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Comments
AWD might be a good selling point if you live in the snow-belt. Otherwise, I'm not sure that the typical SUV buyer will care. More and more luxury cars are coming with AWD, so people who buy these cars might expect it. But I wouldn't consider the Acadias "luxurious" at this point: the Denali will probably the luxury model.
Be sure you are going online to your card account and filling out "GM vehicle preferences". I just got a coupon for $1000 off an Acadia or $1500 off a Yukon. This is apparently in addition to any rebates and GM Card Earnings. I am pretty sure it came from GM Card data, because of the way my name is written on the coupon.
This is a lot better than a grocery store coupon!
I don't know how often they send these (I may be a target because I haven't used the GM dollars since 2001), but it is clearly targeted towards what I have put on my preferences.
Anyway, it's worth a shot in case they send something you need.
To date, the leading candidate is a Mazda CX9. It looks sharp, and has just about every toy that I am looking for. This biggest problem is that the closest dealer is about 40-minutes away. There is a GMC/Buick dealer less than 2 miles away - so I ike that. I looked at a GMC Acadia tonight. It was nice, and I loved the 2nd row captains chairs for ease of access to the 3rd row. But overall, the Acadia didn't excite me as much as the Mazda CX9.
Some of the features that I have come to like are bluetooth, backup camera, iPod connectivity, second row captains chairs (rather than a 2nd row bench seat).
I was wondering if any knows if the Buick Enclave will have any of these features as available options?
Thanks in advance!
http://www.autoweek.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070424/FREE/70424001/1004
On the Buypower site, if you select Buick it then lets you select 2008 and then the Enclave. Not many on lots yet but you can price them.
If I really needed to know I would call the kid from the neighborhood that works at the Hummer part of the dealership...he could find out in 5 minutes. (Not really a kid anymore since his wife just had twins. He is probably 25, but I remember his more 10-15 years ago when he was really a kid.
Now, if we can just get people to try it instead of thinking it's 1973 and trying foreign cars. My Terraza has 28,000 miles on it, and is still the BEST car I've owned...I know the Enclave will be even better.
One followup question regarding the captains chairs.... on the buick.com website, it looks like there is a center console between the captains chairs in the second row. This means the only way to get to the 3rd row is to move the seats forward and squeeze through.
I really like the 2nd row captaisn chairs in my minivan, and the way you can go between them to get to the pretty easily 3rd row. I also saw this same configuration the other day in a GMC Acadia.
I was wondering of anyone knows if there will be an option to exclude the console between the second row captains chairs? and if so, if you can then get armrests for the captains chairs?
Thanks in advance.
If you're concerned with a vehicle holding it's value maybe you should check out the BMW or Porsche SUV or maybe a Landrover. After all, certainly if you own one of these vehicles you are perceived "affluent".
As for "luxury", I don't think GMC vehicles are known for their luxury either. Actually, most of the features in the Acadia are identical to those in the Outlook.
GMC has the Denali vehicles, which are well selling luxurious versions of their "lesser" brothers. Saturn has nothing like that. Not sure if the Outlook will get the equivalent of a Denali. If it does, it could be good for Saturn.
You can't be all things to all people, a fact that even Toyota acknowledges with their three brand offerings (Scion, Toyota and Lexus).
There is a survey done by JD Power, a huge company that surveys owners of many different products. For Autos the most germane surveys are the Initial Quality Study (IQS/problems within 3 months) and Vehicle Dependability Study (VDS/problems at 3 years of ownership). Latest data was released for 2006 vehicles.
First is is kinda worthless to look at the Saturn data since all they basically had were a couple older models that were long in the tooth and today all Saturn vehicles are made in the same plants as other GM vehicles.
If we look at the IQS overall we see that the range is from .91 problems per vehicle to 2.04 with an industry average of 1.24. For reference Toyota is at 1.06. In looking at GM mainstream vehicles they range from 1.17 to 1.34. So the worst GM vehicle is less than .3 problems away from the vaunted Toyota. By the way those older Saturns had a 1.29 problems per vehicle. Not a lot of difference. why? All makes have increased their quality and now are basically the same. Basically the average vehicle will have one complaint at 3 months of usage.
For 3 year the data is just about the same except the problems per vehicle range from 1.36 (Lexus) to 3.26 (Saab) with an industry average of 2.27. Toyota is 1.79 and again the GM's are near the industry average (Buick/Cadillac are better than Toyota in this case).
The data shows that most of the industry are merging together with very similar quality attributes. Everyone should be comfortable in using other attributes to make their purchase decision, i.e. price, size, mpg.
You just disagreed with yourself! Toyota models range from a cheap Yaris to a $56K Land Cruiser. So Saturn could be the same. However you are right that every brand needs to keep it's niche and Saturn does not need to be selling Lexus priced vehicles. I think the issue is that SUV's are in a different place price wize.
So... trying to resell a car with a better "perceived" reputation, is likely to get you a higher resale value.
1996 SL2 160k miles:
bad coolant temp sensor $10 to repair and did it myself
alternator died $300 to have repair done
2001 L200 100k miles:
nothing
This is only my experience, so I don't expect every car to be this trouble free. This is also a big reason why we chose another Saturn. This is only things that would cause the car not to run. Do they rattle more with age? Yes. But most do. I don't expect a car to be in showroom condition after 11 years and 3 kids.
Keep in mind that we do our routine stuff like change the oil every 3 months, do tune-ups every 2 years or so, etc... Also, Saturns tend to consume oil a bit more than other cars. I was told that this was due to the drive chain (not a belt) that is lubed witht he engine oil. Because of this I check the oil weekly on the old car and it needs a quart between oil changes.
American cars had an uphill battle (and still do). Our experiences fuel our perceptions and many of us had bad experiences with American cars in the past. That, coupled with Toyota and Honda's reputation for quality, some real and some hype has increased sales, increased their resale value, and increased the perceived gap in quality.
I think the reality today is that there are still some specific American made models that are poorly made. However, the same goes for Japanese cars. There are also many very high quality American cars that are on par or superior in build quality and reliability of any Honda or Toyota. You definitely can't lump an entire brand into the poor quality or high quality heap though. This is simply not true.
I took the XR back to the dealership where the salesman showed me the same spots on 3 different Outlooks and told me its just a reaction of the coating to the heat of the exhaust.
Is this guy blowing smoke?
I had looked at a GMC Acadia last week, and a Mazda CX9 the week before. The Mazda wins that battle for "coolness" - it looks very sharp, inside and out, and drives great. The GMC/Pontiac/Buick wins for location - as the GMC dealer is 3 miles away, while the Mazda dealer is 25 miles away. But I want to wait and drive an Enclave before making my final purchase decision.
I like the fact that the Adadia and Enclave have the second row captains chairs - much easier to get to the third row when needed, and a little more "open" feeling for anyoen riding in the 3rd row. (maybe its just because that is more like our manivan, and it is the experience we are now used to).
I was glad to see that the Enclave will have the backup video monitor - not available on the GMC Acadia (according to my GMC salesman). After using one in my wife's new Murano, I really can't imagin getting a new vehicle without one.
I wish they would add intergrated Bluetooth, though.
I am hoping some dealerships will get some soon.
I think you're confusing Bluetooth with Nav. Bluetooth is used with your cellphone so that you can make calls without holding it, i.e. it would use a built-in microphone in the car and the car speakers. This has nothing to do with OnStar.
If you did mean NAV, then I would agree that OnStar and its new features are neat. Although it does cost $299 a year, so that's one of its negative...
How much do updated disks for navigation systems cost? How often are they released?
2014 Malibu 2LT, 2015 Cruze 2LT,