Road Trip: The Reluctant Case for a Minivan

I confirmed that we could "skip the line" as Avis promises upon arrival. The text message arrived along with an app notification upon landing. Proceed to space ____, enter the car and depart.

All good.

Until we arrived at space ____. No car and no such space at SFO!

Happily, several very helpful Avis folks were nearby, walked with us to confirm that indeed, space ____ did not exist, nor the Toyota RAV 4 we reserved, while "skipping the line".

Back to the Avis counter where RAV 4's were not to be found. "Would you like a minivan?" I grimaced, then thought a bit and asked what model? "Honda Odyssey". I said sure, let's roll. No more waiting.

Off we went.

The Odyssey's sliding doors, four very comfortable adult seats, mid-car climate control and adaptive cruise along with plenty of storage space made it an ideal road trip auto as we traveled north, south, north again then far south over 10 days.

Carplay worked reliably as did the wireless charging. The car's performance and responsiveness are middling at best.

But then, it's a minivan.

An ideal and comfortable ride for a gorgeous road trip. Easy in, easy out.

Minivan's have fallen so far out of the overton window that Dan Neil's last Odyssey review dates to 2011 though a Chrysler minivan discussion occured in 2016. (I may have missed more recent analysis - maybe).

There are alternatives.

We saw many tricked out Sprinter vans along with endless Teslas and SUVs. And, the occasional very interesting car. A 1977 Ford Bronco graced the Ojai Farmer's Market. $85,000!






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About that tippy A321

"We are not going to deplane yet, until our ground crew removes bags from the back of the plane. This is done to prevent the airplane from tipping backward".

While waiting to deplane a new United A321 recently, I wondered about the push and pull of constraints and optimization. Airlines have stuffed more seats into planes while slicing and dicing products from carry ons, legroom, seats and checked baggage. These choices cascade to more crowded gate areas, transit/parking and of course security queues.

In my a321 example, airline optimizations lead to a longer turnaround, that is more time on the ground and less in the air, generating revenues. Perhaps Airbus design/manufacturing choices play a role as well, adding more length to the rear rather than toward the airplane's nose.

Addison Schonland recently published a chart on single aisle turn times:



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The Joy of a Morning Swim: West Coast Edition

38F, 42F, 54F. It matters not. Northern or Southern California!

















Explore California in amuz.