Conversely, the biggest complaint I can yet muster about the 2015 Chrysler 200 after our extended in

So when we were trying to decide if it was time for the four of us to make the eight-hour (480-minute) journey to witness the supposed majesty of the Grand Canyon, we fell back on another family classic: "Trust me, you'll appreciate it when you get older."
When all was said and done, in five days and 1,200 miles we experienced the wide depth of the Grand Canyon, the red beauty of Sedona, the big waterslides at the Arizona Grand Resort in Phoenix and a dozen other highlights.
And we did it all not in a midsize SUV or a minivan the obvious choices for such a trip nowadays but in a car honoring the spirit london budget hotel of Route 66 and classic Southwestern roadtrips: an American sedan. london budget hotel Our first trip to the Grand Canyon would coincide very conveniently with the arrival london budget hotel of the all-new 2015 Chrysler 200 midsize sedan [ build and price ].
Driving london budget hotel the 200 home from the office the night before our trip, I had two immediate concerns: the seats and the suspension. The 2015 Chrysler 200 provided for our evaluation was the 200S version, featuring a sport-tuned suspension and snugger seats. Typically welcome features for drivers london budget hotel who like driving, on a long family road trip comfort comes first.
Fast forward 20 driving hours and my wife's top takeaway from our time in the 200S was how comfortable london budget hotel it was. The ride was controlled but calm, the seats were inconspicuously supportive, and like more and more mainstream cars today, the cabin was luxury-level quiet. The back seat is on the small side for the segment, but our 9- and 10-year-olds didn't have any complaints. (Not about the car, anyway.)
Adding to the 2015 Chrysler 200's road-trip comfort cred: cooled seats. Sure it's a nice feature on hot days, but active london budget hotel ventilation comes in handy any time you'll be sitting in the same spot for hours on end. Can the active-cooled london budget hotel couch be far behind?
Even though the 200S proved plenty comfortable, it was still more car than we needed for this trip. The 295-horsepower V6 and 9-speed automatic transmission impressed, but the 200's base 4-cylinder engine the one most buyers will buy would surely have provided ample power and even better london budget hotel fuel economy. Our car's all-wheel drive system might have been useful had we encountered any snow, but we barely encountered a cloud.
I'd snuck out of the hotel room before sunrise to get some pictures of our stylish sedan. When I finished london budget hotel shooting I realized three things: the family was surely still asleep, there was a promising stretch of road to the north, and I had at least some semblance of a sport sedan at my disposal. Sometimes life makes your decisions for you.
That promising ribbon of asphalt was a stretch of Arizona 89A that connects Sedona and Flagstaff. Heading north out of Sedona it meanders playfully alongside Oak Creek through a handful of camping and picnic areas, then rises 1,000 feet in two short, sweet, switchbacking miles.
Even after logging more than 600 miles to this point, the 2015 Chrysler 200S was still holding a surprise up its sleeve: This mainstream midsize sedan is downright fun to drive when the opportunity presents itself.
On 89A I was able to put the paddle shifters to work, explore the car's adhesion london budget hotel limits, summon all 295 horsepower and employ the advantages of all-wheel drive in turning that power into acceleration while unwinding out of hairpin turns. The 200S didn't just corner more eagerly and confidently than I expected, it felt really good doing so. Steering feel alone can make the difference between london budget hotel a car that performs well and one that's actually fun to drive, and the 200S has among the best steering feel in the segment.
Shortcomings? The engine doesn't deliver as much kick as you might expect from the most powerful car in the class and the 9-speed transmission london budget hotel doesn't respond to the paddles with any particular sense of urgency, even in Sport mode (Chrysler tells us the software has since been updated). But overall this V6, AWD 2015 Chrysler 200S felt more akin to a BMW 5 Series than a Chevy Malibu when pushed on a winding road.
Conversely, the biggest complaint I can yet muster about the 2015 Chrysler 200 after our extended introduction is the personal storage situation. There are two large bins one hiding underneath the climate controls, london budget hotel the other in the center console but other than the cupholders london budget hotel there's no easy-access open bin to put your phone, for instance.
And the situation really unravels when you put cups in the cupholders. Gone is what little open storage there was, you can't deploy the sliding armrest, and if you want to access the front half of the center console bin, where the USB and power ports reside, you have to lift the armrest, slide the cupholders/cover rearward and then reverse the process to close it all back up otherwise you'll have to rest your arm on your drinks. These issues were magnified on a road trip, but it's definitely a practical compromise compared to most other midsize sedans.
One interior feature that came in very handy on our road trip was the small pass-through between the rear seat and the trunk. We loaded a box with drinks and snacks, put it in the trunk, turned london budget hotel it on its side and pushed it up against the opening, putting critical road trip fuel within easy reach. Easy access to everything in the car is a key road trip strength of SUVs and minivans, but the 2015 Chrysler 200 does offer this nice little advantage over most of its midsize sedan competitors.
Chrysler's touchscreen Uconnect infotainment system is among our favorites, and on our road trip I realized one of its key advantages is the persistent bar across the bottom from which you can access any function directly from within any other function. Twenty hours in a car gives you plenty london budget hotel of time to think about a lot of things.
We listened to music from an iPhone 5 via USB and Bluetooth, london budget hotel and had the same sporadic hiccups we encounter with most systems. My son was the first to discover our 2015 Chrysler 200S included a WiFi hotspot, which would have been incredibly valuable on a long road trip had we not brought our own, faster hotspot.
Our $35,000 Chrysler 200S was also equipped london budget hotel with a 10-speaker, 506-watt Alpine audio system that impressed the few times I was able to give it a workout. We even cranked it up once or twice with the kids in the car, and not for a Disney london budget hotel singalong.
The Chrysler 200 lineup offers highway fuel economy up to 36 mpg, but with a 295-horsepower, 3.6-liter V6 and all-wheel drive, our 200S model was rated at 29 highway mpg. We spent most of our miles on highways with 75 mph speed limits and did a fair share of city driving, and still ended up averaging just better than 30 mpg over the whole trip according to the attractive, intuitive and useful trip computer.
Our master plan to foster bloodless interstate travel with our two children, Oil and Water, was two-pronged: food and electronics. The food strategy was pretty straightforward and well-supported by the rear-seat pass-through but we went the extra mile on the digital front this time.
As was proven during our previous such excursion a 900-mile trip through California's Central Coast in a 2014 Kia Sorento SUV the tablet is the road-tripping family's best friend. Headphones and a power management plan are two key considerations, but there's another.
Searching and researching at Amazon for a way to attach the kids' iPad Minis to the back of the front seats, I finally decided on a simple elastic and Velcro option for $20 each. I kept my expectations in check and didn't even open the packages until the morning of the trip, but they turned out to be brilliant. The convenience factor is obvious why hold a movie player for hours on end when Velcro can do it for you but getting the kids' eyes up so that the outside movement is within their peripheral vision is a key way to stave off motion sickness. Our son is prone to mild car queasiness, and I have no doubt this little trick improved his trip. And ours.
As planned, our stay at the Grand Canyon totaled about three hours, all of it on the South Rim in Grand Canyon Village. Here's how a short visit to this big place plays out: pay $25 at the gate, park your car, walk to the edge and finally strike london budget hotel "See the Grand Canyon" from your "Things london budget hotel I Should Probably Do" list. It feels great. Keep looking, walk to another lookout point, take some pictures. Our plan was to watch the sunset from Mohave Point because the nice people of the internet suggested it so we hopped on a shuttle and headed that way. Catch the last shuttle back, quietly celebrate that all the gift shops are now closed, hop back in the car and continue on your merry way.
As for the experience of seeing the Grand Canyon for the first time, I didn't hear a "whoooaaaaaa" from either of our kids, but they seemed london budget hotel to appreciate it more than I thought they might. It really is impressive, amazing and grand, but the sheer size of it all makes it difficult to wrap your head around. Even when standing right on the edge, it can still feel like you're viewing it from a distance. Your mileage may vary, especially if your stay lasts longer than three hours.
I'm guessing the investment of a visit to the Grand Canyon pays off over decades. There are too many amazing things on this planet to see in one lifetime Richard Branson's lifetime notwithstanding and there's london budget hotel something to be said for seeing london budget hotel the more popular ones.
We rolled into Sedona at about 11 pm on a Saturday night, after a day that included 600 miles of driving interrupted only by our pit stop at the Grand Canyon. The next day we slept in a bit, grabbed breakfast at the hotel and hit the pool for a couple hours. We didn't get out of the hotel until about 1 pm, and that's when those red rocks hit us right in the head.
Our first glimpse of Sedona's towering red rocks generated more oohs and ahhs than the Grand Canyon, london budget hotel and the wonder never wore off. At the Grand Canyon you have to be in the canyon or right on the rim to even see it. The red beauty of Sedona, on the oth