By Liz

Several times a year, we organize long development-drive trips on public roads, striving for a very comprehensive “real world” evaluation. We’ll take a week, sometimes more, and cover hundreds of miles, driving from dawn through evening each day.

The last one we did was just before the holidays. The goal was to make this drive as comprehensive as possible, getting as many conditions, climates, and driving styles as possible in fairly close proximity. Where would you go to get warm weather, cold weather, mountains, city streets, twisty country roads and long highway passes all in one area at one time?

For us the answer was Southern California. Starting in the shadow of the San Diego harbor, as you see here, we wound our way east and north, where dusty, desert highways give way to chilly pine forests in the higher elevations. On this ride, it was as if we replicated the great majority of daily driving conditions most people encounter in daily driving.