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DC to OC, The Kizashi Way

Posted: Mon Aug 21, 2017 11:21 pm
by KuroNekko
So the time has finally come and the cross-country move is happening this week. I'll be moving permanently from the Washington, DC area to Orange County, California to return after 10 years on the East Coast. This is actually the second trip I'll be making this summer, having done the drive in my girlfriend's Mazda3 with her and our two kittens about a month ago. For that route, we took the I-40 after heading south through Virginia and Tennessee. That trip had me drive through Tennessee, Arkansas, and Oklahoma which were states I had not been to before.

This time in the Kizashi, I'll be alone and traveling a more northern route on primarily the I-70. This route goes from Baltimore, MD to about the middle of Utah where it ends into the I-15. I'm choosing this route to see some states I've never been to before including Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, and Colorado. I'm especially excited for the Colorado and Utah portion which I hear is very scenic.

I've prepared the Kizashi with mostly maintenance as the car is pretty much problem-free. The check list included a new engine air filter, new cabin air filter, new spark plugs, an oil change to Mobil 1 5W-30 with a Mobil 1 Extended Performance oil filter, tire rotation, and topping off fluids. I also inflated the spare tire to 60 PSI in case of a flat.
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The car was also prepped with the cross bars, the Mont Blanc bike carrier (not loaded with a bike), and the Thule Force Alpine roof box I bought for this trip a while back.
I also thoroughly cleaned the car including using a clay bar, polishing with a DA polisher, and waxing with a random orbital polisher. I also polished the headlights of their light UV hazing. All running lights have also been converted to LEDs ranging from the license plate lights to the front side markers.

The Thule Force Alpine roof box was chosen specifically for its dimensions. At 26 inches across, it sits on my cross bars with space left over for the Mont Blanc bike module. The roof box fully opens towards it with no obstruction (with no bike mounted). It also weighs in at 36 lbs which was slightly lighter than other models of comparable cargo volume. With my configuration, I could carry approximately 50 lbs of cargo in the box so the total of the cargo, box, bike module, and cross bars do not exceed the Kizashi's maximum roof load weight of 110 lbs. I placed my cargo in IKEA bags in case a bit of water gets into the roof box from a rain storm.
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I'm still in the process of packing as I'm not leaving for a few days but I'm looking forward to this trip in the Kizashi. Up until now, the furthest north I've driven in it was up to Ithaca, New York and the furthest south was Durham, North Carolina. As of now, the plan is to do the trip in 3 full days to average about 800 miles per day, again. Day 1 will likely be from College Park, Maryland to somewhere near St. Louis, Missouri. Day 2 would be from St. Louis to somewhere around Denver, Colorado. Day 3 would be the banzai run from Denver to the destination of Irvine, California. These distances and driving times mirror closely to what I drove in the Mazda3 so I'm down, especially in the more comfortable and refined Suzuki Kizashi. I hope my Kizashi is down for it too.
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Re: DC to OC, The Kizashi Way

Posted: Tue Aug 22, 2017 1:56 am
by chazyouwin
Awesome trip! In my 59 years have never had the opportunity to go west of Iowa. Too busy funding our son's trips to Italy and other parts of Europe, west, wherever. Oops, forgot - spent some time in California. Oh, and Texas, New Mexico, and Arisona. Business trips. But one thing I won't be jealous of are the scenic cornfields of the midwest albeit your southerly route will likely be more hilly than the I-80 straight I take to Chi-town. Fantastic photos, thanks for the insight!

Re: DC to OC, The Kizashi Way

Posted: Tue Aug 22, 2017 3:39 am
by krell
Good luck my friend as always be safe.
:drive:

Re: DC to OC, The Kizashi Way

Posted: Tue Aug 22, 2017 2:16 pm
by FrankoLaMoya
Lucky!! I am pretty sure the Kizashi will be fine unless it is very very hot for 3 days in a row...yours look pretty new by the way.

Re: DC to OC, The Kizashi Way

Posted: Wed Aug 23, 2017 2:49 pm
by WESHOOT2
Nice car.

Safe trip.

Re: DC to OC, The Kizashi Way

Posted: Wed Aug 23, 2017 4:11 pm
by golftango
Please be sure to report along the way WITH pics! I love CC trip threads.

Re: DC to OC, The Kizashi Way

Posted: Wed Aug 23, 2017 6:24 pm
by DiggerDerrik
I'd be curious to hear what kind of mileage you get. My one small complaint is that the car doesn't get that high of mileage. It's not bad just not as good as I think it should be. The roof box will surely make a dent in it. As will the wind and speed limit. I drove mine from Seattle to Eastern North Dakota once and got an average of 28mpg. That was with the car loaded very lightly and just me in it. Good luck on your journey.

Re: DC to OC, The Kizashi Way

Posted: Wed Aug 23, 2017 8:20 pm
by KuroNekko
DiggerDerrik wrote:I'd be curious to hear what kind of mileage you get. My one small complaint is that the car doesn't get that high of mileage. It's not bad just not as good as I think it should be. The roof box will surely make a dent in it. As will the wind and speed limit. I drove mine from Seattle to Eastern North Dakota once and got an average of 28mpg. That was with the car loaded very lightly and just me in it. Good luck on your journey.
I plan to log fuel economy as usual so I will keep you posted. I do generally get in the range of EPA ratings. However, I did once manage to get an average of 34 MPG during a trip to Richmond, VA and back to College Park, MD. However, the car wasn't loaded with much at all and I didn't have anything on the roof.
For this trip, I'm guessing I'll get around 25 to 27 MPG as the vehicle is fully loaded.

Re: DC to OC, The Kizashi Way

Posted: Thu Aug 24, 2017 4:15 am
by Speed_Racer
Looks great in black.

Side question, did you have your wheels refinished? They look a little darker than stock. If so, then what's the name of the color?

Re: DC to OC, The Kizashi Way

Posted: Thu Aug 24, 2017 10:54 am
by Woodie
DiggerDerrik wrote:I'd be curious to hear what kind of mileage you get.
I just went to Ocean City a couple of weeks ago, got 35 going there and 33 coming back. Car was lightly loaded with two adults, a little luggage, and a case of Guinness in a cooler full of ice. It's a flat road so the difference is weird, maybe there was a little wind blowing toward the East (or Coriolis Effect :lol: ). The hardest part is keeping it to 65, the Kizashi wants to go 75.

Good luck on your trip KuroNekko, going to miss having you two blocks away, even thought we've barely met. Guess it's all in the mind.