[Narg]

OK, now that I have a Traverse, and a few others here do too, what do you think overall? Or, what would you change?

For example: Since the styling is like the Malibu, I would have liked to see the key inside to be dash oriented rather than steering stalk placed. Just like in the Malibu. And I'd prefer to have seen a separate stick for windshield washer, on the right side, rather than putting it on the turn signal. It's much easier to flick a stick to get a quick single wipe rather than taking your hand completely off the wheel to turn a knob for such an action.

I had to dig deep for those. Any other creative comments? I know GM does visit these sites, so let us (an them) know and who knows what'll appear in the coming years? I can tell you I've seen suggestions on other forums for other GM cars before, and mysteriously those suggestions are easily found on the Traverse now... Hmmm....

 

[Spade]

I haven't driven the car since we got it. I will ask my wife if she has any dislikes.

 

[clbhk]

Just got ours this past weekend. Really liking it so far, but of course we haven't even had it a week yet. The spotter mirrors and the visibility going in reverse, even with the camera, will take some getting used to. Remote start with the auto defrost and heated seats has been great for the cold mornings.

The first time my wife took it out herself, she came home mad that she had "broken" the power liftgate. Turns out that she had just turned it off with the switch on the dash when she was checking things out.

I'm not sure yet how oil changes are going to go, with the filter located where it is. Seems like it could get really messy. Will find out in another 1500 miles or so.

 

[Spade]

The little I drove the car the spotted mirrors was one thing I did not care for, but I only drove the car at night and I really had to focus to check for other cars.

EDIT:

I asked my wife what her dislikes are and she said the MPG (I explained to her about the break-in period) and visablity. She has a hard time seeing around the passenger A-pillar when at certain intersections and seeing out the rear. Outside of that she loves it.

 

[clbhk]

I've driven it several times now and I've noticed lots of nice touches, like the little orange light gently shining down on the center stack at night (and thankfully not directly into my eyes at all), the rearview camera working pretty well on a dark night, and the padding in the compartment holding the jack. And it looks like there's some folded plastic sheeting in there with the jack too...could use that as a makeshift poncho, or to lay on the possibly wet/dirty ground when needing to use the jack, and to wrap around the dirty flat tire once it's moved into the hatch area.

My wife commented on the power outlet in the dash. When she uses it, say to charge her phone, it blocks the forward cupholder. Maybe that outlet could be recessed a bit next model year, and a second outlet there would be nice too.

I have a concern about the sunroof. Yes, it obviously better not leak. I'm talking about the sunshade. The rear sunroof sunshade is powered- very nice. The front sunshade is manual, sliding forward and attaching to a point at the front of the sunroof. That point appears to be plastic...sitting in the sun. I hope it doesn't get brittle before too long.

Overall, still very much liking it.

 

[Narg]

Great responses so far. Personally, I am impressed by the "improvements" that I can find over past GM vehicles overall. Here's some things I recently noticed though.

- I was surprised that the super-expensive Nav radio had only a single CD ability. For some reason I thought it would have multi-cd capability. The non-Nav radio does. Not a killer, but did kind of strike me as odd.

- OK, after a long trip this weekend something did bug me enough to want to ask GM or my dealer about. The seats I originally found very comfortable. I love how they "hug" you, and help keep you tight in them while cornering and such. But, it seems I found out how this is done. There appears to be either very stiff padding, or maybe even hard plastic "wall" in the sides of the seat bottom about 1 inch in from the sides. These create a ridge that normally in the short driving I usually do didn't hit me as noticeable. If you push the seat bottom sides down very hard you can feel the "ridge" that is in the middle of the pads running on the outside of your legs. After a couple hours in the Traverse, I noticed that my thighs started to hurt. It was if there were two fists pushing against the sides of my legs. I'm not a small person, 5'10" weighing almost 230 lbs. But, I'm not that big either. On the trip back to home, it seemed that either the seat sides were giving in a little, or i was getting used to it. So maybe with a little time this may not be a problem for me at all. For someone lighter or with a skinnier back end, they may never notice the stiff seat bottom sides. But since it did bug me, I'll be bringing it up with my dealer soon. Almost makes we want to have pushed harder for cloth seats instead of leather.

 

[Spade]

- I was surprised that the super-expensive Nav radio had only a single CD ability. For some reason I thought it would have multi-cd capability. The non-Nav radio does. Not a killer, but did kind of strike me as odd.

I was abit surprised with this too.

 

[clbhk]

I have the non-NAV, non-DVD radio, and it does not include a changer. 1 disc only. But it is MP3 compatible, so fitting many CDs worth of music onto 1 MP3 CD is an option. And then there's no changing mechanism noise & delay to deal with. Given that, plus AM/FM/XM and the aux input, there's a lot of audio choices, IMO.

 

[Narg]

It does appear that GM has removed the 6 disc changer from many if not all of their vehicles. I'll have to try the MP3 disc thing, though I'm not sure it'll be fast. My wife's HHR has MP3 on disc option and the radio is extremely slow at moving around MP3 songs on disc. Ask the radio to "catalog" the songs and be ready for up to a 30 minute wait. I'll just plug in my mp3 player into the aux port

 

[admin]

Cataloging is slow, but not completely necessary. You can just put a disc in and start playing songs, esp if you give them accurate filenames.

 

[ramjet]

After making a 600 mile trip this weekend with the wife and kids, I definitely agree on the front accessory plug interfering with the front cup holder. I wonder of there's such a thing as an L-shaped accessory plug extension?

And I second the observation by Spade's wife about the passenger A-pillar creating a blind spot. I've started into an intersection a couple of times only to have a car I hadn't noticed emerge from behind the pillar. I'm not sure there's anything to change, but it does take a little getting used to.

 

[Narg]

After making a 600 mile trip this weekend with the wife and kids, I definitely agree on the front accessory plug interfering with the front cup holder. I wonder of there's such a thing as an L-shaped accessory plug extension?

And I second the observation by Spade's wife about the passenger A-pillar creating a blind spot. I've started into an intersection a couple of times only to have a car I hadn't noticed emerge from behind the pillar. I'm not sure there's anything to change, but it does take a little getting used to.

Good thing is that there is a plug right behind you on the center console. I'd get a multi-outlet plug and use that one instead.

The A-pillar doesn't seem any bigger than my old truck to me. It is much bigger than our HHR though, so I can see it being a problem if your not used to it.

I'm still having issues with the seat though, the side supports on the bottom seat cushion seem too stiff, and are causing the sides of my thighs to start to feel bruised. Not good, but fixable. I mentioned to my wife that I could always remove the seat cover and "work" the padding, and she got all upset about it being a new SUV and all. So, I'll have to fix it when she's not around.

 

[rbarrios]

 

[Narg]

This one may be easier:

Sold at Radio Shack. http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2062266

 

[ramjet]

I was looking for something more like this, which has a flexible neck that bends out of the way. But the inflexible base connector might still interfere with the cupholder.

http://www.x-tremegeek.com/templates/SearchDetail.asp?productID=15427

 

[Spade]

I finally got to drive the car tonight and I agree with NARG about the wipers. They need a seperate stick or the option to do a single swipe. With the snow I was tring to concentrate and I found myself hitting the windshield washer button to activate the wipers.

 

[Narg]

The option to do the single swipe is there, but it requires the full hand using your thumb and a finger or two therefore removing your hand from the steering wheel intirely. You have to grab the turn signal stalk and turn the top toward you to get a single swipe. This is the same setup on all GM trucks, but not cars. Mainly due to column mounted gear shifters on trucks, where it does make sense to have it that way. With a stalk on the right side, you could finger touch a single swipe and not have to remove your hand entirely from the wheel. Since the Trav has a center console gear selector, it just seems natural that it should have had a right side stalk for wipers. Oh well.

Not griping, just wanting GM to know where a better choice could have been made. Little things like this add up, and end up in the final reviews which sell more Travs if they are good. But, I would hope they already know that...

 

[Boatwrench]

Have got 600 miles on "The Galileo" now including a 250 mile roundtrip on I-5 in central California today.

I agree with previous posts:
The wiper/turn signal smart switch is more difficult to work than need be.
The little blind spot mirrors are not real effective and are more of a distraction than aide.

My notices today:
The sun visor does is not long enough when turned 90* (along door). There is no extension piece to slide back. This was a GM common standard in the 90's.

Destinations cannot be dialed in while the vehicle is moving. I know this is to keep the driver's atention on the road, but the right seat navigator/conductor/ passnege can not enter any info either. The vehicle has an interlock system for the passenger airbag to energize when the passenger seat is occupied. I would think that it would not be difficult to have the same interlock deactivate the Nav blocking mechanism.

The fuel economy was 17.9mpg this was at 65-80mph speed range.

A cool thing is the Nav system 'memorized' a route I took across some very minor county roads and was able to turn by turn return me to the Interstate.

 

[intotheoh]

I have about 600 miles on mine and in general I'm very happy. If I could change a few things:

• Manumatic mode defaults to 3rd gear - should default to whatever gear Im already in
• Plastics are easily scratched. Id like it if they at least rubberized it around the door sills and ignition

The wipers don't bother me at all, though on my Passat, which has the same MSRP the wipers are rain sensing automatic - would have been nice.

 

[intotheoh]

I too was surprise by only the single disc. It looks exactly like the delco radio in my dads Saab, which is multi-disc. I guess I didn't read the window sticker that closely.

I burned a bunch of CDs and took it out to the car and scratched my head - "now how do I load all these."

Ah well - iPod it is.