Daryl Killian

A six-hour road trip is one of the best ways to understand what a family SUV is really made of. Short press drives can highlight design and technology. Real ownership experiences happen on long highway stretches, packed cargo areas, and hours spent sitting in the same seat. Last week, I took the 2026 Hyundai Santa Fe XRT AWD south from Atlanta to New Orleans for my daughter’s spring break trip.

Audi isn’t just making electric cars—they’re engineering a smoother transition for buyers still loyal to internal combustion. With the 2025 A6 e-tron and S6 e-tron, the brand is delivering what hesitant EV adopters have been asking for: familiar driving dynamics, thoughtful technology, and range that encourages road trips rather than limits them.

Chevrolet has done something very intentional with the 2026 Trax 2RS. It has built a compact SUV that feels modern, looks sporty, includes the technology young buyers expect, and still keeps the price below thirty thousand dollars when properly equipped. That’s not easy to do in 2026. The Trax is perfectly sized for singles, couples in their twenties and thirties, small families, and even new drivers whose families can afford something new instead of used.