Best Adventure Vehicles w/ US News Editor + Car Cover Review
118 annotations
Adventure vehicles get defined in real life, not just on paper—“for every family, adventure means something different.” The hosts walk through U.S. News’ 2026-style categories and winners, from off-road picks like the Toyota RAV4 Woodland, Jeep Wrangler/Bronco, and the Tacoma TRD Pro to road-trip standouts such as the 2026 Kia K5, explaining how fuel economy and scoring categories factor in. The show then pivots to a practical car-cover review and storage tips, plus a listener’s Lexus brake-booster diagnostic and recall eligibility story.
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02:18
Concept
no cell signal has ever reached
They’re talking about places where your phone can’t get service. That matters for adventure trips because you can’t rely on constant connectivity.
02:38
Concept
van life
“Van life” means people live out of their vehicle while traveling. The hosts are pointing out that most people only do trips for part of the year, so the vehicle still has to work for normal daily life.
The Rivian R1S is an electric SUV built for both adventure and everyday driving. They’re calling it the best electric SUV for off-roading and saying it’s enjoyable to live with.
The Hyundai Santa Cruz is a compact pickup-style vehicle. It’s mentioned as another smaller truck option before they talk about bigger trucks being more useful.
The Toyota Tacoma TRD Pro is a special Tacoma version built for off-roading. It comes with extra off-road gear and is meant to be tough enough for rough trails.
05:30
Term
air-ride seats
Air-ride seats are seats that use air pressure to absorb bumps. That means the driver feels less of the rough road through the seat.
05:38
Term
air suspension
Air suspension uses air instead of metal springs to smooth out the ride. In this case, it’s used in the seat to help absorb bumps.
06:17
Term
off-road routes
“Off-road routes” means roads or trails that aren’t paved. The host is saying the truck can handle that kind of rough driving without making you feel beat up afterward.
The Jeep Gladiator is a Jeep that’s built like a pickup truck. It’s known for being able to go off-road, so it makes sense as a contender in an adventure-truck category.
The Tremor is an off-road trim for the Ford F-150. It’s meant to make the truck better on rough roads while keeping it practical for normal driving.
07:33
Concept
data model
A data model is basically a scoring method. In this case, US News takes different things they can measure about cars and turns them into numbers to pick winners.
07:41
Term
off-road features
Off-road features are things that help a vehicle deal with dirt roads, trails, and uneven ground. The episode says these are part of the scoring for adventure vehicles.
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Now, here's John Paul, the car doctor.
And good Sunday morning everyone and welcome to another edition of the car doctor program on 959 W-A-T-D.
My name's John Paul, the car doctor here to help you with your car problems on this very last day of May.
So welcome to the car doctor program.
Well, you just heard Jesse's weather forecast.
It's going to be warm. It's going to be sunny. It's going to be rainy.
Unless you live in the western part of the state, apparently up in the mountains, there was a little bit of snow.
So it's New England. You could get rain. snow. mud.
Apparently you can get meteors. Your house didn't get hit by a meteor, did it, Jesse?
I don't think so. But I heard about it. I always miss these things.
People are like, oh, did you feel the earthquake? Did you hear the boom? I'm like, I heard nothing.
No. You work too much. That's what it is.
But anyway, so do you need an all-wheel drive adventure vehicle if you never go adventuring?
Maybe in New England you do. And with us is John Vincent. He is the U.S. News senior editor for vehicle testing.
John, welcome back to the car doctor program.
Good morning. How are you? Good. Good afternoon there, I guess it is.
Well, not quite yet. Not quite yet. Another hour will be afternoon.
So U.S. News did best adventure vehicles for 2026.
Can adventure vehicles handle meteor strikes, which apparently we had yesterday?
Maybe the Hummer. Maybe not myself.
Yeah, exactly. What do you guys classify as an adventure vehicle? What is it?
So it's hard to describe because for every family, adventure means something different.
For some, the adventure is getting down the road to the next hotel.
For others, it's finding a place where no cell signal has ever reached.
So your adventure vehicle has to fit that.
And we know you're only going to be adventuring for a certain number of days per year.
So the car truck or SUV has to be good for the rest of the year as well.
That's a good point. I mean, even though there are people that sort of embrace the van life,
or maybe they choose to live in their vehicles,
most of the time you're taking two or three weeks vacation and you're going to go to National Park
or go camping or take your little boat somewhere or dirt bikes or something like that.
And you're right, the other 48 weeks of the year, you're going to go back and forth to work
in the supermarket and the home improvement store, right?
Yep, take the kids to school, all those daily tasks.
So that adventure vehicles got to kind of satisfy more than one challenge here, right?
Yep, so we broke it down into four classes.
We broke it down into best SUVs for off-roading, best trucks for off-roading,
best vehicles for camping, and best vehicles for road trips.
And there's a lot of overlap between those categories.
I bet there is. Well, let's start with the best off-road SUVs.
I mean, I always just sort of expect, oh, there's going to be a Jeep in here somewhere.
But was there a Jeep in there? There is, okay.
There was. The Wrangler's there. The Bronco is there.
Best hybrid SUV for off-roading was a little bit of a surprise,
and it's the new Toyota RAV4 Woodland.
And then we have best electric SUV, the Rivian R1S,
which I'm not sure whether you've been in that vehicle yet, but it's a fantastic vehicle.
It's a really capable, fun vehicle that you can live with every day as an electric
because it has such great range that you're never going to find yourself on a public charger.
Yeah, absolutely. The Ford Bronco, was it the Bronco or the Bronco Sport?
It was the best mid-sized SUV for off-roading is the Bronco.
And did the Bronco...
Bronco picked up an award here too, but a little bit later on.
Oh, okay. Let's talk about, you know, people...
You know, it depends what you live.
It seems like there's a pickup truck in everybody's driveway.
What's the... I mean, we have compact pickup trucks, sort of.
We have the Maverick and the Santa Cruz.
There are two trucks. I suppose they could be okay.
But more mid-size or full-size trucks are really, I think,
what people are looking for when they think about more usefulness.
What was the winner in that mid-size pickup truck for off-roading?
That was the Tacoma TRD Pro, which is the top end of the Tacoma lineup,
packed with off-road equipment, super capable, super well protected.
So, you know, you're going to be able to get out there and get back.
And it has these amazing seats in it that are air-ride seats.
So, your driver's seat is isolated from the rest of the truck by an air suspension of its own.
Yeah, I remember driving that last summer and looking at the seats,
which do take up a fair amount of rear seat room at the same time.
But those seats are engineering in themselves.
I mean, they were amazing.
I really wanted to find the roughest road I could find,
but I never really found anything that could challenge the comfort of the seat.
It was pretty amazing, though.
It takes a little bit to get used to,
because it feels like you're a little disconnected from the rest of the truck.
But they're amazing at keeping your body stable.
You know, you could pound on off-road routes all day long and you wouldn't come back sore.
Yeah, no.
And in the runner-up category, do I remember seeing a Jeep Gladiator in that mix?
I don't have the list of runner-ups on it,
but I would imagine if the Gladiator would be there as well.
Yeah.
How about full-size trucks?
I mean, we have so many good full-size trucks.
It must be hard.
I mean, there's F-150, Ram, GMC, and Chevy.
There's so many good trucks out there.
What was the winner in that category?
And not only are there a lot of good trucks,
but there are a lot of good trucks with off-road versions, which are fantastic.
But we gave it to the F-150 lineup.
They have the tremor.
They have the Raptor.
You know, incredibly capable trucks.
Get you there, get you back.
And, you know, with that livability for 365 days a year,
the F-150 just rose to the top of our rankings.
All of these awards are based on data.
It's not just what we're thinking in our mind that we want to award these trucks.
We go back and US News uses data to give these awards.
Well, explain to us a little bit what the data model used.
How does that shake out?
So we look at interior space, interior features, off-road features, performance, fuel economy, safety, reliability.
All of those are just built down into numbers that we use to determine, you know, who our winners are.
It's the US News way.
We just don't base it on our own opinions.
There must be a tiny little of opinion in there, right?
There's more than a bit of opinion in there, including our own opinion.
But our own opinions are boiled down to numbers as well.
Well, I can understand the F-150 because the F-150 rear seat reminded me of, like,
the last time I was in a full-size Lincoln Continental, you know, or a Lincoln Town Car.
I mean, the rear seat in the F-150 is ridiculously spacious, so I can understand that.
How about road trips?
You know, not everybody goes camping like you pointed out.
You know, the idea of, you know, an adventure vehicle for some people is just, you know, finding that next hotel four or 500 miles away.
What were the best vehicles for road trips?
So the best vehicles for road trips.
And on this category, you know, it is 2026.
Gas prices are through the roof.
So we heavily weighted fuel economy into these rankings, at least for this year.
Best car for road tripping?
2026 Kia K5.
Best hybrid car for your previous phenomenal mileage.
Subcompact SUV Hyundai Kona.
Subcompact hybrid SUV Kia Nero.
Best compact SUV Nissan Rogue.
Compact hybrid Kia Sportage. These lists are long.
Compact plug-in hybrid is the new Toyota RAV4 plug-in hybrid, which gets like 50-some miles on an electricity alone before the gasoline engine even has to kick on.
Best mid-size SUV GMC Acadia.
And all these awards GMC was the big winner with, I think, the 1-8.
Best mid-size hybrid SUV Hyundai Palisade.
Great vehicle.
You know, it competes with the Kia Telluride and they are both fantastic, but for this, the Palisade came out slightly ahead.
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