Seeing as how 8 speed transmissions are on the horizon ... who the hell still uses a 4 speed transmission in a car?! I'll tell you who... Chevy and GM in the Malibu. One of the biggest let downs ... the 4 speed auto transmission.
Now... taking it into the account that this is a standard passenger sedan and a cheap one at that, we obviously can't expect supreme driving comfort and unsurpassed handling abd braking. However, being that as it is ... the car is not all that bad. The engine has plenty of low end grunt which is required for the long gears in the 4 speed tranny. The engine is more than happy to pull with force from idle through the RPM range. However, being FWD, ask for too much "go" power and you'll find that torque steer becomd a huge problem wanting to change your desired direction of travel to the left or right sharpely depending on where the scenery can do the most damage to your vehicle. All that go power is enough to get you up to just shy of triple digit speeds before starting to run out of passing power.
Handling is ... well, designed to be cheap and comfortable. So... it's not perfect but it gets the job done. Bumps are soaked up with ease but ask this monster to handle an on/off ramp at anything considered remotely fast and it'll have the tires screaming for mercy as your passenger wonder if you are pretending to be a NASCAR driver. Body roll and squat and dive are ever so prevalent and even more prevalent when the car has cargo.
Braking... well, I'm not even going to try to tell you that repeated stops from speed will give you any sort of confidence. The first stop from anything considered fast is decent and will leave you rest assured, but as you try more and more stop from speed, your confidence level drops considerably before you begin to wonder if it would be bail out and abandon car in fear of ending up as part of the scenery rather than asking it to do another stop from speed.
Interior erogonomics take a little while to get used to. The interior is made of cheap plastic, but it functions to get the job done. The high mounted shifter on the drift shaft is awkward and clumsy as shift controls for manual shifting are placed where the normal button for switching from reverse to drive is placed. The radio control do the job are are directly to the point. The buttons the steering wheel also serve their purpose, but there are two buttons mounted on the back of the steering wheel that you'll have to find before you know they are there that control the volume of the radio from the wheel rather than the dash.
Another sore subject for this car ... the horrible seats. They are far from comfortable and you probably would have a better driving exerpence if you took the seats out and replaced them with the plastic crate boxes. The seats are horrible.
Overall... for the price, it's a damn good car to drive, but that being said, you would be better off spending more money to get something a little more suited towards extended travel.
Showing posts with label Chevrolet. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Chevrolet. Show all posts
Thursday, August 9, 2007
Wednesday, August 9, 2006
2006 Chevy Suburban Z71
What a big ... uh ... vehicle.
First off... this thing is huge... absolutely huge. You almost need binoculars to see the end of it if you are standing at the front. The inside, feels equally as large. Feels as if you could take a leisurely stroll for a few minutes and have dinner with the passengers located in the 3rd row. Of course, you'd want to make sure they are there for with a phone call.
Driving this behemoth takes some getting used to. While driving, feels as if you need to put one of those wide right turn stickers on the tailgate to warn others. U Turns... don't even think about it unless you are on a six lane highway or there is plenty of run off. Which brings us to a slight detour on the off-road ability. The off-road ability works good. In four wheel drive mode, it's unstoppable. And by unstoppable I mean, I couldn't find anything in Florida that could trip it up, curbs, sidewalks, mud holes, swap, gravel ... nothing, no problems. It almost feels at home on the off-road terrain (shame 1% if lucky will be taken off road).
On the highway... it's comfortable, but severely underpowered. Crusing speeds of 60 are capable, but much higher than that and you will find yourself lacking HP. How this beast is supposed to tow anything with the lack of HP is beyond me. Cruising speeds of 80 are possible provided you are travelling light... but be prepared for transmission downshifts should you encounter any sort of hill or overpass. With cargo... the transmission would probably send the RPMs through the roof trying to maintain it's speed and not crawl to a stop.
Brakes are suprisingly good for such a large vehicle. I expected the first panic stop to turn the braking equipment into molten steel followed by spontaneous combution of anything left anywhere near the brake discs/pads. Remarkable, numerous stops from 80+ were promising each time. Granted, fade was noticeable, but not enough to make you worry. All be it, I bet when they brakes do fail... you'll probably just plow through whatever you were trying to avoid anyway with little fanfare as aside from the brakes, I don't see much else slowing this beast.
Now... the best part. Fuel consumption. Considering most of the testing was done on highway miles... this vehicle averaged about 11mpg, I dare not attempt to drive this thing in the city... unless you decide to tow a fuel tanker behind you. Fill ups from empty require you to show two forms of identification and clarification to the gas station that you are indeed good for the money. Makes me want to think that even American Express would have a hard time letting you pump until it's full with this one.
I will say that it is comfortable and made long drives easy. If the gas tank didn't go empty so fast, I would be willing to bet you could drive this thing all day and not be tired. And... the off-road part... love it. Not once did I find myself wondering if I was going to have to climb out the window and wallow through near knee deep water or mud to call a more capable vehicle.
First off... this thing is huge... absolutely huge. You almost need binoculars to see the end of it if you are standing at the front. The inside, feels equally as large. Feels as if you could take a leisurely stroll for a few minutes and have dinner with the passengers located in the 3rd row. Of course, you'd want to make sure they are there for with a phone call.
Driving this behemoth takes some getting used to. While driving, feels as if you need to put one of those wide right turn stickers on the tailgate to warn others. U Turns... don't even think about it unless you are on a six lane highway or there is plenty of run off. Which brings us to a slight detour on the off-road ability. The off-road ability works good. In four wheel drive mode, it's unstoppable. And by unstoppable I mean, I couldn't find anything in Florida that could trip it up, curbs, sidewalks, mud holes, swap, gravel ... nothing, no problems. It almost feels at home on the off-road terrain (shame 1% if lucky will be taken off road).
On the highway... it's comfortable, but severely underpowered. Crusing speeds of 60 are capable, but much higher than that and you will find yourself lacking HP. How this beast is supposed to tow anything with the lack of HP is beyond me. Cruising speeds of 80 are possible provided you are travelling light... but be prepared for transmission downshifts should you encounter any sort of hill or overpass. With cargo... the transmission would probably send the RPMs through the roof trying to maintain it's speed and not crawl to a stop.
Brakes are suprisingly good for such a large vehicle. I expected the first panic stop to turn the braking equipment into molten steel followed by spontaneous combution of anything left anywhere near the brake discs/pads. Remarkable, numerous stops from 80+ were promising each time. Granted, fade was noticeable, but not enough to make you worry. All be it, I bet when they brakes do fail... you'll probably just plow through whatever you were trying to avoid anyway with little fanfare as aside from the brakes, I don't see much else slowing this beast.
Now... the best part. Fuel consumption. Considering most of the testing was done on highway miles... this vehicle averaged about 11mpg, I dare not attempt to drive this thing in the city... unless you decide to tow a fuel tanker behind you. Fill ups from empty require you to show two forms of identification and clarification to the gas station that you are indeed good for the money. Makes me want to think that even American Express would have a hard time letting you pump until it's full with this one.
I will say that it is comfortable and made long drives easy. If the gas tank didn't go empty so fast, I would be willing to bet you could drive this thing all day and not be tired. And... the off-road part... love it. Not once did I find myself wondering if I was going to have to climb out the window and wallow through near knee deep water or mud to call a more capable vehicle.
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