It was nice. There are benefits to being able to drive directly onto the beach area. However, people are not very good at cleaning up after themselves. As a result, the beach is not as well maintained, and neither are the bathroom facilities (porta potties). Considering we paid almost as much to access the beach, I had higher expectations.
Another aspect of driving onto the beach is that it feels much more crowded, as each group's 'footprint' is larger on the sand, even though there are fewer people overall because only so many cars can fit.