Trading my Terrain for a... Terrain??!

TheCrow1994 said:

Terrain,

I tried both of those addresses you noted. I couldn't find Hayden Court on the navigation unit, but I did find 169 Front St. It shows a river or stream that runs parallel with Front, King, James, and Mary Streets. I then expanded the area of coverage, and it looks like it covers the whole town/city of Belleville rather well.

Click to expand...

Thanks, TheCrow1994.
I was going to test the Nav for member Terrain, but I don't use it on a daily basis, wife does, so I would have done it by weekend.

Terrain, here is coverage map for Onstar:

http://www.onstar.com/web/portal/coveragemap

Maybe there is some correlation with NAV since the Onstar does provide turn-by-turn NAV as an option.

We live just outside of Windsor, ON.
The maps are very good.
In areas of new development, there are some holes for sure, which can be expected of any NAV system I'd guess.
When we get onto the county backroads, there are some missing (maybe they are private roads, I don't know), but you can always see a main road nearby.
The ZOOM feature is also very useful on the NAV.

^ I ordered my Terrain last September when stock was scarce... and I do mean scarce. At the time, I couldn't get over how out of proportion the Terrains looked with the smaller wheels in those large wheel wells. That prompted me to go for the 19s. Then I needed the rest of the chrome so I went with the SLT-2. With the metallic paint and all the chrome it sure looks sharp and turns a lot of heads.

Because of the depreciation I will have to go for a lesser model and that's what I'm trying to justify in my mind.

I have nittered on and off about various issues but if I started a complaint thread I would just get flamed.

The list includes... off the top of my head:

- intermittent drone/vibration when cruising at ~1500 rpm. Sounds like a muffler baffle is gone but it isn't,
- intermittent right rear scraping sound when accelerating,
- intermittent rattle coming from the front suspension over sharp bumps,
- intermittent 'looseness' in the steering - it's normally nice and tight,
- intermittent steering system jitter/whine while turning at low speeds,
- "Rice crispies" dash board. I pushed down on the top dash panel one day to see if I could locate the noise. Heard a click and thought 'great!' but that just moved the sound to another spot up there,
- sunroof rattles like crazy while in vent mode,
- various other interior panels snap and pop continually,
- driver's side seat bolster leather is stretched and wrinkly. I knew this was going to be a problem from day 1 as there was an unusual wrinkle there to begin with,
- when idling in park or neutral, revving the engine to 1500 causes the engine to shake quite strikingly,
... can't recall the 11th right now.

Of course, since most of this is intermittent it's the old "could not replicate customer's complaint" and the dealer is 2.5 hours away so every trip there cost me $$. The latest thing is he wants to take it for a week. Now I'll be the first to admit that I'm much more particular than most consumers but at this point I don't trust that this thing is going to stand up well over the long term and the last thing I want is to be paying big bucks but not wanting to drive it.

Interior squeaks and rattles I CANNOT STAND. Period.

Narg said:

Do you have a "Lemon Law" where you live? If so, keep your records strong and GM may be forced to buy back your Terrain at near your purchase cost.

Personally, I'd do some serious cash saving and wait a few more months. Keep on your dealership to fix the problems (or try another dealership) After a few months you might find you can afford a higher payment and or have enough down to bring another SLT-2 into your range.

Click to expand...

No lemon law here in Ontario, just the CAMVAP arbitration process. Lots of energy would have to put into that.

As an update, I spent the morning at a more local dealer. They of course couldn't experience most of the issues I do and are pleased as punch to take it as a trade. With the employee pricing discount the difference between mine and an SLT-1 (w/o nav) would be a wash. Of course, it means I'd have to start over with the financing but that's not a problem for me.

I want the navigation system this time, and as a result will have to pay $3,000 extra in cash. There are only two 2010 Terrains left in Ontario with the nav (to my spec):

SLT-2 onyx black, V6, fwd, 19" wheels, trailering package (essentially same as mine now but with nav and minus AWD)
SLT-1 cyber grey V6, fwd, 18" wheels, trailering, sunroof, power gate, nav AND rear seat entertainment

At this point my preference is the SLT-1. I took an existing stock SLT-1 they had with the 18s and was astonished at how much quieter those tires are than my Hankooks. Also, the one I drove this morning had a different shift program... it was worlds better and didn't cause the V6 to 'bog' under light acceleration like mine does.


Let's see what happens...

bballr4567 said:

Honestly, with as many incentives that GM puts out, I would just ORDER what you want and be done with it. We did it with ours and cant be happier. It was MUCH easier than trying to find a SLE2 with the heated seats, color and INTERIOR color we wanted. Every time we found one with the first two, the interior was the light titanium and that was just a no go for my wife.

Click to expand...

I ordered the Terrain I have now. That was 12 weeks of hell. Unfortunately I'm not happy with the overall quality 7 months in and would like to have the navigation now that I know there is map coverage where I do most of my driving. This wasn't what I was told when I placed my order last September.

And besides, I don't think there are any incentives for '11s yet. The current employee pricing is only for remaining '10s as far as I know which is why we are waiting to see if the last SLT-2 V6 with nav in Ontario is available. If not, we will regroup.

Edit: this is from the GM Canada website fine print re the employee pricing discount "Ineligible vehicles: 2010/2011 Corvette ZR1, Express, Savana, and Medium Duty Trucks, 2011 Equinox, Terrain, Camaro, Regal, LaCrosse, Cadillac CTS Coupe and SRX."

bballr4567 said:

Most orders are being delivered in 6-8 weeks now. In fact, I havent seen someone complain about order time in a few months. Not trying to be a Debbie Downer, but it looks like you are SOL on getting a '10 model.

As for the pops and rattles in the dash, when does yours do it?? All the time? Ours does it for the first 15-20 minutes of a drive whenever its been hot out. After that, its done. Its from the plastic cooling down from the A/C. Same principle as when exhaust piping pings and pops after you turn off a car.

The steering issue seems to just be a power steering pump working in normal fashion to me. Does it kind of give a faint whine at full lock accompanied with low RPM?

Click to expand...

The dash pops while the vehicle cools down as well, just like you're describing. My annoyance is a snap/pop from the front dash somewhere on EVERY crack in the road. There are also other interior noises as well including a rattle above my head in the sunroof, again EVERY crack in the road. And our roads aren't in very good shape either.

Most of my mechanical list of annoyances are intermittent, meaning some days it's nice and quiet and other days it makes all kinds of weird noises.

The steering issue is intermittent as well. There is a whine (I believe to be normal) but there's a strange sound sometimes when turning at low speeds and a jitter in the steering wheel.

The SLT-1 I drove on Friday exhibited NONE of the annoyances I deal with on a daily basis. Of course it was brand new (34 km) and mine has 12,000. To me, my Terrain hasn't aged well. Feels more like 120,000 km than 12,000.

I'll find out Monday whether I'm trading for the 10. If not... well I have a decision to make - do I suck up the $3,000 - $4,000 (current incentive) and go for an '11 or just trade off for a non-nav leftover '10 rig.