[V8] I misspoke....

[Roger M. Woodbury]

My daughter and her entourage left yesterday and while they attempted to
cram everything they had brought back into the rental SUV, I got a good
chance to look the thing over in the daylight.  Made quite a difference,
because in the daylight I realized that I had misspoke:  it was a loaded
Traverse not an Equinox.  
 
The thing had 20 inch wheels, and some other things that I flat wondered at.
 
I tried to sit in the driver's seat, and after the first attempt in which I
bonked my head on the roof edge opening, I figured out that it is best to
utilize a modified genuflect motion while entering.  I wonder why when GM
was designing the thing they couldn't have made the doors taller, even
extending slightly into the roof so a guy such as myself, at 5'9" on a tall
day could get in easily.  Were they only intending that females who were
5'5" tall and less should drive one of these?
 
Once inside and looking around the "cockpit", I was amazed at the number of
wheels and knobs and buttons. Clearly Chevy was trying to do a 'me too" with
the Porsche four door sedan that has 87 buttons or something like that.  I
was getting dizzy tryinng to see what each one was supposed to do, so I
swung my legs inside and sat as though I was about to drive off.  My opinion
is that visibility across the snout of the Traverse is merely adequate.  It
seems a bulbous sort of snout from inside.  I thought they might have
designed the front hood to be a bit flatter and perhaps slope just a bit and
if that had been done the view of the road in front would have been much
improved.
 
The other thought I had was that the lateral leg room in front and overall
lateral room inside the vehicle in general was vastly compromised and in
short supply.  The driving position was OK, but certainly not spacious.  It
felt narrower than my V8, and certainly narrower than the C4 Avant, but the
tape might tell a different tale.
All in all, for such a large bulbous vehicle there seemed to be surprisingly
little room inside.  I suppose having all those airbags ready to deploy at
the precise moment that all is lost in traffic, plus probably huge I beams
to ward off the collision that the NHTSA predicts that everyone will have,
takes up an awful lot of room.
 
My daughter told me that the Traverse was the choice by default as that is
what they used last year for the same trip. However the relatively limited
room inside for the five of them made her wish that she had rented a Yukon.
Her significant other who has NO particular interest in vehicles as other
than transportation modules, tried to convince her that a van would be
better.  Did she listen to HIM?  Hope.  Afterall, she was taught about cars
by me, and remains firmly rooted in the idea that grand touring isn't done
in anything as uncool as a van.  Perish forbid!
 
When they left, I watched them drive down the road, the faint sound of the
V6 smoothly moving the six speeds around in the gear box, the exhaust kind
of weak and blatty.  I wondered again why Chevy had to make such an ugly ass
end since starting point at the nose isn't bad looking at all.
 
And I knew that would have to admit to all of you that I had misspoken
before about which SUV my daughter had driven up here in this year.
 
I know that all of you will overlook my gaffe....it was a Traverse and not
an Equinox.  My ride in it before I last wrote had been almost entirely in
the dark.
 
And I find it very true what they say.  That all SUV's look the same in the
dark.
 
Roger