These Are the 16 Best Cars For Road Trips
We drive hundreds of thousands of miles every year, but these are the cars, trucks, and SUVs we would pick for our next road trip.Christian SeabaughWriter
MotorTrend StaffPhotographerRyan LugoIllustrator
Jul 24, 2025
It’s hard to get a group of Americans to agree on anything these days, but one thing we think would find universal agreement on is our collective love of road trips. Whether it be visiting family for the holidays, towing boats or campers to the lake, or just taking in a national park, no matter where you’re going, the great American road trip will inevitably require you to eat up many miles on the interstate. You can say we all know a thing or two about the best cars for road trips.
AI Quick Summary
MotorTrend lists the top 16 road-trip cars, including the Honda Civic Hybrid for small families, Chrysler Pacifica for large families, Mazda MX-5 Miata for getaways, Ram 1500 for towing, Land Rover Defender for off-roading, Ford Bronco Sport for winter, and Hyundai Ioniq 5 for EVs.
This summary was generated by AI using content from this MotorTrend article.
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MotorTrend editors collectively drive hundreds of thousands of miles each year in addition to our regular battery of subjective and objective testing and reviews. As such, our editors have worked together to pick a wide assortment of vehicles for all the types of road trips Americans tend to take. While not an all-encompassing list—and acknowledging that many of our choices could stand on their own as a great road-trip car regardless of the category we placed it in—what follows are our picks for the 16 best cars for road trips.
Best Road-Trip Cars For Small Families
Honda Civic Hybrid
Our editors are frequently asked by friends and family for car recommendations, and the Honda Civic Hybrid has become one of our default choices. Available as both a sedan and a hatchback, the Civic Hybrid is notable for its value and great performance while still returning exceptional fuel economy. Although some editors have found the cabin to be a touch loud (a common Honda complaint) and seats hard after a long day in the saddle (the standard heated seats are nice), the pros of the Civic’s comfortable ride, pep, and driver assist aids really help ease the burden on long trips.
Nissan Rogue
The Nissan Rogue is a standout in its compact SUV space for the way it balances performance, comfort, and space. Powered by a punchy little 201-hp turbocharged I-3, the Rogue is one of the few vehicles in the segment to not leave our drivers wanting for passing power on two-lane highways while also returning fuel economy numbers (up to 30/37/33 mpg city/highway/combined per the EPA) that ensures we’re not constantly stopping to top up. Add its spacious cabin, deep cargo area, and optional ProPilot Assist driving aid to the mix, and the Rogue is a highway star.
Best Road-Trip Cars For Large Families
Chrysler Pacifica
Few vehicles can match a minivan when it comes to outright road-trip mastery. With room for up to seven or eight adults and their things, minivans make long-distance travel feel easy. The Chrysler Pacifica is the best of ’em. We’re particularly fond of this stylish van’s optional plug-in hybrid powertrain, intuitive controls (both for the driver and those in back), great ergonomics, and innovative Stow ’N Go seats, which on non-hybrid models allow you to fold all the rear seats flat into the floor.
Chevrolet Traverse
Too cool for a minivan? We don’t believe you. Regardless, the Chevrolet Traverse three-row crossover makes a fine alternative. Although it isn’t as spacious or well-packaged as a minivan, the Traverse offers up many of the minivan’s traditional family-friendly features in an SUV wrapper. Those interested in the seven- or eight-passenger Chevy should be well-served by the base Traverse LT, which, for $46,630 when equipped with the Driver Confidence and Enhanced Driving packages, is the cheapest vehicle GM makes with Super Cruise. Super Cruise, a 2025 MotorTrend Best Tech Award winner for best hands-free driver assistance system, allows supervised hands- and foot-free driving on about 750,000 miles of GM-mapped roadways across the United States and Canada.
Best Road-Trip Cars For Weekend Getaways
Mazda MX-5 Miata
Some of the most memorable trips MT editors have taken have involved squeezing into a Miata with a special someone, dropping the top, and hitting the road. While the Miata wouldn’t be our first choice for long slogs across the Great Plains, for little weekend jaunts up to wine country or taking the back roads to that cute little countryside Airbnb, it’s the perfect vehicle for escape.
Mercedes-Benz E-Class
OK, fine. You “need” to bring more stuff … “just in case.” Look, we get it. Some of us are chronic overpackers, too. It’d be hard to go wrong with our 2025 Car of the Year, the Mercedes-Benz E-Class, then, particularly its All-Terrain wagon variant (pictured). The E-Class in all its forms excels at quiet comfort, offering up gobs of power, an exceptional ride, cushy seats, and advanced driving aids to melt away stress.
Best Road-Trip Cars For Towing
Ram 1500
Full-size half-ton pickups would seem to be great road-trip vehicles purely due to their spaciousness, but many of them don’t ride particularly well, and most lack any sort of covered storage, making road-trip rest stops a stressful affair. Those negatives don’t apply to our 2025 Truck of the Year, the Ram 1500. On the former front, Ram’s standard suspension design offers up better comfort than its rivals’ do, and optional air springs improve ride quality even further while also helping improve towing performance. On the storage front, we’re huge fans of Ram’s optional Ram Box trunks built into the sides of the bed. They’re excellent for everything from trailer hitches and ratchet straps to backpacks. They even work as coolers in a pinch. Other factors working in the Ram’s favor are smooth, powerful engines, trailer aids, and a towing capacity of up to 11,600 pounds.
Chevrolet Tahoe/Chevrolet Suburban
There’s a reason why the Chevrolet Suburban (and its short-wheelbase variant, the Chevrolet Tahoe) is the longest-running automotive nameplate in the world: The Suburban just does so much so well. One thing it and the Tahoe excel at is moving people and their things with ease. Both versions of Chevy’s SUV offer up powerful V-8s (we’re particularly fond of the larger 6.2-liter V-8), a fuel-efficient turbodiesel, and GM’s award-winning Super Cruise hands-free driving system. For those worried about outright towing power, the Tahoe can drag up to 8,400 pounds and the Suburban up to 8,200 pounds.
Best Road-Trip Cars For Off-Roading or Camping
Land Rover Defender
From the wilds of Namibia to the streets of Northern California, there are few environments in the world where we haven’t driven a Land Rover Defender. What remains a constant no matter the terrain is how seriously impressive the Defender is. Whether it be a day off-roading or just eating up the interstate, this Land Rover is supremely comfortable, spacious, and easy to drive, always helping ensure we arrive at our destinations as rested and relaxed as when we left.
Rivian R1T
There might not be a pickup truck on the market as impressive as the Rivian R1T. This electric truck drives like a sports car on winding back roads and a big comfy SUV on highways, and it takes to off-road terrain like no other EV. The Rivian’s software-connected nature makes it even better to road trip to off-road trails and camp sites. On the highway it features advanced driving aids that help reduce the driver’s workload, and on trail it has a wide variety of drive modes to fit the terrain. Once at the campsite the R1T’s camp mode will level the truck no matter the terrain to provide a perfect platform for Rivian’s optional bed- or roof-mounted tent, making setting up camp and unpacking its covered frunk and gear tunnels a breeze.
Best Road-Trip Cars for Winter
Ford Bronco Sport
While any of the cars on this list fitted with snow tires would be a great choice for a winter road trip, the Ford Bronco Sport is one of our favorites. With the Bronco Sport Ford managed to pack the comfort and practicality of a small crossover with the all-terrain capabilities of the bigger Ford Bronco. The end result is that the Bronco Sport is sure-footed, efficient, and confidence-inspiring, no matter what terrain you encounter this winter.
Lincoln Nautilus
The Lincoln Nautilus is uniquely suited to be your next ski weekend road-trip ride, mostly because it has a ski-chalet-themed interior option. Smart marketing aside, this recent SUV of the Year winner also offers up standard all-wheel drive, an optional hybrid powertrain, and available Blue Cruise highway driving assist, allowing for hands-free driving on mapped roadways. We’re also quite fond of its living-room-comfortable seats, massaging functions, and exceptional 48-inch infotainment display.
Best Road-Trip Cars for Summer
Ford Mustang
There’s nothing that screams “summer road trip” more to us than cruising to the beach with the windows down, music blasting, and a big V-8 bellowing out the exhaust pipe in back. Unfortunately for this American dream, there’s only a single V-8-powered muscle car left on the market. Fortunately, it’s a good one. While the base Mustang EcoBoost and its 315-hp 2.3-liter turbocharged I-4 is nothing to snuff at, the 456-hp 5.0-liter V-8-powered Mustang GT really captures the essence of what makes a muscle car so special. The fact that it’s actually a comfortable road tripper for two only adds to the legend.
Volkswagen ID Buzz
If you’re keen to travel a bit slower on your next summer road trip, the Volkswagen ID Buzz is worth your consideration. Like the original, this electric 21st century take on the classic VW Bus is a bit of an unorthodox road-trip vehicle. While the old one was glacially slow, the new one can’t go beyond 228 miles on a charge in our real-world 70-mph Road-Trip Range test, and it doesn’t charge particularly quickly, either, needing 33 minutes to charge from 5 to 80 percent. If you’re content to live with those limitations, however, there are few vehicles on the road as charming as the Buzz. It offers the driver effortless performance, while your seven passengers can enjoy a quiet, spacious cabin with huge windows and a commanding seating position to take in summer scenery.
Best Road-Trip Cars (EVs)
Hyundai Ioniq 5
Road tripping an EV isn’t for everyone. Although it’s getting easier by the day, they often require a little bit of route planning beforehand to ensure you’ve got enough charge to get where you need to go. The Ioniq 5 (and the related Ioniq 6 sedan) is one of our favorites. This spacious, stylish electric SUV is EPA-rated at up to 318 miles in single-motor form (a dual-motor all-wheel-drive version hit a respectable 244 miles in our Road-Trip Range test), and when plugged into a 350-kW charger, the 800-volt Ioniq 5 can recharge from 5 to 80 percent in as little as 22 minutes. Even better? Ioniq 5s (and 6s) can now charge at ubiquitous Tesla Supercharger stations. Honorable mention: Tesla’s Model 3 and Model Y; although neither charges anywhere near as quickly as the Hyundais, Teslas make EV-life easy.
Porsche Taycan
We were mighty close to recommending the Lucid Air with its EPA-rated 420 miles of range, but the updated-for-2025 Taycan is just too much fun to drive to leave out. Few cars—let alone EVs—master the delicate balance of outright driver enjoyment, grand touring comfort, and efficiency as the entire Taycan lineup does from top to bottom. The best part? There’s no car on the market that charges quicker than the Taycan; plugged into a 350-kW charger, 2025 Taycans have charged from 5 to 80 percent in as little as 19 minutes, helping make the most of its 318 miles of EPA-rated range.
