The New Family Truckster

I have just recently gone from a Kia Sedona mini van to a 2005 GMC Envoy SLT. I had 2 accidents in the Sedona where I had been rear ended and one of them caused major damage. I felt it should have been totaled but the insurance company felt differently. Due to many trips to the shop and trying to get it fixed but failing my husband and I felt it was time to just cut our losses.

We test drove many vehicles including a few different mini vans, and a couple of different suvs. I liked the idea of an SUV because it just felt safer. This may be a delusion on my part but what the heck.

We have a family of five, 3 adults, 2 children. We needed something that would accommodate all of us and maybe a friend or two. We looked at the basic 2 wheel drive version of the Envoy and I was not that impressed. The interior trim looked like cheap Formica counter tops and it did not come with things like cruise control. Something that I feel should be standard on all vehicles today. Not an add on. We moved on to a Durango but it felt almost too big and was getting an average gas mileage of 12 mpg according to the calculator in the vehicle. It also would not have fit into our garage.

So we came back to the Envoy after GM came out with the employee pricing. This allowed to us look at the SLT model. The interior greatly improves when you get into this package. It has very comfortable leather seats and a wood trim interior. Some of the other features are heated front seats, a memory drivers seat, and a very nice sound system. The second row rear passengers have controls for the radio and the heating/cooling system.

After dealing with a knowledgeable sales person we decided to lease this vehicle. It got the cursed van out of my life and it was only a three year commitment. And it is only costing me a wee bit more than the van was.

Now that I have been driving the Envoy for a month I feel I know it well enough to write about my likes and dislikes.

Likes:

The Envoy is a large vehicle. However it is easy for my children to get in and out of as well as easy for my MIL. My MIL lives with us and has balance issues after suffering from a stroke. It is still low enough to the ground that she can slide in and out of the front and second row. My children ages 6 and 9 like to sit in the third row. Both learned how to operate the seats to gain access to the back within a couple of tries. I am also not very tall at 5'4" and have no problem getting into the drivers seat. One of the nice things about the drivers seat is it has easy out features. The seat will lower as you exit the vehicle. This is a feature you can turn on and off as needed.

We recently took a little 2 hour day trip with my sister and her husband. They sat in the second row and had plenty of leg room. My sister is 5'7" so an average size adult should have no problem with space.

The seats are very comfortable in my opinion. I have really only ridden in the front but the leather seams to be of high quality and the 2 front seats adjust in enough positions that I have always been comfortable. My husband is 6' tall and had no space or comfort complaints.

Most of the controls are conveniently located on the dash and steering wheel. The radio is AM/FM, 6 CD changer, and satellite radio. The buttons and controls for this are a bit more than I am used to so I can't just reach over and do what ever without looking. But the quality of the speakers and sound have so far been great. I am not technical enough to give you all of the specs.

It does have some other great bells and whistles such as mirrors that point down when backing up, controls that tell you oil life, gas usage, and average mileage. It also has sensors that will clean your headlights in bad weather. And of course comes with OnStar. The first year is free but then we have to pay if we want to continue for the rest of the lease.

Dislikes:

Of course the gas mileage. Although it has not been as bad as I expected. I do a combo of highway and city driving. According to my calculator I am getting on average 16.5 miles to the gallon. For such a large vehicle it could be worse.

The handling. The only real complaint I have is on corners and curves. It feels a bit sloppy and you do need to slow down. This is the first time I really pay attention to the caution signs that tell you how fast to take the curve.

It has a bit of interior noise. I don't know why it was not sound proofed better. You get a bit of road noise especially on the highway.

The gas door. It sounds strange but they have no control inside to open the gas cap door. It just seems flimsy and I would think if you don't shut it all they way it will open up while driving.

The seats although comfortable in the back have no other configurations than what I came with. You can't recline or move any of the seats except to fold them flat. I think if it was designed to be able to remove or move seats it would make the cargo space more useful.

My last thing is entering the highway. It takes a while for this baby to get going. If your on a short entrance ramp you will be going way slower than the flow of traffic. Although once your on the move the engine is pretty powerful. We have a 4.2 liter V6. One of the reasons that it is sluggish is the fact we have a 4x4. When we drove the 2 wheel drive it had much more getup and go with the same engine. But we live in Michigan and felt the 4x4 was more practical for snow.

So far I am happy. I guess we will see what then other seasons and driving conditions will bring. But overall I think we made a good choice for our needs.