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Even though it's an SUV-esque mini van it still should express some road competance. When I said the tires were squealing it was during a U turn at about, oh, 20-30 mph. Not slamming it into corners. I don't think that's too much to ask.
That's an absurd amount of money for a 4wd minivan.
really wanted the other toys and the third seat; however, it took us out of our price range.
I do not understand the TMV price on edmunds. It said 24-25 for the entry CX.
We got ours for 21,115 including destination fees. I work at IBM and IBM now gets a GM
supplier discount of 4 % over employee price which brought the price from the sale price of 22950 to 21115.
We think we are getting a steal for 21,115. Why is the entry so cheap. Are they selling well.
Is the entry missing a lot of options ? The base features seem greater then most cars
I see prices in the 30s for most of the RVD cars on the lot. One with a DVD was 38k.
I am a little concerned about the safety ratings. I thought it would be higher. Did I see the
wrong report. I want my wife and 2 year old to be as safe as possible.
We did not need the AWD. For one thing it does not snow down where we live. The base
features seemed great. I wanted the extra seats but it looked like you needed to add another
package that added alot more to the cost. We originally were going to get an odyssey; however,
I wanted to stay around 18-22k. If we bulked up the RDV to 24-28, then we might as well
stick with the odyssey idea which was 27-28.
We are going to miss our 94 accord. It still runs good; however, we wanted a newer roomier
vehicle that rides like a car but fits like a minivan or suv. We tested a trailblazer but it was
terrible. We tested a highlander and it was awesome but expensive compared to the RDV.
We did not want to go beyond 18-22 because of the economy and the layoffs that are coming
this week.
My wife and I bought our RDV (white CXL with 1SD, moonroof, and heated/memory seats) last July and now have over 13,000 trouble free miles on it. It is a very comfortable cruiser and a great around town family hauler and utility vehicle.
We also own a Honda Accord ('93 EX 4 door) that was just too good a car to part with. I drive it one weekend each month.
Enjoy!
I also agree, just too good a car to part with. It still drives like a new one! Us Rendezvous owners have similar tastes in vehicles it seems.
P.S. Congrats on your new RDV purchase murfdog!
Sounds like you got a great deal!
has plenty of standard features that most cars sell as upgrades. We loved the options they
did have but we are happy with what we got since its loaded for us and affordable.
Could someone please explain to me what they mean by it lacking power. It had plenty of power for me and my wife. I would not want any more power because it would only come at the expensive of the gas mileage which is good. I think the amount of power is just exactly what we wanted.
The car rides very smooth like my camry. The difference is that the buick has spacing like an SUV/minivan. So we get the smooth luxury car ride with the suv space without the suv gas
guzzling and suv truck ride.
Perfect car for us. Thanks for the thanks and thanks for all the input that helped us with our decision.
The salesman at the buick dealer was so far superior to any we saw at the other dealers. The showroom was so much nicer and cleaner. A class act all around.
We actually picked up two RDVs today. The nice man who sold us a car gave my 2 1/2 year old a black fully loaded toy RDV. A very high quality toy that she loves. He was really great, we are going to get him a gift when we get our plates. There was no pressure sales, no closers, now of that junk. He was awesome.
I already have more problems than my dad's 97 Infiniti QX4. His car has zero problem since day one and the car is still holding up very well after almost five years. I think GM has designed a great product here, but they need to do a much better job of putting it together. I am enjoying my time in my RDV, but I'm always afraid that something might go wrong in a sudden. All the GM vehicles my family had always had a bunch of problems, and the RDV seemed to be headed that way.
The power thing has been brought up over and over. Most of us agree that the power is more than sufficient for our day to day driving. You're right, that more power would mean worse gas mileage.
Too bad, huskydawg, that you've had so many problems. I noticed the buzzing noise from the speakers, too, but I checked in several others at the dealership (this was before I bought mine) and they all made the same sound. Strange, but apparently normal.
I had to have my BCM replaced, too, a couple weeks ago. It was covered under warranty, but had it not been, I think it would have been very expensive. Hopefully I won't have any more problems with it.
I and a couple others had the problem you mentioned with the reverse sensor beeper not turning off when shifted into drive, but I think for us it was always a one time thing. Turning the car off and then back on seemed to solve it.
Good luck!
So, I waited for the newly designed hitch which arrived on Fri. It took about a 1/2 hour for the installation and cost about $275.
(I think that if you pay $325 for the towing package you should get a hitch with it..... after all, $32K+ for the CXL is not chump change)
I haven't heard anything on mud flaps being available has anyone else?
Re: Honda Pilot - it was reviewed yesterday in the San Jose Mercury, and the quote from a Honda rep. about recapturing the midsize segment was "Where do our customers go? They're not going to the Rendevouz. They're not going to the Aztec. They're not going to the Xterra." This referred back to a reference to Pilot being targeted to the "center of the mid-size sport-utility market. That means Ford Explorer, Dodge Durango, and Toyota Highlander."
Last I heard, the trio of Trailblazer, Bravada, and Envoy, combined with RDV and Aztec, are selling enough numbers to be included in that market - another attitude statement!
It has been nearly a year since I first posted on this forum. Most of you old-timers will remember me for the prank I played; telling the board that my wife hated the RDV when we went to the dealer to purchase it. We had a good group of people back then as we were all new to the RDV and we were learning about the Pre-Sell packages and what we could/couldn't do.
Our RDV is just a year old and we now have 8,000 miles on it. We really have had no problems and enjoy using it on long trips with the kids.
Hope all is well for you old-timers... Fedlawman, dindak, and especially cwjacobson for sending my son the replica from the dealer (our dealer was too cheap or didn't participate in the program).
Oh... and for those who like to watch but don't understand football... IT WAS A FUMBLE!
Ra1der5
A.K.A. R5
Steve
Host
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Just thought I would keep you up to date on experience with my CXL. Just passed the 20K mileage mark and couldn't be happier with my purchase. The wear and tear on the vehicle is minimal, and the tires look like they are still brand new. We bought the RDV on July 31st, and have averaged 2,000 miles a month in travel due to my business (loan broker) and my other occupation (professional and collegiate soccer referee). My wife and I make my soccer games into mini vacations such as 3 weekends ago in Reno, Nevada. We take out one of the Captains Chairs in the back seat (an option we like) and voila!! lots of extra room right behind the passenger seat for a cooler to hold snacks and soft drinks for the long trips. We will be going to Reno and Las Vegas this summer and taking the RDV as usual. After 20,000 miles the vehicle still sounds like the day I bought it, no unknown noises or annoying rattles. The overall mileage is 20.7 mpg and I have not reset the MPG in the DIC since the third refueling. The only problem is now I see several RDV's during my travels unlike the first several months when we might see one in 500 miles of driving. See you on the road.
Nice to hear that you guys have had good experiencs over the long haul! Keep on truckin'.
1.) Tint front driver and passenger windows...
2.) Paint grey body cladding black to match the rest of the car...
3.) Either 18" or 20" wheels, probably Centerline Anrcher rims with Pirelli tires...
4.) POSSIBLY a new exhaust system and a chrome girlle for the front if I can find one...
5.) Supercharger from 3.8 V6 (hell yeah)
Let me know what you think about those little additions and whether or not they'll be worth it... it's not a small ammount of money to spend and I just want the car to look/perform/sound better.
~Lance
Wheels will help the look. For more power, try adding a nitrus-oxide system. Only good for occassional use, but that's all most people need anyway unless you're a lead foot. I doubt you'd fit a S/C under the hood of the RDV, and plumbing would be very expensive to fabricate.
Opening up the exhaust is a good idea, but will probably be a custom job in rustable mild steel instead of stainless, unless you know of a really advanced shop.
DD
The paint job and tires are what I'd really be interested in seeing. I never liked the fact that the cladding was one color, the body another, and the big rear tinted side windows (which seem like a body part almost since they're so big) a third. That's why I bought black--so the tinted windows would blend nicely. I think it'd look great without any cladding at all--just a solid color body.
The tires would be interesting, too. The ones on the RDV do seem a bit undersized. They certainly do the job, but they look a bit small.
Here is the complete assessment
http://www.nhtsa.dot.gov/NCAP/Cars/2119.html
The supercharger is do-able, and actually pretty cheap as far as the realm of superchargers go. The dealer I work for can fit either the Eaton M62 or M90 blower onto the engine (just in front actually, I think) and then have what's called a "nose drive" that runs across the engine to the belts. The S/C unit itself will be either $2000 or $2500 depending on whether I add 60 HP with the M62 or about 100 with the M90. All the plumbing and what not should run about another $800-1000, and I'm strongly considering an intercooler which will let me run the S/C at full boost, in other words 10 or 12 psi instead of 6... Total cost out of the door should be around $4000 and the good thing is that it looks like it *might* even be covered under warranty... we'll see.
Next up are the wheels and tires... oh man did I have a time with this one. The guy at discount tire told me there was no way they could fit 20" rims on a RDV... I have a HARD time believing that since I've already seen 2 Aztek's with 20" rims and pretty damn wide tires... they seem fine. Anyway, I'll probably have to go with 18" Centerline Archer's or 19" centerline Dyno's but I'm gonna do something. With everything he quoted me a price of $3700... I've got a funny feeling that'll come down to around $3200...
The painting hasn't been looked into yet... it's on my list. I'll probably just go over to Maaco, have them remove the panels, sand them, prime them, then do about 3 coats of black and throw a clear coat over that... haha, my cladding will look better than the rest of my car. I figure that'll be between $200 and $500 depending on how anal I get about how the paint looks...
Exhaust is no problem... get some mufflers and any reputable shop can do some mandrel-bent stainless piping pretty cheap... I figure that'll be around $300... I had an idea about the exhaust... wouldn't it be trick to actually pipe the exhaust threw the rear bumper...? I mean it would be too difficult... probably 1 3" rolled-over stainless tip on each side, in between the ultra-sonic parking assist sensors or even at either end of that textured center part of the bumper... hmmm, something to ponder...
Last but not least, dirkdaddy... your nitrous comment was good... nos is the cheapest boost in power you can do... true you could add a dry nos system for well under $500, $1000 if you add remote bottle openers, warmers, purging, and tie it all into the fuel managment system for seamless integration... but I have a funny feeling nos on an RDV would not exactly be the best thing... I'm certainly not going to drag racing my 5500+lb RDV down at Route 66 anytime soon... I'm just looking to get a little more passing power and maybe a little more punch off the line... i don't need a tire burning, smoke showing, honda civic crushing SUV... although... hmmm, why do I see my bank account getting lower and lower as i write this post!! Haha, I'm gonna rename my car the Rendezvous Rocket when I'm done...
later ya'll
~Lance
That's a lot of money to sink into the RDV. About $8000 for all the stuff you listed.
How would the Supercharger be covered by the warranty?
http://www.popsci.com/popsci/auto/article/0,12543,249603,00.html
~Lance
I am sure there is more to it then just bending some stainless steel tubing and purchasing another muffler. How do you handle the manifold? Is there a split one available for this engine or do you have to have this one modified, and I wonder how they figure out how to balance the exhaust pipes?
I would really like to add dual exhaust with a couple of glass packs to my RDV but am concerned about getting it done correctly along with the added expense of having two mufflers, and two tail pipes to replace in the future.
Ken
Alright well the system I'm planning is called a "catback" system. The exhaust piping starts from the catalytic converters and runs the remainder of the course of the exhaust. I have 2 plans right now and I'm not sure which would be more prudent.
First would be to remove all the mufflers going back the exit pipe and install a straight pipe exhaust. The only problem with this setup would be even with such a small V6 there will be a crazy amount of back fire and honestly it's not the efficient... it would produce the best sound though.
Next would be to remove the intermediate muffler and replace the rear muffler with a performance-oriented model. Maybe a flowmaster or edelbrock, any generic 1 into 1 muffler would work. However since we're planning on doing dual exhaust I'd use a 1 into 2 muffler... you'd have to have the exhaust pipes custom made from that point on since you'd be bending the exit pipes to fit over the rear axle assembly and you'd have to snake them around everything... but it would be that tough... like I said before it'll be childs play for any shop w/ a mandrel bending setup.
I'm about to go craw under my RDV right now to get a better idea of how the exhaust runs from the headers back to the exit of the vehicle. Once i get my back all dirty I'll come back up here and write up a better post with how things look and what our options really are...
Oh any Ken... adding a better air cleaner is the cheapest way to produce horsepower... second would be a nitrous oxide setup... but I'd stick w/ the air cleaner and exhaust before adding nitrous... hehehe...
~Lance
The exhaust obviously starts at the headers which go 3 into 1, and then 2 into 1. That single, what seems to be a 3 1/2" pipe, heads back and over the driveshaft into the catalytic converter. The piping then seems to reduce it's diameter (thanks GM) about an inch and carries over a foot long pipe into a 30 inch long muffler (wow) that is about 5 inches tall. After that the exhaust exits that muffle the same way it came in through a seemingly tiny pipe which navigates over (really more through...) the rear axle assembly and into what appears to be a canister shaped exhaust silencer... from there the exhaust flows into the exit pipe and out the rear of the car.
Pretty restrictive setup it seems... boy was I surprised that there was only 1 cat and 1 VERY large muffler. The cat is pretty small too... maybe 7 inches long and 4 across.
So after some consideration it would have to be either a cat-back setup or we're going to have to replace the headers and cat. Those are our options.
Flowmaster makes a muffler that would bolt in pretty easily, but would require that intermediary pipe from the cat to the muffler to be lengthened. It's their 60-Series muffler. However, I fear this would change the sound of the exhaust to something more rice-burner'ish and not a deeper tone which is what I'm looking for. The only nice thing about the 60-series is that it's got their delta flow system which greatly reduces back pressure and interior ressonance from the exhaust which the RDV has quite a bit of... I'm just worried about that sound.
Option 2 from Flowmaster would be to go with their 80 series muffler. This muffler is designed for the Camaro/Firebird and of Buick GNX's. This muffler would be great for a dual exhaust setup since it has one single entry with dual outlets... plus it produces a ridiculously deep tone from a V6, listen to the sound they have from the 3.8 in the Firebird...
Midas also now carries high-performance mufflers... they're Ravin systems which aren't really well known or highly used, but they would be backed by midas which would be better than a local shop or do-it-yourself. I think they're warrantied for life as well... they make a muffler that would fit our RDV almost exactly. The model is RA774250... check it out.
As soon as I find more options I'll post them. I might run over to Midas later and get a price on the Ravin systems but I don't know... Flowermaster mufflers aren't too expensive, under $100 I'm pretty sure (I had a Flowmaster on my Trans Am... it was like $70 or something... very nice sound)
~Lance
~Lance
I think if I was going to go to the expense of adding dual exhaust I would run it back from the headers. I don't just want a couple of chrome pipes sticking out the back.
But please keep us informed about your progress.
Ken
CWJ
~Lance
When in motion, the rdv as is any vehicle must literally force air molecules out of its way. This task of moving air out of the way multiplies as the rate of speed increases.
Typically at around 45 mph, most cars have their best efficiency. So since jp614 hit several construction areas where the speed travelled was limited to around 55, that maximized the rdvs efficiency; hence the much improved mileage.
There are many many other variables and conditions but, I believe this to be the main culprit.
Hope that sheds some light on the matter. ; )
~Lance
~Lance
1.) Fill up right before starting trip. Zero out all counters except for Oil Life.
2.) At end of trip record value of counters.
3.) Reset on next fill up before starting trip.
This is for my CX 1SD no rear seat.
I do not go over 65 MPH. I generally try to stay at 63-64 MPH and use cruise control as much as possible. Look at your tach, lower is better. I generally try to shoot for 1800 - 1900 RPM.
Going at 55 MPH gives even better MPG. I think I am around 1600 - 1700 RPM. I will check this on the next trip.
I am doing about 20 miles of the 180 total at 55 MPH.
I gave the engine an extremely gentle break in period. For the first 500 miles I did not go over 45 MPH except for one or two short highway bursts. I did all local short trips to properly seat everything.
By the way, I generally do 22 to 23 MPG in city driving.
~Laqnce
If you turn off cruise control, feather the throttle to prevent downshifting, and allow some speed to bleed off when climbing grades on the highway, your mileage will improve even further.
By doing this, I have seen upwards of 27 MPG with my loaded CXL.
This is just a little game I sometimes play with my trip computer on the highway. I usually don't worry about the 16 MPG I typically average around town.
BTW, good to hear from you again ra1der5! I've got over 14,000 miles and no worries.