.
I college a few times drove from Toledo to Cleveland on Friday to see my folks and friends, catch my high school football game, then drive from Cleveland to Columbus to drop friends off and pick more friends up, drive to Bowling Green to drop them off, then be back in Toledo by 7:00 Saturday morning. Crash till 1, do homework till 5.