I just wanted to give a brief review of our '02 Sedona, as used on a second road trip - this one about 900 miles.
My wife and I live in California with our two children. We enjoy visiting Sedona, AZ, and were last there in the summer of 2000. (At that time, we drove our Maxima - packed with two bags, two tennis racquets, two pairs of hiking boots, and an assortment of U2, Eagles, and REM CD's.)
We decided to spend the week after Christmas this year in Sedona with the kids. So we packed up our 2002 Sedona EX with five bags, a jogger- stroller, a child backpack (for the 1-year-old), a mini sofa, a laundry basket full of toys/books, and an assortment of Wiggles, Raffi, Pooh, and Disney CD's.
Room: Nice room in the Sedona. I took out the rear passenger seat to make room for the stuff we needed for the kids. This left the rear driver seat open for one of us to hang out with the kids in the middle two seats. We had plenty of room for everything and the middle console table came in very handy to place snacks, camera, drinks, and other items within reach.
Power/Handling: From LA to Sedona, we took I-10 to some backcountry roads up the mountains to Prescott and into Sedona. We drove between 80-
100 MPH on the highways (125 - 160KMH) and often about the same on the mountain roads. The van had no issues with the speed. Almost as nice as driving the Maxima. The Sedona has now about 30,000 miles and has been maintained with an oil change every 4,000 miles. The van also handled very well on Sedona's backroads, where we drove to get to various trailheads. These roads are non-maintained fireroads and have very iffy surfaces. The van handled like a trooper.Comfort: There was plenty of room for the four of us, even giving an adult time to spend in the rear seat, if needed. The rear heater came in very handy, when we would start out in the morning. I also liked the front window defrost, which I had never tried out before. The weather in Sedona was fairly cold, even dipping into the low 30's at night. One morning I had ice on my windshield. I had never seen this before, so I tried the wipers. They didn't remove it. The front window defrost, however, did a great job of it.
HTH, everybody!