I've already been processing and preparing orders for two hours this morning, so I figure that it's time to take a little break and I have so much on my mind after buying our new car. In this post, I'm just going to review our prior vehicle, the Chevrolet Traverse.
In 2009, we purchased a Chevrolet Traverse 2LT, which was the first year of the vehicle, which is on the LAMBDA platform of vehicles that included the Saturn Outlook, GMC Acadia, and Buick Enclave. The original intention was to buy the then brand new 2010 Chevrolet Equinox as a V4 with 24/32 MPG. Unfortunately, that early in the cycle, GM was basically producing the V6 model and barely any V4 Equinox cars as an 1LT or 2LT. This foreshadowed what has continued with the company. So, Jennifer told me to test drive the Traverse as well, and the car was stunning. Well finished (or so we thought), loaded, amazing. The dealer had to drive to the shores of Alabama to get our car. The 2LT Traverse was a desert brown metallic with options including leather, navigation, 10 speaker BOSE sound system, dual moon roofs, three row seating, heated seats, you name it. We thought that a big car would be enjoyable for us and with the notion of having a baby to join the twins. The fuel economy was rated 17/24, which for a car of the weight and size was decent, but I was bothered by the (lack of) fuel economy to start with.
In the end, the Traverse was a disappointment. GM quality has a long way to go. In two and a half years and 46,000 miles, here's a list of the problems: Broken lumbar support, broken seat cover (due to the dealer, though), replacement of all the vehicle's timing chains, which resulted in not having the car for a week, broken power adapter cover in the second row, leaking rack, terrible driver side leather wear, unexplained over burn of engine coolant, the inability to perform a standard alignment and additional cost to revise factory settings, and error code errors including the Air Bag system, which amounted to nothing. Talk about a headache.
That's a hell of a list for a $40,000 car of that age. It took three tries to get the timing chain issue settled, which countless '09 owners have dealt with, as GM used a supplier with a lesser quality part. All said, the car had (some under warranty, some not) about $4,000 worth of problems, already. How would it pan out in quality after five years? Who knows, but the trajectory was awful.
The positives were the wonderful ride, silent cabin, space, comfortable seats, heated seats, and features including folding the seats down to create the cubic space of a truck bed. Besides the aforementioned problems, little things were bothersome like the lackluster navigation system's inaccuracy and the necessity to buy a replacement DVD yearly to update the system.
The Traverse of today is essentially the same as the '09 model. While in the Toyota showroom, the Venza, which we considered along with the Traverse, has improved a lot with a wonderful interior. Take a look at the Camaro. The exterior is beautiful, the interior is a colossal disappointment.
Is this the end of our GM buying? Very likely. We take pride in buying American, but when the quality doesn't measure up and the American manufacturers don't offer the technology like the Prius, there is no choice, but to go elsewhere.
Without question, I feel regret for buying the 2009 Chevrolet Traverse. It's a mixed bag of why, from the fact that we saw that the style of car didn't really fit us, having every option under the sun isn't a priority for us, and it's fuel economy among other issues. When the car gets 50% of the sticker price in a trade two and a half years later, that's not impressive, either. If it was a Toyota or Honda, we wouldn't of had that problem.
Stay clear of the Chevrolet Traverse and LAMBDA platform vehicles because odds are that your long-term cost is most likely going to be astronomical.
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