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Road Test: 2009 Chevrolet Traverse LTZ car review, Chevy traversing and crossing over
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Ah, cute. The boffins responsible for naming names at Chevrolet have tagged their new crossover…Traverse. Microsoft Word's thesaurus provides these synonyms for traverse: cross, pass through, negotiate, navigate, go across and go over. Close enough to crossover. Anyway "Navigator" was taken, "Negotiator" sounds a little too UAW, and "Passer Through" and "Goer Across" are just plain weird. Chevrolet Traverse it is.
Actually, because the 2009 Chevrolet Traverse does help one negotiate the vagaries of family life, will be handy when the offspring and friends wish to go over to the soccer field and with the seats folded, there's a lot of room to pass through everything from bicycles, lawn and garden supplies or enough stuff to fill a dorm room (and if not the latter, someone's taking simply too much to college."
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A crossover, such as is the Chevy Traverse, is something that's not an SUV, is not a family car and-horrors-not a minivan. It's something in between. It has as much room inside as a minivan, as much ruggedness as most owners of SUVs ever use plus that coveted elevated seating, and as much style and the obligatory carlike ride of a sedan. The option of a full-time all-wheel drive system is a definite, almost mandatory, plus.Our test drive 2009 Chevrolet Traverse FWD LTZ slots squarely in that zone. As the trim level suggests, our tester had front wheel drive and LTZ is Chevy's way of saying top-of-the-line that includes the base model and the mid-range most-will-buy LT (though in LT there's 1LT and 2LT, the latter a soft of a bundling of options over the standard LT features).
The Traverse 1LT, however, shows how far demand for features have brought down recently exclusive features down to ordinary. The 1LT includes 18-inch wheels, ultrasonic rear parking assist (that beeps when something's close to the rear end of the car, be it another car or perhaps a pedestrian or errant child) and driver information center. It also includes "enhanced visibility side-view mirrors" (with a separate pane with a wider view, a poor-mans's blind spot warning system). The 2LT trim level adds remote starting, power remote liftgate, Bluetooth, dual-zone automatic climate control and a rearview camera screen in the rearview mirror.
The premium LTZ has a 115-volt three-prong power outlet (not more car charger adapters), touch-screen navigation with rearview camera display and XM NavTraffic, heated windshield washes, heated and cooled front seats, 20-inch wheels and dual exhaust.The LTZ can be configured for up to eight passengers-one more than the typical minivan-with a 60/40 three-passenger second row bench seat and 60/40 third row bench. Or as in our test vehicle, the Chevrolet Traverse can have two second captain's chairs and a third row bench, a common minivan configuration. Whether seven or eight seats, all occupants can be full-sized adults, even with Middle-America middle-age spread.
From behind the wheel it's hard not to think of the Traverse as a minivan. It's a classy minivan with a particularly stylish dash with a Y-shaped contour and a double cockpit design cribbed from the new Malibu which in turn had cribbed it from Chevys of the fifties.
Trim is high quality throughout, with plenty of soft touch surfaces and controls that have a look and feel of permanence. It's plastic but it's good looking plastic. Indeed, the interior is not just a place within the car but almost artistic expression.
The Traverse is equipped with a 3.6-liter V6 with a six-speed automatic transmission. In the LS and LT trim levels, this engine is rated at an energetic 281 horsepower and 253 lb-ft of torque. The LTZ, however, comes with dual exhaust which is not an affectation but actually increases power, summoning an extra seven horsepower (for a total of 288) and seventeen more lb-ft of torque, for a total of 270, and at 3400 rpm instead of 5500 rpm. Our Traverse LTZ was surprisingly quick-despite a curb weight of almost two-and-a-half tons-f or mostly terror-free merging.
But even with the generous dollop of horsepower, the Traverse is almost torque steer-free. The new six-speed transmission is smooth and we didn't get. It can be shifted manually, however, by moving the gearlever into "L" and then clicking a rocker on shifter.
For more photos including interior details view the photo gallery below.
The Traverse was quiet on the highway and thoroughly sophisticated, but it is also thoroughly unexciting to drive. Try to drive it like a sports car and the Traverse will roll its eyes in bewilderment that anyone would even try.
The Chevrolet Traverse has an EPA rating of 17 mpg city and 24 highway. That's in contrast to our experience of 15.2 mpg. We are surprised that our rear-world driving didn't match the lower number of the EPA estimate. We don't remember any excessive idling or heavy-footed driving…
Yet through all of this, there's one observation one can't help but make. The dimensions of the Chevrolet Traverse match a number of minivans. The driving characteristics don't differ very much either. Indeed, one is pressed to determine what makes THIS Chevy the different from minivans. Here's what: styling. Chevrolet, straining to distance the traverse from the dreaded Minivan Stigma, has replaced the TK of sliding rear doors with conventional hinged doors. Sliding doors, of course, are easier to get in and out through and they've been equipped with power openers. In other words, they're ideal for family use.But once again, form fails against fashion, and fashion in this case being "anything but a minivan." And that is our major grouse about the Chevrolet Traverse. The world has conventional minivans for those who value sliding doors above fashion. On the other hand, the Traverse has qualities that could make it first choice among minivan intenders, despite the sliding doors. One just must be able to, ahem, cross over that objection.
Illustrations, top to bottom: 2009 Chevrolet Traverse LTZ FWD. All photos by John Matras.
| Engine | 3.6L 288-hp DOHC 24-valve V-6 |
| Block/cyl. head material | aluminum/aluminum |
| Displacement, cc | 3564 |
| Compression ratio | 11.4:1 |
| Fuel delivery | direct |
| Horsepower @ rpm | 288 @ 6300 |
| Torque, lb-ft @ rpm | 270 @ 3400 |
| Maximum rpm (redline) | 6950 |
| Recommended fuel | regular unleaded |
| Transmission | 6-sp automatic |
| Suspension: front/rear | coil-over strut / linked H-arm |
| Turning circle, curb-to-curb, ft | 40.4 |
| Brakes, type | 4-wheel disc |
| Disc diam., in., front/rear | 12.8 /13.0 |
| Wheel size/type | 20 x 8-in, machine cast aluminum |
| Tire size/type | 255/55R20 all-season |
| Dimensions and Capacities | |
| Length, in. | 205 |
| Width, in. | 78.4 |
| Height, in. | 72.8 |
| Wheelbase, in. | 118.9 |
| Curb weight, lbs. | 4720 |
| Cargo capacity, min / max, cu. ft. | 24.4 / 16.4 |
| Fuel tank, US gal. | 22.0 |
| Towing, max, lbs. | 5200 |
| Performance | |
| Fuel econ., EPA city/highway, mpg | 17/24 |
| Fuel econ., observed, mpg | 15.2 |
| Base price | $39,025 |
| Safety: ABS, stability & traction control, airbags (front, front side, side curtain all rows) | |
| Exterior: roof rails, power liftgate, outside heated power-folding mirrors w/ turn signals and integral blind-spot mirror, ultrasonic rear parking assist, rearview camera | std. |
| Interior: leather 1st & 2nd row seating, heated and cooled front seats, 8-way power w/ memory driver seat, 4-way power passenger seat, 7-passenger seating w/ 2nd row captain's chairs, tri-zone climate control, express power windows, leather steering wheel w/ audio and cruise control, Bluetooth, universal home remote, 115v 3-prong power outlet, touch-screen nav w/ AM/FM stereo CD player, XM satellite radio, XM Nav Traffic, Bose audio, rear seat audio controls | std. |
| DVD rear seat entertainment | 1,295 |
| Engine block heater | 75 |
| Destination charge | 735 |
| Total MSRP | $41,130 |
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