Bad day for GM; good day for Chevrolet Traverse

June 1, 6:05 PMNY Autos ExaminerNick Yost

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    2009 Chevrolet Traverse

On the day that General Motors finally filed for bankruptcy, it got some good news on at least one front.

Consumer Reports magazine announced it has ranked the Chevrolet Traverse third among 18 mid-size sport-utility vehicles with three rows of seats.

The magazine noted that its “very good” rating was only one point behind the Toyota Highlander and six points behind the Highlander Hybrid Limited, both of which received “excellent” ratings.

The GMC Acadia and Saturn Outlook, which are nearly identical mechanically to the Traverse, raked fourth and fifth, respectively, followed by the Ford Flex, Mazda CX-9 and Hyundai Veracruz

Click here to read Nick Yost's full review of the 2009 Chevrolet Traverse.

In their evaluation, Consumer Reports engineers and editors praised the Traverse for its interior room and flexibility, ride, handling, quietness, usable third-row seat, blind-spot mirrors and good crash test-results.

The six-speed automatic transmission and the brakes came in for mild criticism. The testers noted that the transmission shifted smoothly but sometimes hesitated before downshifting. The brakes, they said, worked well on dry pavement but not quite as well in wet conditions.

The magazine’s evaluators also explained that they could not give any of the tested SUVs “recommended” ratings because they have not yet collected enough reliability data.