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Yesterday the drivers door refused to open (locked or unlocked). If locked it will unlock when you pull on the handle but will not open the door. Works from inside handle OK. All other doors work OK.
real world mileage experience from other owners is useless unless you drive exactly as they do. I would tell people how my car couldnt match EPA city ratings and they would tell me they easily matched those ratings. My driving environment is very urban with tons of stop signs and intersections and traffic and I regularly got 14mpg. Doesn't mean other drivers would have done the same thing in city driving.
I have Regal which is rated at 30mpg highway and got about 28mpg on mostly highway trip. I dont think anything is wrong with the car because I wasnt able to maintain cruise control due to traffic and I ran into heavy traffic for the last 50+ miles of the trip. If I could've cruised at 65-70 with moderate traffic I could've gotten 30mpg.
LAcrosse has much larger backseat and more features. Regal has lower weight and superior trunk space and trunk opening. Aside from that (and optional V6 on Lacrosse) they are similar. Lacrosse has remote start and memory seats which are a huge advantage over Regal but the Regal delivers more features than a comparably priced Lacrosse CXL.
Engine is def not from China. The 2.4L used in American GM products are from the US. The last (and only) engine from China was the 3.4L engine from the old Equinox.
The only Regal I saw had info on the engine's origin on the factory sticker. I am going from memory but I'm reasonably sure I have it correct as I was in need of an American car which was really USA origin. Too many American makes made in Mexico and Canada. It was hard to find a car with a VIN number beginning in "1".
EDIT: Thanks to Google I see I confused the CHINESE transmission with the USA Engine.
Rider: H-arm is pretty easy to spot. Very heavy looking cast metal support to wheel suspension versus the normal cut steel sheet metal looking support. Also has coil spring AND heavy shock absorbers to accomodate 4-wheel drive(when so equipped). Key is the cast metal(looks like cast iron) heavy support e.g. H-arm actually looks like an "H" IMO. It does keep the car on the ground with a firm but not bouncy ride. Good for handling with the stability control and the wide(8") rims and 18" tires. Ours has 235 50V 18" Michelin radials with alloy wheels- makes for excellent road car. Just enough road/engine noise for feedback but overall a most quiet car.
Numerous posts on actual mileage for Lacrosse/Regal raise the following ?'s; 1)Final drive ratio of 2.77 vs. 3.34 will raise RPM's ~20% with drop in MPG. 2)Use of ethanol in fuel with lower efficiency drops MPG- use major brands only. Higher mileage with mid-grade and premium may support this argument. 3)Tire air pressure has some effect so check pressure monitor on both cars. 4)Driver habits; such as use of cruise control, manual shift, not using A/C recirculation mode and speed fluctuation may be the biggest single factor that is hard to diagnose IMO. The majority of of posters are getting the EPA numbers, at least. Our CXL with 3.0L V-6 gets 29 MPG at 75 and peaks at 32 (65-70MPH) on flat level road. The 3.0 & 3.6 have same stroke with different bore, so RPM's s/b close if final drive ratio is the same. Ours is set up for maximum mileage NOT low end speed (i.e. 4.11 and 4.56 positraction rear ends in our cars of old). IMO, dealers will have a hard time addressing the factors above without the drivers involvement. Good luck and enjoy the new car- we love ours and appreciate all the posts. Crankee 9-18-2010
You don't need to use Google for long to see that GM doesn't get it as far as Bluetooth and upgrades to cars sold just a few short years ago.
I bought a 2010 CXS manufactured in June 2010. The Bluetooth is incompletely implemented. Contacts are supposed to download automatically as the phone pairs to the car. They are then easily available to select for simplified calling. The reality is that it doesn't work. You are given a 40 Meg HDD but there is no process for storing contacts and using them from there. GM employees are poorly trainind on their products and this alone will prevent them from ever catching Lexus..they can't even stay even with Ford and its Synch system.
If anyone has a third party solution (new firmware?), I'd love to hear it. My phone is a Blackberry Storm 2 on Verizon. The car has the Nav system and Onstar.
To me, you don't need to be perfect. Mistakes happen, problems occur, and mechanical and electrical parts break prematurely.
What any organization needs is:
1. Top down desire for Perfect Service. That has to be the goal eventhough it may never be acheived. You got to have management make it a priority and measure it.
2. Individuals need to see a complaining customer as an Opportunity to create a Loyal Customer.
3. Individuals need to OWN the problem brought to them. No buck passing.
4. There has to be accountability throughout the organization. All levels need to be measured and graded. If you're not Perfect, you must improve each quarter or face consequences.
I see GM failing on ALL of this. They seem to have a lot of company in American business.
Thoughts? and please indicate if you are employed at GM
Perhaps Mariah can chime in and maybe post some pictures. I'm pretty sure that is not H-arm. I've seen some with a large aluminum casting that is in the shape of a right triangle. The right angle is out-board and at the front. This and one other corner are forward and have a pivot point through them in which the assembly pivots about the horizontal plane laterally to the vehicle. The third point is at the wheel. What I've known as the H-arm for many years has a third member known as a trailing link to stabilize the wheel laterally. Take the H and turn it sideways. The bar in the middle is an assembly attached to the frame and the 4 arms of the H pivot vertically about that fixed point. Each side of the vehicle will have a fore and aft arm. To set toe, if adjustment is available, there might be an eccentric bushing at the fore or aft arm in the center attachments. Or as I observed unter 09 Impala, the aft arms were threaded and adjusted like tie rod ends on the front of a vehicle. Vehicles that I know had this configuration are the older Ford Tempo and Taurus. The Classic body Olds Aurora, '95-99. and 09 Impala. The fuss about the Regal being autobahn makes me wonder if it will ride and handle as well as the Aurora. It was available in an autobahn version which had only three vehicle changes. 1) no speed limiter in the computer, 2) replace H rated tires with V, & 3) a slightly higher final drive ratio. None of these would effect the ride and handling. So, in my gut, I get the feeling the Regal is autobahn worthy like a VW is compared to a Benz. The Aurora being closer to the Benz. Next time I'm by the dealer I might have my salesman roll one out for me.
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Would you please post what the tires are that came on your CXS with touring. Make, model, size, weight & speed ratings, etc. Most Buicks I've seen on the lot have Michelin and I can't remember any of that brand for cars being noisy.
Purchased a 2011 Lacrosse CXL in August. Passenger visor defective. Dealer ordered new one Aug.12. As of today, Sept.22, no visor. Dealer said they are having trouble getting parts because of the reorganization of GM. We are talking a sun visor here - imagine if it was something needed for the running of the car. The dealer told us to get in touch with Buick Customer service. We have and will see where that goes. First, the dealer should have handled it, not tell me to. Second, what is this about not being able to get parts because of GM reorganization. I think I made a mistake in my purchase. (A $35,000 mistake.)
It's only a sun visor. It's not a safety item. It's not an item needed to operate the car without damage.
>First, the dealer should have handled it, not tell me to
Your tone is showing hostility. The dealer IS handling it. They ordered a visor.
>what is this about not being able to get parts because of GM reorganization.
Sounds reasonable to me. Why don't you give the item order a couple of weeks for the replacements to show up. They are probably ordered from a company which supplies the original parts for interiors, perhaps Johnson Controls. Those companies build parts to order and assembly procession to arrive just-in-time. The parts come off the truck in the order for that color, that fabric, to meet up with the vehicle as its skillet gets to the right point on the assembly line an hour or more later. The companies probably do service parts resupply at odd times in their production schedule.
>I think I made a mistake in my purchase. (A $35,000 mistake.)
I can't find much sympathy with the kvetching over a sun visor. I'd recommend selling the car or trading it for a Honda Accord. You'll love it.
You are right on with your comments. My CXS made in Jan 2010 is functioning the same as you described. It's so bad that I turned it off as my phone kept receiving phantom calls every 20 minutes. I have had my car 9 months and they still do not have a fix for the faulty memory seat issue. Every time I get in the car and the seat does not return to the preset automatically I am reminded that Buick just doesn't care about it's customers. What could be more basic than memory seats to fix? There is no urgency to do it on their part, same as the Bluetooth not being complete. I would like to have someone from GM tell me what options I have as an owner? I think it's buy another brand next time...
You are right - to a point. I am upset, not sure about hostile. I became upset when the dealer said to call the Buick Customer Service. I felt they should handle it themselves. Also, I definitely didn't want to hear the problem was GM reorganization. It is only a visor, but I was told there was no problem with getting parts when I inquired before the purchase. I think 6 weeks is long enough for them to have done something. The Honda is sounding better and better. Anyone interested in an American made car with less than 1000 miles. lol
The seat problem has been fixed with an upgrade. I had mine corrected and it works as it should. I reported it here in forum and gave the part number.
I have two dealers near me and went from the selling dealer to the other dealer simply because I could not get satisfaction out of the selling dealer.
I still have two problems that remain: 1. A kind of grinding sound from my steering. I only hear it ocassionally and usually when turning at a very low speed (backing out of the garage for example). This has been discussed here and apparently GM is aware of it and a fix is being developed. At this time I do not think this is a dangerous problem.
2. When going very slow up an incline and trying to speed up the cart does not respond. Seems to be a problem of downshifting. Does not downshift to pick up speed unless one really hits the accellerator. Once I realized what was happening I have changed my driving practice to overcome the problem
Waiting for further information on these.
It is a new model of a car and I didn't expect everything to work absolutely perfect. It is like anything else if you buy a new model expect some problems until the kinks are worked out. This is understandable to me.
I love the car and think it is as good as anything on the market in this price range (and better than many in more expensive ranges).
>When going very slow up an incline and trying to speed up the cart does not respond.
Does tapping the brake pedal just enough to disengage the torque converter lockup help the sensation you're getting? That's what I've done with the 4T60E and 4T65E transmission in my 2 leSabres. Even though the slippage never totally locks up, it's as though the computer is relucatant to increase the slip ratio enough to help the engine power because it's protecting the gas mileage; when the brake switch engages the light, the torque converter clutch lets go and the engine speeds up a factor of 20% or so. That greatly helps the response.
I went to a second dealer and was told they have no authorization to order or implement the part number you referred to as it has not been approved for installation as of yet. It's a preliminary trial fix.
Which specfic phone model and which carrier are you having the problem with? GM tested several popular models with each of the carriers. They have a website which tells you IF the phone was tested as compatible and which features may not work. Sometimes the fault is the phone being incompatible, occassionally its the firmware supplied by the carrier.
Somehow I missed this when it was timely. I had not used that email and left it with defaults which apparently filters everything as spam from those not on my list. I changed that today.
I have had lots of Michelins. Tires that get good mileage out of the rubber are hard enough that they make noise when the pavement is roughened, such as the concrete. My Harmony tires currently do that. The Symmetrys that came on my leSabre weren't as noisy.
Softer rubber means stickier rubber to a degree, but the lower noise means less mileage.
Our 2010 CXL with 18" Michelin Sport HX 235 VR50 18" tires has some feedback on bumps and VERY rough roads. 225 60 HR 16" on prior cars had some but less noise due to higher sidewall (read more dampening effect). Larger wheel size and compensating smaller sidewall profile equals more noise IMO. The stiffer suspension telegraphs ALL noise. We had a 300ZX and heard every rock we ran over. The Lacrosse is pretty forgiving if equipped the right way for each driver. The car is so quiet inside you can hear all ambient noises. Wrong car for certain driver is any noise so solution used to be more speakers and bigger radio- HA!. Enjoy your new Lacrosse - we certainly do!
I bought my 2011 CXS with the built-in NAV but I must confess I like my Magellan Roadmate 1475T much better, at least for the time being. The GM system is unnecessarily complicated are and primitive by modern GPS standards. Its Highway Lane Assist is not as realistic looking as the Garmin or Magellan and its maps are confusing especially the traffic circles (rotaries) and major roadways that are displayed in black and white rather than in color. Furthermore, it does not always provide an optimal route like the Magellan and it does not always display the side streets along the route. However, the XM/Serious traffic in the Lacrosse is way better than the Roadmate's but that cost $3.99 a month while the Magellan’s is free.
In retrospect paying $1,995 for GM's GPS was a big waste of money. The car already comes with OnStar and with my portable Magellan Roadmate that's more guidance than I will ever need. So right now I am using the Roadmate as a back-up but primarily for its AAA TourBook and POIs features. OnStar offers the same service but sometimes I like to do it myself rather than ask an OnStar advisor or page through GM's complicated menu system.
My 2011 Lacrosse CXS (now with 1860 miles) with the Touring Package, also came equipped with the same Goodyear Eagle RS-A, M+S, P245/40 R19 94W tires.
At first, the road noise from the tires was a bit annoying but now I have gotten used to it, I hardly hear the road noise anymore. Besides, I have found a sweet spot by driving in Sport Mode every chance I get. For best results, I recommend tire pressure at 35 psi
Good write up. The term RFB seems to have been basterdized a bit. As to matching the wheel to tire relative to high spots, that is not new. The first I became aware of such was when Cadillac took a Chevrolet Citation and duded it up and dubbed it the Cimaron. I believe that had 13" wheels. And the purpose was for a smoother ride. Many tire manufacturers from that time on have marked their tires with something to indicate the high spot. Sometimes it was a dot of varying colors which might come off with first washing or after a few thousand miles. If it was not marked, it told me that some quality lacked. The OE wheels have also been marked since shortly after that. That is with the first of such tires you would have had to spin the bare wheel looking for the high spot and then mount the tire accordingly. Such marks are on the inside of the wheel. So now you have a much better shot at getting the assembly to balance in such a way you feel less vibration on the road.
But if anyone has the exact scoop on what the dot on wheel and tire is, I'd appreciate the feedback. Depending upon who you talked to, it was the high spot on tire or wheel which would mean mouting the tire and wheel dots opposite each other, or they would say tire and wheel dot need to be aligned as if on one it was the high spot and the other the low spot. And then there were those that would say that the tire and wheel were separately spun to locate the heavy spot or point of highest centrifugal force. Obviously there are many never properly trained, especially those that say it does not matter about lining up the marks.
Balance matters! I've even seen recommendations that when pulling drive components such as rotors, drums, shafts, that they be marked so as to assemble as they came apart. Also applies if you disassemble a drive shaft to replace u-joint or CV joint. (If doing a CV joint on a RWD, (main shaft) mark the intermediary as to which end of it mounts to shaft and which end goes toward tranny or differential and if doing all joints mark the main shaft as to front and rear.
I have a 2010 CSX with 20K miles and the ride seems to be getting dramatically rougher with my current tires (original spec 245/40r19). I was considering going to a 245/45r19 to see if the ride comfort would improve any. Can anyone advise on this?
I would submit that all factory nav systems are overpriced and a waste of money. In some ways they are like the factory radios of earlier times -- you could pay lots to get the integrated look from the factory, or pay a lot less for one from Western Auto or wherever and hang it under the dash.
1) there is very limited room under the wheel wells, so i'm not sure if the larger wheels will fit and 2) changing the wheel diameter will throw off the spedometer a little but you can have it calibrated at transmission or specialty mechanic.
I've heard various stories on what this actually is. You said two road pressures were in use. There may only be two or maybe they have refined it a bit more. What I've considered a quite reliable tire source told me the vehicle is looked up in a chart and the prescribed force for that vehicle is dialed into the machine. Of course there are a few presumptions that this all works out well, your vehicle is in good shape relating to suspension and the tire is inflated to the prescribed pressure. Now I mention an area in the steps that was not made absolutely clear. You suggest that once the tire and wheel points are matched, it is a normal spin balance. I would suspect that was true prior to the special RFB machine. I have presumed it was more advanced with newer machines as what was described to me was the weight on tire was maintained through high speed spin allowing the computer to calculate for what is actually happening on the road.
Or in essence doing what was far more common during 50's and 60's and known as a high speed on the vehicle balance. As labor prices moved higher it fell out of favor except by those wanting this premium balancing because it could easily take an hour of machine time. Some of you may have seen them. The wheel/tire to be balanced was jacked and let down on a machine that just spun the wheel. (Today that would seem wrong because you would not get accurate reading with the extra force on "that" wheel because the spinning machine would keep it elevated relative to the other three corners of vehicle.) Mounted like a hub cap was a disk that had a protruding spindle which had about four weights/discs of steel on it. They were stacked next to each other and often had an identifying color. Usually the mechanic felt and observed their action and from that he decided where and how much weight to add to the wheel. He must have had some magic in his fingers. In more stubborn cases I saw the use of a strobe light added to the mix.
On a recent visit to tire shop, I asked if they used RFB machine. They told me they had a much better machine. That it worked off lasers measuring many points of the tire for high and low spots. The measurements were done with no road force applied. That sounds good assuming no density variations anywhere on the tire with respect to circumference. And that would be making a perfect carcass everytime before the tread is added. I hope with your knowledge you can give some input to that method.
Does that mean the recommended tire rotation pattern does not apply? Or is this used for troubleshooting purposes to locate a tire that is really a bad one?
For years when new tires are installed they try to put the worst balance in a position so that it is less noticeable. But that is out the window as soon as you have a rotation.
"Releasing the button before the stored position is reached cancels the recall. "
That is not how the recall worked on my Aurora and I would find that useless. Part of the reason for the recall is to be able to have the seat self adjust while you are preparing other things for the drive. I think the memory was non-functional when the vehicle was in gear which is OK for safety, but if it was initiated before being in gear, it would continure its positioning. That is what I'd want.
I'd definitely only go with OE fluid on such a vehicle. Newer transmissions can be very fussy as to what goes in. A very few years ago when the newer fluid became part synthetic, dealers and others were recommending it in place of previous fluids. Unfortunately it started delaminating clutch plates and TSB was issued to stop the use of it in transmissions pre newer fluid.
I'd say no. AM & FM reception seem to be compromised on my 09 Malibu. It sort of makes me wonder if they are promoting XM. But then I have no idea as to what is current circuit design. Are the audio amplication stages still analog? If so, then it should be easy to feed the decoded AM & FM analog signals. They may be using a low quality chip to do the work. Gone are the days where you had several tightly tuned circuits amplifying the signal before decoding. And I'd bet the quality of the transmitted signal has gotten better because of improved parts and FCC regulations preventing spurious transmission. It saves on wasted power in the signal. Yet the station might be trying to trim its signal for longer range at less power. The bandwidth of the signal is such that you should be able to get 0-22KHz per channel (stereo FM). Higher frequencies might be attenuated more during the transmission but could be compensated on the receiving end, some anyway. With the stations using CD for source, you should be receiving CD quality signal when the reception is clean. Is the RIA, recording industry of America, forcing radio stations to use compromised CD so they can sell more of them? I'd bet XM has to pay them fee. They'd like nothing better than PPV, pay per view, on everything. Will AM/FM eventually go digital? And will that signal require deficiencies? Example: nearly all music download sites sell you a greatly compromised version of a CD. Part of it is about bandwidth for the transmission, so they use a lossy method of compression. MP3 is common and often at a bit rate of 128Kb/sec or less. I can easily hear the difference between that an often up to bit rates 225Kb/sec. Further, they seldom use the full 48KHz alloted for digital stereo audio signal, 0 - 24KHz per channel. There are those that will argue the human can not hear a 24KHz tone, but tests have shown that we are able to perceive that it is missing when listening to test signals. Luckily, when it comes to TV, they allotted each station enough bandwidth, now being used as alternate channels by a transmitter, say 11-1 as HD, + 11-2 & 11-3. Although the current highest resolution from OTA, over the air, is 1080i, with a updated transmitter they can easily transmit 1080p.
Why the sudden move to digital TV? Certainly the government had an input, they wanted frequencies for analog TV channels 2-6 for other/emergency communications. Just above channel 6 frequency lies the FM band. Because these lower frequencies are better for range, I'd bet the days of the FM band are numbered.
To sum up, I'm not sure that GM is able to do anything about the poor reception of AM & FM signals. If you learn otherwise, I'll happily jump on your band wagon. Sorry for the long wandering.
Certainly there are not as many AM stations as before FM became prevalent. The FM band has become very crowded and likely caused the continuation of some AM stations that could not get/purchase an FM slot. AM has the capability of greater range with its lower frequencies. At one time, a few AM stations went stereo, but that went over like the beta VCR. No one was pushing the AM stereo receivers as a standard so few transmitters converted. Or AM would likely be more popular today.
Again, will the AM band eventually go digital or be shifted to different frequencies because of government need?
I'd give them that for a year. I'm tired of these endless hits on the pocket book. electric and gas are what they are except for taxes. Telephone, cell phone, cable, dish, etc. are all trying to find ways to extract greater amounts of money from the consumer. Until the little fellow with the RIA who helped Sony push Blu-Ray on to industry, such as BlockBuster that filed for bankruptcy yesterday, I will resist until he wins what he wants and then I'll likely spend my money on other entertainment. (PS - the alternative was HD-DVD which was extremely close to Blu-Ray. Also recording machines were cheap. Try to find a Blu-Ray recorder and its recording is very limited because of all the anti-copy/piracy code built in.)
It is wise to not turn into the limits. Why use all the extra muscle of power steering to force against the mechanical points of the system. If I hit the limit, I always allow it to come back a bit, immediately. It sounds as if the noise complaint could be due to a small amount of air in the system. There had been a procedure for eliminating it. This usually popped up when some component in the sytem was changed, but in this case from new. It required jacking the front, no weight on wheels, and slowly cycling the steering from limit to limit several times.
You imply that you have the touring package because of features mentioned. Do you know for sure that you have the new hyper-struts on front that are supposed to aid in quieting? Build date might effect whether they were incorporated.
I have 09 Malibu LT2, I-4, AT-6. I find it quiet enough, actually amazingly quiet at day one, but it is time to clean and relube door seals hoping it is the source of some noise starting to show at passenger door. I must ask which model you have and what tires are on it that you find it much quieter than the CXS. Mine came with plain Firestone 710 M/S passenger even though the sticker said touring tires. They are P215/55R-17 93S. Vehicle handles dangerously poor and suspect tires are part of issue.
Which do you actually have, CXL or CXS? I've been shopping since January and at that time the CXL & CXS showed H-arm as standard. Only the base model had 4-link. So I was planning on CXL. Suddenly the H-arm totally disappeared from the site. About mid-year it came back as an option(M&M, more money) on the CXS only. Now for 2011 it appears to be available on CXL FWD as well and maybe required for AWD. The AWD was why, I assumed, that there was a different, better suspension used on the CXL & CXS in the first place and the 4-link was limited to the base model. With these changes, especially on AWD, I have to wonder if they used 4-link on some AWD or it was just errors in what was/is available. I've been looking under vehicles on lot trying to verify what actually is. My last visit, both 2011, CXL that sticker said it had touring with H-arm had the same exact rear suspension as CXS next to it without touring package. Does Buick know what it is building? Please Verify?
Such came to my mind as well when I encountered issues with Malibu. Electric Power Steering will suddenly and violently try to steer vehicle to right. Most of the time it is of such short duration that there is not time to react, but on one occaison it lasted for at least a full second. If I had not driving gloves on and both hands on the wheel it would have put me off the road at 70 MPH. I was told GM would do a buy back as long as I agreed to buy another GM and after looking at many vehicles I decided to give LaX a try. Looking on many lots and contacting many farther away lots and adding to the mix of changes on the Buick build it site, checking with people the GM customer satisfaction rep suggested, it has become a very long drawn process. The dealer told me that I could persue the Lemon but they'd do me better, no charge for mileage. I like many of the features on LaX, but wanted H-arm and no sun roof, at that time limited to CXS. After putting multiple people to work doing a national search, they found one in Kansas City. No one was willing to get it here on the east coast. I attempted one more time after talking to rep about special order because of the difficulty I was having. He OKed special order. At that time there were three available, the one in KC, one in Michigan, another in NY, and again not willing to get them so I pursued special order. To move to next step, I don't know how many have their finger in getting the job done, I needed a VIN. I was not getting callback from rep when I expected, within two weeks I was told. A new guy called and said the previous quit. So now I'm trying to cover old ground with new rep, but got VIN and moving to next guy. Now I'm hearing different story. Charge for mileage way beyond what even Lemon allows for and deal uses MSRP to MSRP. I'd eat dealer prep, lose discounts, & pay for current mileage. Lemon here uses mileage from when the problem was recognized and they only get one try at "safety" problems, so definitely run the parallel path of Lemon while GM is making promises. Glad I've got that. It will save me close to $4K.
AFAIK, Magnasteer is not an assist. I had it on Aurora and it was my understanding that it was to help stabilize steering effort according to speed. The main input to the system was vehicle speed. It basically did what was adjustable on town cars a few years back. You could set how much resistance to turning of the steering wheel occurred at highway speeds. That is if you hit something on road surface that might normally causes a tug at the steering wheel, you could adjust such road effects out so that you did not feel such hand fatiguing bumps. Another way to look at it is that at highway speeds it aids in keeping the steering wheel where you are holding it, not by applying more PS, but resisting the change from its current location.
Comments
Yesterday the drivers door refused to open (locked or unlocked). If locked it will unlock when you pull on the handle but will not open the door. Works from inside handle OK. All other doors work OK.
Anyone else experience this problem.
I have Regal which is rated at 30mpg highway and got about 28mpg on mostly highway trip. I dont think anything is wrong with the car because I wasnt able to maintain cruise control due to traffic and I ran into heavy traffic for the last 50+ miles of the trip. If I could've cruised at 65-70 with moderate traffic I could've gotten 30mpg.
EDIT: Thanks to Google I see I confused the CHINESE transmission with the USA Engine.
Key is the cast metal(looks like cast iron) heavy support e.g. H-arm actually looks like an "H" IMO. It does keep the car on the ground with a firm but not bouncy ride.
Good for handling with the stability control and the wide(8") rims and 18" tires. Ours has 235 50V 18" Michelin radials with alloy wheels- makes for excellent road car. Just enough road/engine noise for feedback but overall a most quiet car.
1)Final drive ratio of 2.77 vs. 3.34 will raise RPM's ~20% with drop in MPG.
2)Use of ethanol in fuel with lower efficiency drops MPG- use major brands only.
Higher mileage with mid-grade and premium may support this argument.
3)Tire air pressure has some effect so check pressure monitor on both cars.
4)Driver habits; such as use of cruise control, manual shift, not using A/C
recirculation mode and speed fluctuation may be the biggest single factor that is
hard to diagnose IMO.
The majority of of posters are getting the EPA numbers, at least. Our CXL with 3.0L
V-6 gets 29 MPG at 75 and peaks at 32 (65-70MPH) on flat level road. The 3.0 & 3.6 have same stroke with different bore, so RPM's s/b close if final drive ratio is the same. Ours is set up for maximum mileage NOT low end speed (i.e. 4.11 and 4.56 positraction rear ends in our cars of old). IMO, dealers will have a hard time addressing the factors above without the drivers involvement.
Good luck and enjoy the new car- we love ours and appreciate all the posts.
Crankee 9-18-2010
I bought a 2010 CXS manufactured in June 2010. The Bluetooth is incompletely implemented. Contacts are supposed to download automatically as the phone pairs to the car. They are then easily available to select for simplified calling. The reality is that it doesn't work. You are given a 40 Meg HDD but there is no process for storing contacts and using them from there. GM employees are poorly trainind on their products and this alone will prevent them from ever catching Lexus..they can't even stay even with Ford and its Synch system.
If anyone has a third party solution (new firmware?), I'd love to hear it. My phone is a Blackberry Storm 2 on Verizon. The car has the Nav system and Onstar.
What any organization needs is:
1. Top down desire for Perfect Service. That has to be the goal eventhough it may never be acheived. You got to have management make it a priority and measure it.
2. Individuals need to see a complaining customer as an Opportunity to create a Loyal Customer.
3. Individuals need to OWN the problem brought to them. No buck passing.
4. There has to be accountability throughout the organization. All levels need to be measured and graded. If you're not Perfect, you must improve each quarter or face consequences.
I see GM failing on ALL of this. They seem to have a lot of company in American business.
Thoughts? and please indicate if you are employed at GM
Thanks
What I've known as the H-arm for many years has a third member known as a trailing link to stabilize the wheel laterally. Take the H and turn it sideways. The bar in the middle is an assembly attached to the frame and the 4 arms of the H pivot vertically about that fixed point. Each side of the vehicle will have a fore and aft arm. To set toe, if adjustment is available, there might be an eccentric bushing at the fore or aft arm in the center attachments. Or as I observed unter 09 Impala, the aft arms were threaded and adjusted like tie rod ends on the front of a vehicle.
Vehicles that I know had this configuration are the older Ford Tempo and Taurus. The Classic body Olds Aurora, '95-99. and 09 Impala.
The fuss about the Regal being autobahn makes me wonder if it will ride and handle as well as the Aurora. It was available in an autobahn version which had only three vehicle changes. 1) no speed limiter in the computer, 2) replace H rated tires with V, & 3) a slightly higher final drive ratio. None of these would effect the ride and handling. So, in my gut, I get the feeling the Regal is autobahn worthy like a VW is compared to a Benz. The Aurora being closer to the Benz. Next time I'm by the dealer I might have my salesman roll one out for me.
Thanks,
Jeannine
Jeannine Fallon
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2015 Kia Soul, 2021 Subaru Forester (kirstie_h), 2024 GMC Sierra 1500 (mr. kirstie_h)
Review your vehicle
Make, model, size, weight & speed ratings, etc.
Most Buicks I've seen on the lot have Michelin and I can't remember any of that brand for cars being noisy.
>First, the dealer should have handled it, not tell me to
Your tone is showing hostility. The dealer IS handling it. They ordered a visor.
>what is this about not being able to get parts because of GM reorganization.
Sounds reasonable to me. Why don't you give the item order a couple of weeks for the replacements to show up. They are probably ordered from a company which supplies the original parts for interiors, perhaps Johnson Controls. Those companies build parts to order and assembly procession to arrive just-in-time. The parts come off the truck in the order for that color, that fabric, to meet up with the vehicle as its skillet gets to the right point on the assembly line an hour or more later. The companies probably do service parts resupply at odd times in their production schedule.
>I think I made a mistake in my purchase. (A $35,000 mistake.)
I can't find much sympathy with the kvetching over a sun visor. I'd recommend selling the car or trading it for a Honda Accord. You'll love it.
2014 Malibu 2LT, 2015 Cruze 2LT,
I have two dealers near me and went from the selling dealer to the other dealer simply because I could not get satisfaction out of the selling dealer.
I still have two problems that remain:
1. A kind of grinding sound from my steering. I only hear it ocassionally and usually when turning at a very low speed (backing out of the garage for example). This has been discussed here and apparently GM is aware of it and a fix is being developed. At this time I do not think this is a dangerous problem.
2. When going very slow up an incline and trying to speed up the cart does not respond. Seems to be a problem of downshifting. Does not downshift to pick up speed unless one really hits the accellerator. Once I realized what was happening I have changed my driving practice to overcome the problem
Waiting for further information on these.
It is a new model of a car and I didn't expect everything to work absolutely perfect. It is like anything else if you buy a new model expect some problems until the kinks are worked out. This is understandable to me.
I love the car and think it is as good as anything on the market in this price range (and better than many in more expensive ranges).
Does tapping the brake pedal just enough to disengage the torque converter lockup help the sensation you're getting? That's what I've done with the 4T60E and 4T65E transmission in my 2 leSabres. Even though the slippage never totally locks up, it's as though the computer is relucatant to increase the slip ratio enough to help the engine power because it's protecting the gas mileage; when the brake switch engages the light, the torque converter clutch lets go and the engine speeds up a factor of 20% or so. That greatly helps the response.
2014 Malibu 2LT, 2015 Cruze 2LT,
I find them quiet but at 1900 miles, I do not have any experience as to cold weather traction
http://www.gm.com/handsfree/index.jsp?brand=buick&landing=true
I had not used that email and left it with defaults which apparently filters everything as spam from those not on my list. I changed that today.
Softer rubber means stickier rubber to a degree, but the lower noise means less mileage.
2014 Malibu 2LT, 2015 Cruze 2LT,
I bought my 2011 CXS with the built-in NAV but I must confess I like my Magellan Roadmate 1475T much better, at least for the time being. The GM system is unnecessarily complicated are and primitive by modern GPS standards. Its Highway Lane Assist is not as realistic looking as the Garmin or Magellan and its maps are confusing especially the traffic circles (rotaries) and major roadways that are displayed in black and white rather than in color. Furthermore, it does not always provide an optimal route like the Magellan and it does not always display the side streets along the route. However, the XM/Serious traffic in the Lacrosse is way better than the Roadmate's but that cost $3.99 a month while the Magellan’s is free.
In retrospect paying $1,995 for GM's GPS was a big waste of money. The car already comes with OnStar and with my portable Magellan Roadmate that's more guidance than I will ever need. So right now I am using the Roadmate as a back-up but primarily for its AAA TourBook and POIs features. OnStar offers the same service but sometimes I like to do it myself rather than ask an OnStar advisor or page through GM's complicated menu system.
At first, the road noise from the tires was a bit annoying but now I have gotten used to it, I hardly hear the road noise anymore. Besides, I have found a sweet spot by driving in Sport Mode every chance I get.
For best results, I recommend tire pressure at 35 psi
The term RFB seems to have been basterdized a bit.
As to matching the wheel to tire relative to high spots, that is not new. The first I became aware of such was when Cadillac took a Chevrolet Citation and duded it up and dubbed it the Cimaron. I believe that had 13" wheels. And the purpose was for a smoother ride.
Many tire manufacturers from that time on have marked their tires with something to indicate the high spot. Sometimes it was a dot of varying colors which might come off with first washing or after a few thousand miles. If it was not marked, it told me that some quality lacked.
The OE wheels have also been marked since shortly after that. That is with the first of such tires you would have had to spin the bare wheel looking for the high spot and then mount the tire accordingly. Such marks are on the inside of the wheel.
So now you have a much better shot at getting the assembly to balance in such a way you feel less vibration on the road.
But if anyone has the exact scoop on what the dot on wheel and tire is, I'd appreciate the feedback. Depending upon who you talked to, it was the high spot on tire or wheel which would mean mouting the tire and wheel dots opposite each other, or they would say tire and wheel dot need to be aligned as if on one it was the high spot and the other the low spot.
And then there were those that would say that the tire and wheel were separately spun to locate the heavy spot or point of highest centrifugal force.
Obviously there are many never properly trained, especially those that say it does not matter about lining up the marks.
Balance matters! I've even seen recommendations that when pulling drive components such as rotors, drums, shafts, that they be marked so as to assemble as they came apart. Also applies if you disassemble a drive shaft to replace u-joint or CV joint. (If doing a CV joint on a RWD, (main shaft) mark the intermediary as to which end of it mounts to shaft and which end goes toward tranny or differential and if doing all joints mark the main shaft as to front and rear.
RFB continued in following post.
2017 Cadillac ATS Performance Premium 3.6
I've heard various stories on what this actually is.
You said two road pressures were in use. There may only be two or maybe they have refined it a bit more.
What I've considered a quite reliable tire source told me the vehicle is looked up in a chart and the prescribed force for that vehicle is dialed into the machine.
Of course there are a few presumptions that this all works out well, your vehicle is in good shape relating to suspension and the tire is inflated to the prescribed pressure.
Now I mention an area in the steps that was not made absolutely clear. You suggest that once the tire and wheel points are matched, it is a normal spin balance. I would suspect that was true prior to the special RFB machine.
I have presumed it was more advanced with newer machines as what was described to me was the weight on tire was maintained through high speed spin allowing the computer to calculate for what is actually happening on the road.
Or in essence doing what was far more common during 50's and 60's and known as a high speed on the vehicle balance. As labor prices moved higher it fell out of favor except by those wanting this premium balancing because it could easily take an hour of machine time. Some of you may have seen them. The wheel/tire to be balanced was jacked and let down on a machine that just spun the wheel. (Today that would seem wrong because you would not get accurate reading with the extra force on "that" wheel because the spinning machine would keep it elevated relative to the other three corners of vehicle.)
Mounted like a hub cap was a disk that had a protruding spindle which had about four weights/discs of steel on it. They were stacked next to each other and often had an identifying color. Usually the mechanic felt and observed their action and from that he decided where and how much weight to add to the wheel. He must have had some magic in his fingers.
In more stubborn cases I saw the use of a strobe light added to the mix.
On a recent visit to tire shop, I asked if they used RFB machine. They told me they had a much better machine. That it worked off lasers measuring many points of the tire for high and low spots. The measurements were done with no road force applied.
That sounds good assuming no density variations anywhere on the tire with respect to circumference. And that would be making a perfect carcass everytime before the tread is added.
I hope with your knowledge you can give some input to that method.
"Looking for the perfect balance."
Or is this used for troubleshooting purposes to locate a tire that is really a bad one?
For years when new tires are installed they try to put the worst balance in a position so that it is less noticeable. But that is out the window as soon as you have a rotation.
That is not how the recall worked on my Aurora and I would find that useless. Part of the reason for the recall is to be able to have the seat self adjust while you are preparing other things for the drive.
I think the memory was non-functional when the vehicle was in gear which is OK for safety, but if it was initiated before being in gear, it would continure its positioning. That is what I'd want.
It sort of makes me wonder if they are promoting XM. But then I have no idea as to what is current circuit design. Are the audio amplication stages still analog? If so, then it should be easy to feed the decoded AM & FM analog signals. They may be using a low quality chip to do the work. Gone are the days where you had several tightly tuned circuits amplifying the signal before decoding.
And I'd bet the quality of the transmitted signal has gotten better because of improved parts and FCC regulations preventing spurious transmission. It saves on wasted power in the signal. Yet the station might be trying to trim its signal for longer range at less power.
The bandwidth of the signal is such that you should be able to get 0-22KHz per channel (stereo FM). Higher frequencies might be attenuated more during the transmission but could be compensated on the receiving end, some anyway. With the stations using CD for source, you should be receiving CD quality signal when the reception is clean.
Is the RIA, recording industry of America, forcing radio stations to use compromised CD so they can sell more of them? I'd bet XM has to pay them fee. They'd like nothing better than PPV, pay per view, on everything.
Will AM/FM eventually go digital? And will that signal require deficiencies? Example: nearly all music download sites sell you a greatly compromised version of a CD. Part of it is about bandwidth for the transmission, so they use a lossy method of compression. MP3 is common and often at a bit rate of 128Kb/sec or less. I can easily hear the difference between that an often up to bit rates 225Kb/sec. Further, they seldom use the full 48KHz alloted for digital stereo audio signal, 0 - 24KHz per channel. There are those that will argue the human can not hear a 24KHz tone, but tests have shown that we are able to perceive that it is missing when listening to test signals.
Luckily, when it comes to TV, they allotted each station enough bandwidth, now being used as alternate channels by a transmitter, say 11-1 as HD, + 11-2 & 11-3. Although the current highest resolution from OTA, over the air, is 1080i, with a updated transmitter they can easily transmit 1080p.
Why the sudden move to digital TV? Certainly the government had an input, they wanted frequencies for analog TV channels 2-6 for other/emergency communications. Just above channel 6 frequency lies the FM band. Because these lower frequencies are better for range, I'd bet the days of the FM band are numbered.
To sum up, I'm not sure that GM is able to do anything about the poor reception of AM & FM signals. If you learn otherwise, I'll happily jump on your band wagon.
Sorry for the long wandering.
Again, will the AM band eventually go digital or be shifted to different frequencies because of government need?
I'm tired of these endless hits on the pocket book. electric and gas are what they are except for taxes. Telephone, cell phone, cable, dish, etc. are all trying to find ways to extract greater amounts of money from the consumer. Until the little fellow with the RIA who helped Sony push Blu-Ray on to industry, such as BlockBuster that filed for bankruptcy yesterday, I will resist until he wins what he wants and then I'll likely spend my money on other entertainment.
(PS - the alternative was HD-DVD which was extremely close to Blu-Ray. Also recording machines were cheap. Try to find a Blu-Ray recorder and its recording is very limited because of all the anti-copy/piracy code built in.)
It sounds as if the noise complaint could be due to a small amount of air in the system. There had been a procedure for eliminating it. This usually popped up when some component in the sytem was changed, but in this case from new. It required jacking the front, no weight on wheels, and slowly cycling the steering from limit to limit several times.
I have 09 Malibu LT2, I-4, AT-6. I find it quiet enough, actually amazingly quiet at day one, but it is time to clean and relube door seals hoping it is the source of some noise starting to show at passenger door.
I must ask which model you have and what tires are on it that you find it much quieter than the CXS. Mine came with plain Firestone 710 M/S passenger even though the sticker said touring tires. They are P215/55R-17 93S. Vehicle handles dangerously poor and suspect tires are part of issue.
I've been shopping since January and at that time the CXL & CXS showed H-arm as standard. Only the base model had 4-link. So I was planning on CXL. Suddenly the H-arm totally disappeared from the site. About mid-year it came back as an option(M&M, more money) on the CXS only. Now for 2011 it appears to be available on CXL FWD as well and maybe required for AWD. The AWD was why, I assumed, that there was a different, better suspension used on the CXL & CXS in the first place and the 4-link was limited to the base model. With these changes, especially on AWD, I have to wonder if they used 4-link on some AWD or it was just errors in what was/is available.
I've been looking under vehicles on lot trying to verify what actually is. My last visit, both 2011, CXL that sticker said it had touring with H-arm had the same exact rear suspension as CXS next to it without touring package. Does Buick know what it is building?
Please Verify?
I was told GM would do a buy back as long as I agreed to buy another GM and after looking at many vehicles I decided to give LaX a try. Looking on many lots and contacting many farther away lots and adding to the mix of changes on the Buick build it site, checking with people the GM customer satisfaction rep suggested, it has become a very long drawn process. The dealer told me that I could persue the Lemon but they'd do me better, no charge for mileage. I like many of the features on LaX, but wanted H-arm and no sun roof, at that time limited to CXS. After putting multiple people to work doing a national search, they found one in Kansas City. No one was willing to get it here on the east coast. I attempted one more time after talking to rep about special order because of the difficulty I was having. He OKed special order. At that time there were three available, the one in KC, one in Michigan, another in NY, and again not willing to get them so I pursued special order.
To move to next step, I don't know how many have their finger in getting the job done, I needed a VIN.
I was not getting callback from rep when I expected, within two weeks I was told. A new guy called and said the previous quit. So now I'm trying to cover old ground with new rep, but got VIN and moving to next guy. Now I'm hearing different story. Charge for mileage way beyond what even Lemon allows for and deal uses MSRP to MSRP. I'd eat dealer prep, lose discounts, & pay for current mileage. Lemon here uses mileage from when the problem was recognized and they only get one try at "safety" problems, so definitely run the parallel path of Lemon while GM is making promises.
Glad I've got that. It will save me close to $4K.
The main input to the system was vehicle speed.
It basically did what was adjustable on town cars a few years back. You could set how much resistance to turning of the steering wheel occurred at highway speeds. That is if you hit something on road surface that might normally causes a tug at the steering wheel, you could adjust such road effects out so that you did not feel such hand fatiguing bumps.
Another way to look at it is that at highway speeds it aids in keeping the steering wheel where you are holding it, not by applying more PS, but resisting the change from its current location.
That is unless they have redesigned it.