The reviews were good for this carrier so I decided to give it a try for a road trip with my cat Arnie. Given the COVID-19 spread this year, I was anxious to get home to Colorado to see my folks but didn't want to put them at risk by flying. Having made the drive from California to Colorado many times before, I decided to rent a small SUV and pack up my cat and a few weeks of clothes and items and hit the road with Arnie! He of course hates the small carrier we use to take him to the vet, etc, but once I got him to the car, he would usually hop right in and settle in for the drive. I put the carrier in the rear passenger-side seat, and I opted for the medium size to give him plenty of room. As you can see in the picture, there is enough room in the medium for a much larger dog or a few smaller pets probably if they got along. Arnie is just shy of 12 lbs to give an idea on his size of cat. Not giant but not tiny. The carrier IS rather large as you can see so it's worth noting the dimensions before making your purchase. It fit great in the back of my rented Chevy Equinox but as you can see in the photo, it took the entire passenger-side rear seat, along with about half of the rear-seat passthrough/arm rest area. I was traveling alone with Arnie so I didn't need any space for additional passengers in the rear, but if I did you would've only been able to fit one, and an adult may have felt a bit cramped by the carrier. I have a feeling the carrier would've taken up 2/3 of the back seat of my girlfriend's Hyundai Elantra prob as well, so worth noting for smaller cars if you opt for the medium size. . The carrier has a mesh construction around most of it, which is good because it allows for lots of air flow and visibility (both for his sake and mine to check on him). We were also driving though lots of 100+ degree zones on our drive, so this construction allowed for the rear AC unit to make it right in there to keep him cool. There are zip flaps on both sides of this carrier, which make it easy to transfer the pet into the carrier, though I found it was easiest to do from the driver-side, where i could use the space provided on the vacant seat to maneuver him into the carrier. There is also a large zip flap on the front of the carrier which I was able to use to provide water, treats, or even give him some pets from the front seat. The sun did get a bit intense, so I placed a blanket over the top and half of the front to give him some privacy and respite from the direct sun and he seemed to appreciate that as well. I dinged this carrier mainly just on "Sturdiness" (3 out of 5) because the front mesh panel sagged a bit on my trip, and I wish it had been more taut. By sagging inward, it did probably take 1-2" out of the front of the carrier for open space for Arnie. He was fine, but it just felt a bit like a design flaw that could be fixed in future iterations. Also because the carrier is designed to fold down for storage (which is great!), it unfortunately is nowhere near sturdy enough to feel good about carrying say from the car to a hotel room or home with the pet inside. At all stops I would transfer Arnie back to his smaller carrier to get him from the car to inside. It is worth noting that the carrier does have a strap that you can flip behind the headrests to help "secure" it to the seat, along with a strap you can loop a seatbelt through. I say secure in loose quotes because it mainly kept it from moving too much when braking heavily, etc but by no means was it firmly anchored in place, which should come as no surprise to anyone but is worth mentioning. Aside from the minor sturdiness issues I mentioned, this carrier was great overall. My cat slept comfortably for many hours in the back seat on our days of drives and I would highly recommend it (or one of the other sizes larger or smaller in conjunction with ones needs) for a comfortable space for your furry friend while in the car.
