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Upon impact, I was thrown forward, My head smashing into the windshield. The front airbag deployed into my chest keeping me from connecting more forcefully with the windshield. My wife was wearing her seatbelt and she incurred a broken foot and kneecap from the collision.
The Maxx is totalled, but I would like to comend the engineers of GM for providing a strong vehicle that took this much damage and kept me from receiving a more serious injury.
Our Maxx had only 3500 miles on it when this crash occurred and was very impressed with its performance and am truly amazed at my luck in this accident. I haven't had a chance to see the car since the accident, but from what I remember while waiting for the paramedics to get me out, was that the interior was well contained. The was no intrusion into the passenger area from the impact. This was a strong well made car and will continue to drive a GM vehicle.
THANKS GM!!!!!!!!!!!!!1
I work for a company that puts us through a rigorous training on the use of ABS. Prior to this training I had thought that ABS was a bother. I'd grown up like most everyone else using standard brakes and thought I had mastered stopping my car with them. Now I think differently. Many people are not familiar with the vibration that ABS brakes give off and frankly it scares them when they first activate the system. For those of you who have never experienced this please I beg of you go out on an open road at about 35-40 mph and slam down your foot on the brakes. (Warning! remove any loose items from your cargo space for they will be thrown around a bit. You may also want to do this on your own. Passengers don't enjoy this as much as a driver does. Something about being in control of the steering wheel.) It's important to fully activate the ABS and keep the pedal down all the way until the car is completely stopped. This ABS is computer activated and if you pull up on the break once it has activated it will take 2-3 seconds for the computer to allow you to re-apply the ABS system. Thus in case of an accident you would loose 2-3 seconds of ABS breaking time before collision. I was told by the professional driving instructor at the track that it should be mandatory for every ABS new car owner to take a quick test drive and experience what ABS feels like. Too many people are freaked out by the vibration in the brake pedal and pull up. Some collisions can be avoided. From the sounds of SMOKEYJOE’s experience, everything happened too quick to be avoided. Glad to hear you’re alive after that one. Wow!
I’ve got a lot of good ABS advice if anyone wants to hear it. My company spent $2500 on this course and I’ll share some good tips free of charge.
Look for my posting soon.
Disclaimer: be careful! Know you surroundings and don’t push it too far.
Also, my maxx has not been delivered yet so I haven’t tried this in a maxx. I still have my old 2002 Pontiac Grand Prix. (If anyone does try this out or has already done so with their maxx, let me know how it handled)
At the end of this professional drivers training course we were all told to go home and take our spouses out so they could try out the ABS system. My wife wanted nothing to do with this. She says that I’m always looking for a reason to hotrod the family car. She’s right, but I told her that it’s important to know your car in case of an emergency. On that one the course instructor agreed with me. He said that your brain will take over and act instinctively if you’ve practiced or if you know your vehicle prior to an incident. With that said “know thy vehicle”.
Needless to say my wife has yet to test out the ABS brakes. So I took her along for one of my many demo’s and she was not impressed. She was thankful for the education but not the jolting stop. Oh well. Some of you fellow car enthusiasts may enjoy what is to follow. ( I feel like I’m writing for Car and Driver)
ABS is designed to allow you to avoid an accident without fishtailing or spinning out. When the brakes don’t lock up you are in control. I wish I had a video of what we saw at the track. The contrast was unbelievable.
Tip #1 Steering around something while ABS is activated
Please make sure you're on an open road or vacant parking lot for this one. We did this on an old dormant airport runway (lot's of room). Again at 30-45 mph fully engage the brakes (don't be timid, you've got to mash the pedal all the way down and hold it there for it to be most effective). The idea now is to steer around an imaginary object. Remember ABS brakes will allow you to steer around the object without locking up your brakes and spinning out of control. I've done this at 60mph in down pouring rain. After activating the ABS I swerved from the #1 lane, into the #2 lane, then back into my original lane, then came to a complete stop. No fishtailing or sliding around at all. This was very impressive to me. ABS allows you to concentrate on avoiding an accident and steering through safely. You might take this slowly and just test out swerving around a little at first, not necessarily from lane to lane like I did. My wife is always worried that this will put us in a slide or roll the car. So if that is a worry you have then take it easy. For me it was just nice to know the capabilities of my vehicle.
From experience, you may want to only do this two or three times then give it a rest. I don’t know there is something about the jolting and vibrating that goes on that makes me think it can’t be all that good for your car. Since most of your cars are brand new maybe you should take it easy on them. I don’t want to get any hate mail. So don’t over do it and break your car.
Tip #2 Look where you want to steer.
Instinctively you’re car will go where you are looking.
Most people look at the tree or telephone poll as they are skidding toward it. And they hit what they are looking at. He said to look for an escape route and steer your car there. Avoid looking at anything else. That’s what he teaches the race car drivers to do when they are driving through a crash. Oh yeah when this crew isn’t teaching corporate America how to drive they are employed by NASCAR as their trainers. Cool huh!
Enough for today!
Let me know if any of this is helpful or interesting to any of you. Be safe out there and enjoy driving!
As soon as I get my 2005 Light Driftwood LS Maxx I’ll let all of you know.
kcram
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Smart Shopper and Wagons Message Boards
Glad to hear you and yours are ok, Joe!
kcram
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Smart Shopper and Wagons Message Boards
islandpete: let us know what they say about the brakes. Also: your hatch is working perfectly. It opens, but when you close your driver's door, the hatch moves and re-engages, forcing you to use the fob or the latch button once again. Since the car is so airtight, the force of the door closing causes the air inside the car to move the hatch door. Try using the button and then leaving the driver's door open. It will lift open. It is simply the electric lock on the hatch reacting to the movement of the hatch one air is pushed through the interior of the car.
Another option is to just leave it on period--the battery power management system will automatically switch the light off about 20 minutes after the engine is shut down.
I'm reluctant to leave the dome light all the time because it's irritating to drive particularly at night with the light on full-time. I may have to check with my dealer service department for resolution.
The label on my car said that it was a U.S. engine, so I at least know that it wasn't built in Mexico. So what plant(s) in the U.S. produce it?
Although it looks like they need to update it since it doesn't reflect even the 2004 powertrain line-up like you noticed. Since the 3.5 V6 (LX9) is in same family as the 3.4 V6 (LA1) I think this engine can either be built in same locations
Assembly Site:
Ramos Arizpe, Mexico
Tonawanda, NY
If yours says U.S. built then my guess would be there (in Tonawanda, NY).
Under the seats (early versions)
In the rear hatch (trim)
In the rear skylight (trim/shades)
In the B pillars (Seat belt mechanism)
In the instrument cowl (wiring).
Yes, they can be a bear to find.
Wrt rear hatch, you may find it a bit harder to close after being heated by the sun. Aluminum expands differently than steel. And it is very common for the hatch to half-relatch itself when the main doors are opened and closed.
Wrt huge rear C (rear) pillars, this may be to help chassis rigidity, especially around the rear hatch. There is no "cross vehicle" brace in the Maxx ...vs... the Sedan's overhead trunk strut.
I ment leave the cargo area/hatch light on constantly, not the passenger area overhead dome light.
Sorry 'bout that.
MadMaxx
When dome light switch is in center (automatic) position, the dome lights and front map lights are activated when 1) key is removed from ignition, 2) when one or all doors are unlocked with the fob, or 3) when any side door is open. The dome light/map lights will stay on as long as any side door is open, until battery run down feature turns them off. If all the side doors are closed (locked or unlocked), the lights will theater dim after about 20 seconds.
So, if you want the dome lights on when you open hatch, you can either hit the unlock button on the fob every 20 seconds, or open any side door.
To recap, during the day, The Info Display (part of the radio) lights up when the key first goes in the ignition and set to "run". But once started, the display dims somewhat as soon as the engine is running. The display stays this brightness until I turn off the engine, at which point it "brightens up" again (and displays the clock) until I open the door at which point the display goes out.
kurtamaxxguy. It almost sounds like your vehicle is running in "nighttime" mode even during the day which would indicate a problem. I hope when you mean daytime you aren't talking early morning when the sun is still low on the horizon.
Next time this is occuring (maybe just the next time you are driving in daylight) try these 2 things. 1) Rotate the dimmer switch and see if the intensity of the DIC changes (it shouldn't in daytime) and 2) Take a hold of your left stalk switch and rotate the knob to the momentary position and release. The will turn Auto Lamps OFF and will result in a 3 bong chime and a message in DIC saying Auto Lights OFF.
But the reason to do this is to see if you DIC gets brighter. If it does, and if you are really in daytime (and not in morning or evening with sun low on horizon) then I suggest you might want to have dealer check out your automatic light system and see if something is wrong with the sensor or wiring.
I'm sorry I didn't read your story sooner. I am so glad you and your wife survived the accident.
I don't post very often, but I work at the GM Fairfax Assembly Plant where the new Malibu is built, and I think your story would be very inspiring to all the hard workers here.
Could you please contact me via e-mail?
triedntru1@hotmail.com
Thanks,
Dave
One worrying note....I've noted the maxx power steering is now getting "nervous" when the vehicle is waiting at stoplights. What happens is in some wheel positions, one can feel a faint pulsing of the steering wheel, as if the power servo is trying to find a rest position. Moving the wheel slightly usually stops this. Hopefully it is not a symptom of an earlier recall of 2004 Malibus with contaminated power steering connections !!
In regards to the steering, I don't remember any of your other posts but do you know when your vehicle was built? There are 2 different "zeroing" procedures that dealers do when a steering column is replaced in a vehicle and if yours was ever changed out perhaps one of those procedures was not done.
I mentioned previously, the "t" (that was next to the "L" fell off & the dealer got one in for me. Problem is that it was one piece, "LS". So the dealer removed the remaining "t" now I only have "V6" left on the trunk. I assume the correct part will be in shortly.
My only regret was buying in early April when the rebate was only $1000 at that time & I opted for 0 financing. So I ended up after dealer discount of around $1600 paying $24,000. Seems like now I could have done much better.
Still, in all of my travels I have only seen a few MAXX's out there. I did see some 05's at the dealer today & they have the rear windshield wiper with spoiler. But, the spoiler not really necessary, at least for my driving. Every month or so I put Rain X on rear window & it probably helps but even without it no problem keeping it clean.
OTOH, the city mileage amazes me...26 MPG in stop and go driving with a dozen or so red lights along the 8 mile commute to my place of business.
BTW, the above figures are my own actual calculations, not the trip computer's. (It usually shows about 1 - 2 MPG higher, as already mentioned in this forum).
One worrysome trend, though, is the power steering. I have noticed it is getting jittery, especially if I make right hand turns. I can feel it pulse if I turn the wheel slowly to the right. Has anyone else here had a similar problem?