After about 900 miles of driving... I learned that I will NEVER buy one of these and will do my absolute best to avoid driving one ever again. What a horrible vehicle. Granted, it has seating for 7 possibly 8... but that's only really useful if your familiy is the equivalent of it's own soccer team. Now you may ask, what is so terrible wrong with this vehicle? For starters, and this is a big big issue. The damn thing has no brakes! It is like driving a tractor trailor when it comes to stopping. Stopping distances require that you look into the next zip code to see traffic conditions and be wary if a panic stop must be initiated. Pushes of the brake pedal really do not slow the vehicle down, they more just attempt to change direction of the vehicle from a straight to verticle as if the vehicle was trying to drive underground with the massive nose dive.
Next negative issue ... while it just manage to have a decent amount of low end torque (I'm guessing to motivate the soccer team from stop lights), the power required to achieve anything over a snails pace is just not there. Highway cruising speed around here is 70, achiving anything over that requires a clear length of road that could double as a runway for a 747.
Well, it's a minivan, so we won't even bother to examine the lack of handling... next section.
As for comfort... the drivers chair is the only one I really sat in, but it's is like sitting on carboard ontop of a piece of granite semi molded towards the shape of your body. The headrest are nonadjustable, so if you head does not fit that particular curvature... you're out of luck. The support is pretty much non existant. You've have a better ride is you took out the drivers seat and replaced it with an upside down painters bucket.
The radio... well, it works. That's an upside, but controlling it while simple... leaves much to the imagination when it comes to quality. I guess, they made it that way so that if you crank it up you can hopefully drown out that soccer team with noise (it really wouldn't be music, just noise).
After my time behind the wheel... I don't think I'll every drive one of these things again. I can only hope their Japanese equivalents have much much more thought put into them or else the soccer mom era will soon be doomed to oblivion since the only thing left for these things to do is spontaneously combust to be any worse.
EDIT: By the way... the cupholders suck!
Tuesday, August 9, 2005
Monday, August 9, 2004
2003 Pontiac Grand Prix
Pros
Good Speed Sensitive Radio
Decent Speakers
Good Power
Cons
FWD
No Limited Slip (or a poorly designed one)
Horrible Interior
Non Intuitive setup
Poor Transmission
Bad Blind Spots
Poor Headlights
No steering wheel controls for radio
I had a chance to drive a 2003 Pontiac Grand Prix base model the other day which had about 17000 miles on the odometer. The car left a poor taste in my mouth reminding me why I don't like American cars. The car had good power, but without any good way to put it down. As soon as you touch the accelerator pedal, the front wheels spin and god forbid you are going around a corner. A quick jump into traffic around a 90 degree corner will leave you with billows of tire smoke coming over the hood and into the cabin.
Ride was firm but handling was lacking. The car tracked dead straight and you felt everything in the road, but any attempt to change direction left you with an uneasy feeling in your stomach. Cruising on the highway was comfortable and effortless with that much power. The transmission often would get confused tho and gear hunt on specific occasions.
The cabin was lacking in my opinion. The dash, while pretty was a bit overwhelming. I'm partly thinking that the speed I once thought the car had was just an illusion of by how big the speedmeter is (it's huge). The radio controls were functional, but to this time for the life of me, I couldn't figure out how to turn on the interior lights without opening the door.
Hope that helps somebody.
Good Speed Sensitive Radio
Decent Speakers
Good Power
Cons
FWD
No Limited Slip (or a poorly designed one)
Horrible Interior
Non Intuitive setup
Poor Transmission
Bad Blind Spots
Poor Headlights
No steering wheel controls for radio
I had a chance to drive a 2003 Pontiac Grand Prix base model the other day which had about 17000 miles on the odometer. The car left a poor taste in my mouth reminding me why I don't like American cars. The car had good power, but without any good way to put it down. As soon as you touch the accelerator pedal, the front wheels spin and god forbid you are going around a corner. A quick jump into traffic around a 90 degree corner will leave you with billows of tire smoke coming over the hood and into the cabin.
Ride was firm but handling was lacking. The car tracked dead straight and you felt everything in the road, but any attempt to change direction left you with an uneasy feeling in your stomach. Cruising on the highway was comfortable and effortless with that much power. The transmission often would get confused tho and gear hunt on specific occasions.
The cabin was lacking in my opinion. The dash, while pretty was a bit overwhelming. I'm partly thinking that the speed I once thought the car had was just an illusion of by how big the speedmeter is (it's huge). The radio controls were functional, but to this time for the life of me, I couldn't figure out how to turn on the interior lights without opening the door.
Hope that helps somebody.
2004 Nissan Murano SL
Pros:
Good Power
Firm Suspension
Good Radio
Good Interior
Great HVAC controls
CVT Tranny
Huge gas tank
Cons:
Horrible Torque Steer
Plasticy Interior
Huge blind spots
Summary
I got to drive a new Murano SL the other day. There were probably about 1200 miles on the clock. The car/SUV thing drove rather well. The CVT tranny made for an interesting drive as it mostly held it's RPM as long as I didn't do anything abrupt with the throttle. The highway drive felt good and the HVAC controls worked excellent. The controls on the steering wheel felt slightly awkward to me, but that's just personal preference. The screen in the dash could have been done better, but it served it's purpose.
The power was good, but with horrible torque steer, you constantly had to fight the steering wheel during corners. I think I'd opt to go with the AWD version to help eliminate that. The sound it made from the exhaust was good.
That's it...
Good Power
Firm Suspension
Good Radio
Good Interior
Great HVAC controls
CVT Tranny
Huge gas tank
Cons:
Horrible Torque Steer
Plasticy Interior
Huge blind spots
Summary
I got to drive a new Murano SL the other day. There were probably about 1200 miles on the clock. The car/SUV thing drove rather well. The CVT tranny made for an interesting drive as it mostly held it's RPM as long as I didn't do anything abrupt with the throttle. The highway drive felt good and the HVAC controls worked excellent. The controls on the steering wheel felt slightly awkward to me, but that's just personal preference. The screen in the dash could have been done better, but it served it's purpose.
The power was good, but with horrible torque steer, you constantly had to fight the steering wheel during corners. I think I'd opt to go with the AWD version to help eliminate that. The sound it made from the exhaust was good.
That's it...
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