Edmunds dealer partner, Bayway Leasing, is now offering transparent lease deals via these forums. Click here to see the latest vehicles!
Popular New Cars
Popular Used Sedans
Popular Used SUVs
Popular Used Pickup Trucks
Popular Used Hatchbacks
Popular Used Minivans
Popular Used Coupes
Popular Used Wagons
Comments
Concerning your loan payments, when the deferred loan kicks in in 2/02, and you pay down your principle by $15K, your payments won't decrease because the payment amount is based on the loan contract and cannot change. The only thing that can change is the term (number of payments) based on remaining principle. Make sure there is no penalty for prepayment.
Again, the deferred loan for a year is a great deal - particularly if you get a great price on the Bravada and you really like the car. It is worth easily $1600 in interest that GM is paying for (assuming $32K price, 5% interest per year). Your $15K in money market account will further earn more than $700. Pocket this, and apply it over the life of the loan to pay part of the loan payment and reduce the out-of-pocket monthly payments. Of course, financially the best thing to do is to paydown $15K up front since a money market account probably won't earn as much interest as the car loan rate. However, this doesn't work if you need to get the loan payments lower.
My Bravada is pewter. It is sort of the color of those new faucets from Price Pfister. It hides dirt very well, is not too loud and offends no-one.
Also I,am still getting conflicting responses on the 3% holdback. What's the deal? I'm so confused.
Holdback is on MSRP which includes shipping.
If you put in 2002, the only available model is the Cadillac Escalade. If you put in 2001 and chose Chevrolet, it is not listed. Try it.
If you want something special or unusual and don't mind waiting a couple of months any dealer should also be able to do a factory order. Usually for a minimum amount above invoice as it doesn't have to sit on their lot, take up time etc. Deal with a fleet rep for this. The only downside is the wait and that you will not know for sure in advance what incentives you can take advantage of. You'd just have to see what incentives are in place when you take delivery.
My husband isn't too concerned, as he says he trust GM more than say Dodge, when it comes to first year production.
The increasing software content doesn't help. Software by its very nature is inherently complex and bug oriented. Heck, the drive by wire throttle is software. Under the circumstances, it is understandable why some features on our wish lists often don't make it into production in the first year or two. It is an accomplishment that they get their first production units as good as they do - this goes for any car manufacturer.
Not to put the fear of god in new car buyers - there is signficant science, engineering and methodology that makes this all possible. If I had a choice, I would have waited until the next model year before getting my Bravada. Unfortunately, somebody totaled my Chevy S10 Blazer and I had no choice. There simply was nothing else that I liked besides this trio of Trailblazer, Envoy, Bravada. I originally was leaning to the TB, but alas, there aren't any to be had. Olds arrived first, but I'm happy that I ended up with the Bravada.
The 5y warranty goes a long way to help my worries - next year the warranty probably won't be there. The financing deal is also a big help which I don't think will be repeated. My experience with GM has been very good. Given these parameters, I went for it.
Good luck.
I am feeling much more confident as time goes on - defects will show up earlier than later. And that 5/60 warranty makes me feel much better than getting a second year unit with just the 3/36 warranty. The warranty really was the clincher for me as to go ahead and get it the first year out. (getting free for a year didn't hurt either). I have no doubt that after 2004, assuming dealers accept the Olds phaseout by then, the Bravada as the other Olds models will get adopted under a different nameplate like Caddilac. So the logo is different, big deal. The Caddy logo is pretty stately though not as cool as the Olds swoosh. The Bravada will still be a great vehicle no matter who does the marketing. It is too good a vehicle for GM to write off. So I don't worry about support for the car.
There is one other theory that I've heard from many - first year out usually uses the most heavy duty components because of the lack of time to cost optimize, and the need to reduce risk of recalls and defects getting out into the field (costs beaucoup bucks to fix). So they go conservative and use battle proven hardware where they can, and go conservative on the new components in their design and robustness. Costs are more, weight is more, but they have too much to deal with in getting production up before they can get into optimizing every door handle and mounting hardware. As the design gets rung out over multple seasons, they begin to attachk the costs and weight issues by redesign or substitution. By the last season, many parts that were originally metal or solid are now plastic or hollow, but cost and weight reduced. I've seen this in many Japanese cars. First year was much more metal, following years were very different and a lot more plastic.
But having said that who can wait a few model years to see how reliability is. You either need or want a vehicle now or not. The 5/60 warranty should help with the comfort factor. Any problems or issues would likely be fixed, it would just be the inconvenience of dealing with it.
FYI on inventory: Sacramento/NorCal hasn't seen one TrailBlazer yet, and I don't think we have an olds dealer per se. Some are gone, and some have merged with the GMC dealership. Very few Envoys (no SLTs) are in, but no Bravadas.
When you tell the sales rep other areas have them they look at you like they wish you would just go away.
carsdirect.com has the vehicles listed as a factory order item, albeit with old photos.
Steve
Host
Vans, SUVs, and Aftermarket & Accessories message boards
As for the 5/60 warranty and zero, zero, zero deal that is supposed to end on May 1, 2001 I really don't think that it will be the end of the great incentives. They can only get better from here on out. What are some of the prices anyone has been getting?
Oh, if any of you have digital cameras you should sanp a few pics of your cool new rides and post the links here. On the 300M board, that's all we do and almost every other posting has a link to someone's pictures. Try it, it would make this site so much better by being able to see some actual vehicles.
The local dealer has had a dark blue Bravada for about two weeks and they got a new Pewter one this week. The pewter looks a lot better than the blue. I've also seen a black 2002 Bravada around where I live for about a month or so. No Trailblazers or Envoys around here yet. I have seen many truckloads of the 2002 Explorer and Mountaineer--I still think the GM SUV's are much better!
Still, any information on the 2wd model?
2002 GMC Envoy
TS15506 4dr 2WD SLT
VEHICLE SUMMARY: MSRP
Base Vehicle: 31,595.00
Total Options: 1,020.00 (Options I chose)
Advert/Adjustments: 0.00
Destination Charge: 600.00
Total Price: $33,215.00
VEHICLE SUMMARY: Invoice
Base Vehicle: 28,593.48
Total Options: 877.20
Advert/Adjustments: 326.15
Destination Charge: 600.00
Total Price: $30,396.83 plus $98 $30,494.83
(Note: this is copied from the e-mail that I received from the dealer.)
I have checked these figures vs. Edmunds, carsdirect, and priceline and in every case they seem accurate.
It has always been my understanding that the advertising fee is not negotiable because it is built in by the regional GM/Ford/DC office. I might be wrong on that.
$88 for dealer prep is not bad either when you think that the dealer is paying someone to prep that vehicle for sale. You wouldn't want it in the condition it comes off the truck. Trust me on that!
My local dealer adds a $595 'Environmental Package' (whatever that is) to all of his vehicles. That's the kind of crap that you need to be aware of and avoid.
Has anyone seen a white one? Maybe they are not producing white yet. Anyway, if by chance someone has a good photo of a white TB, please post it if you can so I can see it. Thanks
However, it's to late for me. The Toyota Highlander will be delivered in a few days.
I hope that the 2002 GM products do well.
4WD-HI mode of autotrac is a feature activated by the switch which engages the wetclutch in the power splitter right behind the transmission at a 100% duty cycle. This results in 50/50 power split to front/rear with no differential action between front and rear drive shafts. Therefore, this is not for dry pavement because such use would result in drive shaft wind-up and wear and damage to the drive trains.
4WD-LO mode kicks in an low gear in the transmission as well as locks the power splitter wetclutch. This is a feature that smartrak does not have. This is also not for dry pavement.
Note: in smartrak and autotrac auto mode, 50/50 power split is theoretically possible, but practically impossible. 50/50 power split can only be accomplished when the wetclutch engages at 100% duty cycle. When this occurs, the sensors would detect no speed difference between the front and rear drive shafts and this would result in disengagement of the wetclutch resulting in less than 100% duty cycle engagement and therefore less than 50/50 split. This is why autotrac provides the 4WD-HI and 4WD-LO modes - to enable control of power split as well as to guarantee even power distribution to front/rear when it is really needed such as in offroad situations. Smartrak is designed for civilized use on roads under a variety of intrepid weather conditions, not for the challenges of offroad use. It is intended to maintain power to the wheels in order to keep vehicle stability under such conditions.
Also I am looking to lease my next UV. If the GMC is going to be that expensive, I guess I will have to either get the Ford or Toyota.
Please continue with the comments.
Matt
1) interface my own cell phone into the onstar circuit. You would have the advantage of 3 watts out thru the external antenna, be able to control the car with another phone and hands free cell phone calls.
2) Put a Garmin III moving map display in the glasses holder. The GPS antenna and power is just 6 inches away.
Top of dash was soft plastic, but bottom part was hard plastic, huh??
Why not make the whole thing out of the soft stuff? Seat material felt chinzy and not real comfy. Overall fit and finsh is poorly executed. Outside, the black plastic trim on the front, rear and body side moldings looks crappy. And why can you get body colour side moldings on the base LS, but not on the uplevel LT. Should'nt it be the other way around? The only bright spot was the engine, sort of. The power was good, and it was smooth, but it was very LOUD. The tranny did not shift as smooth as it should have. Ride and handling was just OK, but it still has the solid live axel jitters over the bumps. Ford wised up and went with the independent rear susp. I guess the General is a slow learner. All of this is totally inexcuseable on a 30K-plus truck. Well General, you blew it again!
Point me towards the Toyota dealership, so I can order my Highlander. At least I know I'll get what I pay for there; QUALITY!!
On star is expensive and pretty useless, hopefully when the cellular service becomes available everywhere they will lower the price to be competitive.
The plastic is hard, but I didn't spend $40000 plus. Sorry so lengthy, but these autos are great.
You don't think that being made to buy the $850 OnStar equipment with the $650 sunroof is forced? I think it stinks out loud. I also dont want a non-functional option in my 1 year old vehicle. It seems to me that GM is pushing On Star. Why not have an interface that will work with my cell phone? The practice of packaging less popular options with popular options is a low business practice and gives me a lower opinion of GM.
2. Deaf people. Loud wind noise when doing over 40.
3. Short deaf people.