Chevrolet Traverse Review

Over Christmas we had the pleasure of driving a 2011 Chevrolet Traverse!

 The 2011 Chevy Traverse a family friendly cross-over SUV, with room for 8 which is a blessing for this family. Our daughters are now 6&7a and we often find that we have to take 2 vehicles to accommodate friends joining us.

Forget the fact that it’s a cross-over, this vehicle is as roomy as a mini-van without looking like one!

The rear seat is bench style with plenty of cup holders to keep my girls happy.

In the model we had the 2nd row were captains chairs (there is a 60/40 split bench available). The row between the seats is quite generous and allowed for easy access to the back row. The 2nd row seats have a feature called SmartSlide, this allows the seats to adjust forward, increasing the leg room in the rear.

The 2nd row captain’s chairs provided the girls plenty of room for their treasures around them. They also had their own controls for heating and cooling which they enjoyed. There was a moon roof above them, a DVD system and wireless headphones….did I mention this was the quietest week of driving I’ve ever had?

Both the rear and mid seats fold down, creating cargo space up to 24.4 cu.ft which is large enough for any road trip we’ll plan.

 The front seats in the model we had were leather, heated and cooled with power adjustments and driver side 2-position memory. The console was impressive, I like the way the speedometer and other controls were somewhat separated. The radio and cruise control were located upon the steering wheel and OnStar was easily activated with voice control.

We had plenty of storage, cup holders were well positioned and an outlet was located in the center console.

The reverse camera is located in the rearview mirror in this model but I understand that there is now a navigation system available which is located in the center dash. This would be much better, the camera in the rearview is much too small and using OnStar for GPS is a paid for service which I would not choose.

Note: Bluetooth, Sirius XM Radio,and rear-seat entertainment are available in 2011 vehicles and buyers don’t need to wait until 2012!!

The side mirrors are heated and have an imbedded fish eye mirror which assisted in seeing past blind spots. Electronic stability control, front airbags, and front side airbags are included in all Traverse models, along with side curtain airbags that help protect all three rows of seats.

The Traverse is lovely, it has a smooth ride and in an unexpected snowfall it felt safe and secure.

While we enjoyed the 2011 Traverse I’d have to try the 2012 model before saying its “the one” for our family. The gas consumption was higher than I was used to because this was a heavenly 4wd and FWD Traverse has a 8.4L/100lm rating on the highway which is the best fuel efficiency of any eight-passenger utility vehicle.