The Best Car for a Road Trip Is the One You Want at Hour Five

Most people pick a car for a long drive by the first ten minutes, the pull away from the curb and the look on the valet's face. The best car for a road trip is the one you still want in hour five. For most trips that's the Rolls Royce Cullinan. It carries four adults and their bags, and it makes a long freeway feel short. Ours starts at $1,495 a day.

Picture it rolling out of a hotel drive in Newport Beach at 7 in the morning with the tailgate shut on three suitcases. By the time the coffee goes cold you're past the county line. Nobody in the car has raised their voice to be heard. That's the real test, because a long drive is mostly the boring parts.

What a long drive asks of a car

A weekend drive asks three things a dinner never does. It asks for room for bags, a cabin quiet enough to talk in, and a seat you can hold for three hours without shifting. A lot of exotics win the first ten minutes and lose all three. A mid-engine coupe with a front trunk the size of a gym bag is a great Saturday night. It's a hard Sunday on the 15 with the sun in your eyes and a duffel on your lap.

The other thing people miss is the miles. The mileage allowance, the miles built into the daily rate, is 100 a day on every car we rent, and a multi-day rental pools them. A 3 day trip gets 300 miles to spend however the route needs. So the badge on the hood isn't the only choice you're making. The route decides the budget as much as the car does.

The four cars by the numbers

These figures come from each car's own listing.

• Rolls Royce Cullinan, black. 5 seats, 563 hp, 0 to 60 in 4.9 seconds, $1,495 a day, $1,000 deposit, $3 per extra mile.
• Porsche 911 Turbo S, black. 4 seats, 640 hp, 0 to 60 in 2.6 seconds, $1,195 a day, $2,000 deposit, $5 per extra mile.
• Bentley Continental GTC, black. 4 seats, 552 hp, 0 to 60 in 4.8 seconds, $595 a day, $1,000 deposit, $4 per extra mile.
• Range Rover Sport, black. 5 seats, 355 hp, 0 to 60 in 5.7 seconds, $395 a day, $1,000 deposit, $3 per extra mile.

The Cullinan is the best car for a road trip with four

The Cullinan is the Rolls Royce built for the owner to drive, and it's the one to book when the trip is long and the car is full. It seats five and gives you the highest seat in the Rolls Royce range. It opens at the back with a real tailgate. The 6.75 liter twin turbo V12 makes 563 horsepower in the black car we run.

What you'll remember is the quiet. The cabin is sealed so well that road noise off the 405 pretty much disappears, and the V12 is almost silent at cruise. After a morning on the freeway you step out at a winery in Temecula, one of more than 40 in the valley. You feel like you drove across town. The valet sees the Spirit of Ecstasy, and then the coach doors, rear doors hinged at the back, swing open, and the weekend has already started.

The black Cullinan runs $1,495 a day with a $1,000 deposit and extra miles at $3 each. That low per mile rate matters on a trip this long. The Black Badge versions run $1,495 to $1,595 depending on the car, with more power and a darker face.

The 911 Turbo S when the drive is the point

If the trip is for two and the road is the reason you're going, take the Porsche 911 Turbo S. It's the quickest car here, 640 horsepower through all four wheels and 60 in 2.6 seconds. It's also the one that surprises people on the freeway. Below 3,500 rpm it stays polite and quiet enough for a two hour run. Then the turbos spool and the car simply goes.

The Turbo S is a road trip with two bags, not four. The back seats are small, so pack for two and pack light. In return you get Angeles Crest Highway above Pasadena, where the nose follows the wheel and 590 lb-ft goes down without drama. Parked under a streetlight in Pasadena on the way home, the black paint reads as shadow. Only the center-lock wheels and the yellow calipers give it away to anyone who looks twice.

The black Turbo S is $1,195 a day with a $2,000 deposit and extra miles at $5 each. That's the highest per mile rate of the four, so plan the route before you plan the playlist.

The best luxury car for a road trip on the coast

The Bentley Continental GTC is the convertible to book when the route follows the water. It seats four, and the fabric roof folds in 19 seconds at up to 30 mph, so one red light is long enough. With the roof down near highway speed the cabin stays calm enough to hold a conversation. That's rare in a convertible, and it's why this car works for a full day instead of an hour.

Our black GTC carries the W12, twelve cylinders arranged in a short W rather than a long V. It makes 552 horsepower and pulls from almost idle, so it never sounds like it's working. Take it through Malibu, a 21 mile stretch of coast, with the top down and the ocean on your left. At the lights people look at the car, then at the brown hide inside, and then at the person holding the wheel.

It's also the value in this group. The black GTC is $595 a day with a $1,000 deposit and extra miles at $4 each. The white GTCs run $795.

Road trip car rental on a budget

The Range Rover Sport is the one I'd hand someone who wants the long drive without the long invoice. The black Sport rents for $395 a day with a $1,000 deposit. Extra miles run $3 each, a dollar less than the white Sport. On a trip that runs past the allowance that dollar adds up, and it's the reason this specific car is the better pick for distance.

It also has the quietest cabin at this price. Laminated glass and active noise cancellation bring road noise down to almost nothing on Pacific Coast Highway. The mild hybrid straight six makes 355 horsepower and gets to 60 in 5.7 seconds. The flush door handles only slide out when the car is unlocked. So a black Sport parked outside a gallery in Laguna Beach looks like it belongs to someone who lives up the hill.

If you want more room, the full size Range Rover SE is $595 a day. Its air suspension is built for exactly this kind of freeway distance.

How the miles work on a long weekend

This is where road trips go wrong, so it's worth doing the math before you pack. The Palm Springs run is about 200 miles round trip from Orange County, so a 2 day rental covers it with little to spare. Las Vegas is about 270 miles each way. That's out of state, so ask first and the miles and paperwork get sorted before you leave.

If you know the trip runs long, say so at booking. The extra miles get priced in ahead of time instead of billed after. Three or four days take 10% off the daily rate, and five or six days take 15%. That discount is automatic, from length, not from asking.

Some trips start at the far end instead. Palm Springs Airport is an open-air terminal 2 miles from downtown, and the car can be waiting at the curb outside baggage claim. You walk out into the desert air, drop the bags in the back, and the San Jacinto Mountains are in the windshield before you've left the airport.

Where the car sleeps at night

Overnight is the part of the trip nobody plans. Park with the hotel valet or in the garage, and keep the keys with you. Never leave it on the street. In the morning the car comes up the ramp already facing the road, and the second day starts the same way the first one did.

A road trip car gets judged at the end of the drive, not the start. Pick the one you'll still want to climb back into on Sunday afternoon.