More on our California coastal trip in the Hyundai Veracruz.

We were about to head home from gorgeous Carmel when we discovered the horn wasn't working. Not making a single sound, no matter how hard or where you smacked it. Strange!

The horn is an important safety feature. And my honey was getting nervous.

"Shouldn't we take it to get fixed before we get on the road?" he asks. No way, I said. I'm not spending hours in a dealership before we start a 6+ hour road trip. Granted, a broken horn might be a sign of an electrical problem, but everything else seemed to be working fine... I decided to take my chances.

I made it home without a hitch. But we'll get the Veracruz checked out and report back on the cause of the horn malfunction. At less than 10,000 miles, it's a weird thing to happen.

-- Joanne Helperin, Senior Features Editor, @ 9200 miles

Strawberry fields forever. The Hyundai Veracruz was great for taking in the sights, but not the sounds.

There's a lot to love about the 2008 Hyundai Veracruz. On my recent trip from L.A. to Carmel, Calif., and back, I experienced hour after hour of comfortable seating, intuitive controls, and DVD convenience (Hyundai even includes two sets of batteries for the headphones, which store nicely in the second-row console). But while Hyundai attempts to mimic its more expensive cousins, there's a couple things about crusing in this car that bother me.

First, I like a quiet cabin, and the Veracruz had some pronounced road and wind noise. Granted, I was moving quickly most of the time, but even at 60 mph, I felt it was noisier than I like. By 80mph, it sounded more like a wind tunnel.

Second, while I don't want a too-soft ride, the Veracruz' abilities to absorb the bumps in the road were less than ideal. Case in point:  I  I was trying to right-lane it for a while, because I had already received a speeding ticket (see below). (At least the CHP officer was nice -- he chopped quite a few miles off the ticket because we were honest about our speed. There's a lesson for you.)  But the right lane was a little rougher, presumably from all the truck traffic, and those bumps entered the cabin -- disturbing my sleeping kids. And as any parent can tell you: keeping the kids asleep is priority numero uno.

Uh-oh. Looks like someone's going to be attending traffic school.

It was the same situation over road seams, changing surface conditions, etc. The ride wasn't stiff by any means, but it became apparent that, for all the luxurious touches inside, the Veracruz can't compete on sound dampening and road feel with cars that cost more. So while it's built for family cruising, it's not exactly the ideal cruiser. This wouldn't necessarily stop me from buying one, though. Priced at $26,900 for the base model, you still get more than your money's worth. More on that, later.

- Joanne Helperin, Senior Feature Editor @ 9100 miles

I recently took a road trip in our 2008 Hyundai Veracruz, and did the "Wow, cool!" thing when I discovered the "Cool Box" in the front row's center console.

We opened the vents to test it out. But our "test sandwich" covered the vents, which prevented the cool air from circulating, defeating the purpose. Perhaps mayo-based sandwiches aren't its strengths, which is too bad if you're on a long road trip. The cool box is good enough for a closed can of soda or two, but an open can would have spilled. In the end, most people will end up using it for storage, in which case, it works just fine.

-- Joanne Helperin, Senior Features Editor @9022 miles

After several days in our long term 2008 Hyundai Veracruz I've come to appreciate some of the crossovers surprise and delight features. Yesterday I mentioned the Hyundai's many rear A/C vents, which are a good example of this truck's well thoughtout details. I also like the truck's felt lined storage bins in its dashboard and console, its 110 volt plug and powerpoint in is cargo bay and really appreciate the lighting mounted under is exterior mirrors (pictured). They illuminate when you unlock the truck and cast just enough glow around the vehicle.

Hyundai has figured out that a lot of little pleasures add up to a better vehicle. Instead of decontenting, Hyundai is contenting. Combine that with the fact that the Veracruz has better fit and finish than on long term Mazda CX-9, and the Veracruz should be on more shopping lists.

Scott Oldham, Inside Line Editor in Chief @ 8,162 miles

With Los Angeles in the throes of a heat wave, I reluctantly signed out our long term 2008 Hyundai Veracruz for the weekend. The crossover's air conditioning woes have been well documented in this blog, and the last thing I wanted was weaksuck A/C when the mercury is cresting the century mark. If I did, I would have signed up for the Ferrari 308, which is better looking and more fun to drive than the Hyundai.

But I was assured the Veracruz's air conditioning was no longer a problem, so I took the chance.

I had no need to worry. The Hyundai was perfect during the three days of super hot temps. The A/C worked so well it was freezing my kids out. "Daddy, we're cold," they said through shivering teeth. And this was only the way home from the Huntington Beach Dog Beach where we had been cooking in the sun for a couple of hours. Even my pooch, camped out in the cargo area, was kept comfy by the Hyundai's many rear A/C ducts mouted in its headliner.

Still, we couldn't spend the entire weekend in the cool confines of the Hyundai, so it also served as the go get vehicle for a home air conditioner. Photographic evidence of which is included. Love that power tailgate.

Coolio.

Scott Oldham, Inside Line Editor in Chief @ 8,150 miles

I took our 2008 Hyundai Veracruz in yesterday for its 7,500-mile service. The maintenance schedule calls for an oil and filter change, and thankfully the dealership's service advisor wrote me up just for that without trying to add anything else on. An hour later, the job was done. The final bill was $31.62.

Brent Romans, Senior Automotive Editor @ 7,652 miles

When I hop into a new vehicle I usually become more attune to seeing others just like it on the road. But this hasn't really happened yet for my time in our Hyundai Veracruz. So I was wondering: Has the vehicle's conservative styling made it relatively invisible, or is it that there aren't many Veracruzs on the road yet?

Hyundai reports that it sold 3,800 Veracruzs for the first three months of 2008. For comparison, Buick sold 11,712 Enclaves and Mazda sold 6,729 CX-9s during the same period.

Styling or sales? Maybe it's a bit of both.

Brent Romans, Senior Automotive Editor @ 7,321 miles

I'd have a hard time trying to think of recently introduced or redesigned vehicles that don't have auxiliary audio jacks. But here you go – our long-term 2008 Veracruz doesn't have one from the factory.

I tried routing my iPod through the optional rear-seat entertainment system's RCA port, but so far I haven't been able to get that to work. So for now I'm listening to XM Radio and CD-burned MP3s on the Veracruz's 10-speaker, Infinity surround-sound audio system.

Brent Romans, Senior Automotive Editor 

It's time for a fuel economy update at 6,983 miles:

Best: 20.2 mpg

Worst: 13.3 mpg

Overall combined: 16.2 mpg

And I'm proud to say that through some miracle of physics and new parenthood I managed that "best" tank myself last weekend.

Josh Jacquot, Senior road test editor @ 6,983 miles

The Veracruz is an excellent effort overall - good looking, roomy and with a fairly decked out interior (not just by Hyundai standards). The Infinity audio system is also very good but I'd like to see a factory installed nav system for our test car's $36,780 MSRP. I'm not against aftermarket systems like this Garmin, it's just that an in dash unit is so much nicer looking - Hyundai does offer one, it adds $1,750 to the price.

Brian Moody, Road Test Editor @ 6,602 miles