Mossroad,
Interesting timing on this post revival. Bear with me on this. Since posting this over two years ago I bought a Trailblazer which was a very solid vehicle, oodles of power, towed great, and got an average of 18.5 mpg. Oh, and I hated it. It's usually hard to pinpoint one thing you just don't like, but on this vehicle it was no problem. The seats were uncomfortable as H---! My wife liked it, no problems at all, but I'm a full-size truck kind of guy and they just didn't fit me well. Traveling to visit family 12 hours away was an ordeal, and with two kids and a labrador, there wasn't much room. So we took the depreciation hit and sold it. Replaced it with a base 2000 Impala with the 3.4 l engine. It has leather seats and had 98k on it when we bought it. It was cheap.
In cold weather, it exhibits the dreaded "piston-slap" that plagues some vehicles. It sounds like six gnomes under the hood beating on the block with ball-peen hammers. Only happens in temps below 50 degrees, and disappears when the car warms up. Very annoying, but tolerable.
Now the rest of the story is all good. Great fuel mileage, between 26 and 29 all the time. Leather seats are very comforatable. There is more room in the car than in the Trailblazer, by far. We took the car on a 2850 mile jihad from Texas, through Missouri, past the smokies, and into North Carolina to visit family in the second week of June. Mossroad, for all I know we passed each other!! Anyway, we averaged over 28 mpg, and everybody was comfortable. No way would we have been as comfortable in the Trailblazer. Only one small thing, the 3.4 l was underpowered in the mountains, and the temp gauge climbed whenever we were on an incline. I'm going to replace the thermostat on the off-hand chance it wasn't opening fully. Mossroad, did you have any temperature issues in the mountains? Sounds like you have basically the same car.
Bottom line, we should have bought the Impala in the first place. An expensive mistake. I would highly recommend the car for comfort and drivability, but suggest the 3.8l for a little extra oomph. I doubt mpg would suffer much if at all.
Interesting timing on this post revival. Bear with me on this. Since posting this over two years ago I bought a Trailblazer which was a very solid vehicle, oodles of power, towed great, and got an average of 18.5 mpg. Oh, and I hated it. It's usually hard to pinpoint one thing you just don't like, but on this vehicle it was no problem. The seats were uncomfortable as H---! My wife liked it, no problems at all, but I'm a full-size truck kind of guy and they just didn't fit me well. Traveling to visit family 12 hours away was an ordeal, and with two kids and a labrador, there wasn't much room. So we took the depreciation hit and sold it. Replaced it with a base 2000 Impala with the 3.4 l engine. It has leather seats and had 98k on it when we bought it. It was cheap.
In cold weather, it exhibits the dreaded "piston-slap" that plagues some vehicles. It sounds like six gnomes under the hood beating on the block with ball-peen hammers. Only happens in temps below 50 degrees, and disappears when the car warms up. Very annoying, but tolerable.
Now the rest of the story is all good. Great fuel mileage, between 26 and 29 all the time. Leather seats are very comforatable. There is more room in the car than in the Trailblazer, by far. We took the car on a 2850 mile jihad from Texas, through Missouri, past the smokies, and into North Carolina to visit family in the second week of June. Mossroad, for all I know we passed each other!! Anyway, we averaged over 28 mpg, and everybody was comfortable. No way would we have been as comfortable in the Trailblazer. Only one small thing, the 3.4 l was underpowered in the mountains, and the temp gauge climbed whenever we were on an incline. I'm going to replace the thermostat on the off-hand chance it wasn't opening fully. Mossroad, did you have any temperature issues in the mountains? Sounds like you have basically the same car.
Bottom line, we should have bought the Impala in the first place. An expensive mistake. I would highly recommend the car for comfort and drivability, but suggest the 3.8l for a little extra oomph. I doubt mpg would suffer much if at all.
