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Comments
You already have an Enclave? How is that possible? I'm guessing you must have meant Envoy - especially with the comments about loading it up with building materials.
Too bad the local dealership isn't even taking orders for them right now.
Why can't you order one? I read a story stating that dealers had already ordered 6000 of them.
Drove an "all optioned" version for over an hour.
Very impressed. Slightly (once or twice) confused transmission (not so bad as to dissuade, though.) Needs a bit more torque (also not so lethargic as to dissuade.)
Ask the question about bluetooth -- for we had not yet visited this forum.
The answer was "no but you can plug in an MP3 player."
:confuse:
Further probing -- "use On*star."
My last Audi had On*star -- I might take it were it 1/4th the cost. Might not.
The laws here in Ohio still permit the use of non hands and eyes free phones. This very fact is certainly enough to make me believe we will be adding a hands free phoning law to the books sooner rather than later.
Both our 2005 cars have hands free phoning, mine has full voice response and hers has a screen that shows the phone book and allows the push of a button on the steering wheel to select -- our current cars have phone cradles and therefore we do not have to look at or touch our phones while driving.
One would think a car, the Acadia, so obviously well thought out and competitive (in most ways) with the world would have bluetooth.
Even were the car 10% lower in price (as tempting as this car would be at $40K), no bluetooth, well, not on the list.
My wife is an attorney -- she needs the phone while driving. She pulls over when she talks on the phone in a car that does not have bluetooth (if she is the driver) -- the Acadia is, despite claims to the contrary, "not professional grade" in this area.
If you don't plan to phone and drive -- this thing is great as the reviews say. It seems to be priced right and yesterday the residual was 60% for 3 years.
What were they thinking? :confuse:
I'm sure they are pre-prod models. I've been told that they are all over GM's Tech Center.
I doubt that will happen in Ohio. The attorneys up in Columbus couldn't even get an anti-redlight camera/speed camera law through after trying for TWO years! Imagine how they'll fold to the phone lobbies if they try to ban phones in hand... I live in Ohio.
How much extra would built in phone capability have cost per vehicle? Perhaps it will be added midyear.
I just checked for adding Bluetooth capability. Looks like easily done aftermarketers. See this portable Bluetooth unit--wait for the commercial to run in the video window at top. Interestingly simple. Got Bluetooth?
2014 Malibu 2LT, 2015 Cruze 2LT,
If you want to use your personal phone I believe you have to use Verizon and it works as I said as above.
I kind of agree with you about the GM options available...I think GM is really pushing their On-Star option...kind of self serving I think.
New CTS (rumor) by Cadillac will come with Bluetooth for European exports. 6 months later, BT for US.
BT provides so much flexibility, ease of use, easy commands (mostly just say "dial number" or "call home" in most implementations, etc) -- On*star with Verizon -- hey that would be OK with us, we have Cincinnati Bell which allows you to use their systems without contract, so moving to Verizon would not be an issue.
But, of course, Verizon almost certainly will not allow the same no contract approach.
My BT phone paired with my car in June 2005 within seconds of me turning the BT feature on -- on the phone itself.
The voice response works perfectly (about 98% of the time.)
And the in car cradle means no battery worries.
The Acadia seems to be so very well thought out -- and with a 60% residual from GMAC -- it seems to be competitive with BMW's X cars.
The Germans, so I used to think, were always late in adopting technologies that American and Japanese cars had had for years (automatic headlights were on American cars decades ago, for example.) Now a really well thought out piece of technology comes out -- the Acadia -- and it lacks Bluetooth but it has an iPod plug (which in our case means little since the thing has sat radio.)
I'll assume this "oversight" will be short lived.
But, the fact (unless it is unproven) that the new 2008 CTS will ship BT to Europe for 6 months THEN offer it to US customers is perplexing.
Hope you're right about Ohio -- but strange things may happen, I'd rather be ready than ticketed. :surprise:
I agree. While this should have been an option, the Onstar alliance seems to complicate matters. And it's way to expensive to use Onstar for even a moderate cell phone user.
But it's amazingly simple to add Bluetooth these days. They have all-in-one units that you charge like an earpiece and clip to your visor. Works with voice dialing. The Parrot minikit has gotten great reviews and I'll probably be getting one soon (I don't work for parrot, I just did some reasearch and this one looks good for the price). Spend more $$ and you can get even better
http://www.parrot.biz/usa/products/parrotminikit
As for OnStar, they gave me an analogue system on my 03 and then everything will be phased out to digital but it's not upgradeable and it's too expensive per month for what it did. Mine's dead. Is OnStar a separate company or a GM subsidiary? What is the connection?
And the Verizon connection using your Verizon-priced minutes on the OnStar handsfree wasn't available in this area and probably wouldn't have worked on our analogue system.
2014 Malibu 2LT, 2015 Cruze 2LT,
Note, I have only used On-Star one time, so I guess it has been worth it...car wash somehow got the doors locked and was suggesting calling Pop-A-Lock, etc. I called the wife and she found the renewal papers, called On-Star and within 5 minutes had the doors remotely unlocked. Well, it would have been cheaper to have the wife bring her keys and unlock it, but it does have some potential benefit if you even need their emergency services such as air bag deployment, locate vehicle if stolen, etc.
Looking at the On-Star site, it looks as if On-Star is part of GM, site show ON-STAR by GM.
(Apparently if you have let your On-Star lapse, there is a $100 activation fee to get the upgrade.)
Alternate is to do a 2 year renewal and get 3 additional months free, not sure how that affects the digital upgrade. IIRC, I asked about the digital upgrade 2 years ago and was told that if you paid for it, it would run about $600.
If you get past my sarcasm, you can see that bluetooth is a matter of convenience. The bluetooth headset is "always on", i.e. no need to fumble around for a cord and plug it in if your phone rings. And carrying a cord in your pocket becomes a huge tangled mess. And you can answer a call without having to actually use the phone keypad.
That said, factory bluetooth in car is even better, since aftermarket solutions are a pain to integrate into your stereo system and speakers if you want full functionality through your stereo/nav. You'll also have issues of cords dangling all over if you do it the cheap way.
NY Metro area dealers have 5 max each, with some having NONE. Where are they all hiding, Wyoming?
I've only seen one on the road around here and that was a good month ago or more.
I don't claim to be a math wiz, but geez...ya think somebody
is tinkering with the numbers??? I dunno
and I doubt there's 1,000 total....there's probably 2 in all of Montana and Idaho combined.... maybe they're all in Detroit and Lansing 'cause they sure aren't around here....
Now how many did they sell in Dec, Jan, and Mar....add it all up and all I'm saying is I'm not seeing too many in a major metro area....MHO
If you have car seats in second row of the Acadia (with the bench seat), can you slide seat forward w/o tilt to access third row? Doesn't seem like it to me....thxs
So as you can see, the odds of seeing one is nearly impossible. For those who have seen an Acadia, consider yourselves lucky ;-)
That is if you have 2 car seats. One car seat fits perfectly on the 40% side and allowsthe 60% sidetoslide and bend for access to the third row.
If you need to carry two car seats get the capt chairsand you have the pass through between them to get to the third row.
Especially today when I watched a women basically actlike a peeping tom trying to check out the Acadia.
There are 5 Buick dealers here in Boise (metro population about 400,000).
I haven't seen a single Enclave or Acadia, but I don't get out that much.
And you won't understand until you try it. You would like it if you did. And it's ridiculous and a little shallow to indict everyone who has it as a poser. Class envy at it's best.
Even were the car 10% lower in price (as tempting as this car would be at $40K), no bluetooth, well, not on the list
Sure built-in bluetooth is nice and I wish these cars had it, but a pretty minor issue. I also usually use the phone through most of my 45-min commute talking to clients. Since I wasn't going to replace my 2000 Denali yet just to get built-in bluetooth, I just shopped around for a high-quality bluetooth headset (granted in took me 6 tries to get one with great sound in both directions). If your phone and headset don't do voice-activated dialing yet, I am sure your next one will. My phone doesn't even come out of my purse while I just hit a button on my earpiece to make voice-activated calls or hangup.
While I have used the speaker-type system when talking to On-Star, in some ways I prefer the earpiece which isn't interfered with by passengers making a little noise, and I can still listen to the radio while I am on hold.
Choosing a car for bluetooth capability is about like choosing it for available colors; a pretty minor issue in the great scheme of things (also consider with things like bluetooth and Nav, the technology will probably improve a lot before you trade your car, or your next device might not be compatible with your car) so sometimes you are going to be sorry you spent the money on it anyway).
speaker system when listening to compact discs? Is the 5.1 system's impact soley for DVDs?
Why can't Buick allow us to purchase both the navigation system and the six disc in dash CD changer? If you want the nav. system you can only listen to one disc at a time or at least that is my understanding. Any comments are appreciated as we are considering an order for the Enclave.
Thank you
There is nothing about BT that is "cool" -- it is a safety feature for those who use their phones while in their cars for business purposes. For those who really don't need to use a phone in a car it is also a safety feature but it further adds convenience to the mix of its attributes.
As to a BT unit that never needs charging -- well what does it operate on, solar power?
The Acadia has a really cool feature (also all but invisible), the heads up display. Never having driven a car with it for any length of time, I didn't know what to expect. After an hour in the Acadia, I see it too as another subtle safety feature. I could keep my eyes "looking where they should." This technology, cool as it may be, is not about being a shot big or otherwise, it is another nod to safety IMHO.
The Acadia needs BT -- at its price point and option availability it needs auto wipers too. I'd be willing to bet if this is GMC's "version 1," that we are likely to see this vehicle have quite a few "cool" features and content items added in the very near future.
Bi-xenons will surely be added, for instance; ditto rear camera and the list will grow and grow.
They've got a winner on their hands with this one. :shades:
I second that. I bought my 03 GM car because my wife made me; my 93 ran just fine. The option packages included HUD which I felt was insignificant. However it is neat to use and increases safety.
2014 Malibu 2LT, 2015 Cruze 2LT,
I crack myself up.
One thing they can do, is to offer it in a mainstream car like the new malibu.
For a short time we had 2 car seats and a booster in our Tahoe. It worked fine with the two car seats on the larger side. Granted they were not the newer "latch" install models and fastened with the seatbelts.
I'm contemplating walking into the dealer, car seats in hand to test, but I think that might be pushing it :surprise:
The inside one would have to use the safety belt. The LATCH system would have to be disconnectedanytime you movethe 40% otherwise.