Last Hurrah! – Lori Oswald

This week I’ve been sadly counting down my last days in the Traverse. The brief times I’ve had to drive my old car, the Jetta, during these passed eight weeks have literally driven home how much I love driving the Traverse. It has been such a convenient, comfortable, and luxurious car for our family. I know that after this experience, I will not be lasting long at all back in the Jetta. All I need is time to save for a down payment, and I will be in something new. I’m definitely considering a Traverse – how could I not? It feels like the standard requirement to me now, so anything else I look at will have to measure up.

I’m so thankful to have had the opportunity to be a part of this promotion. It was definitely a lot of work but it was a lot more fun! Not only did I get to drive an awesome vehicle for two months, but it helped me to figure out what I really want/need in a new family vehicle. I also got the chance to stretch my creativity and play around with another media (video) that I hadn’t before spent much time with. Now I’m looking forward to producing more videos, just for the fun of it!

Today we are headed out on our last “mission” with the Traverse, which is camping and canoeing for the weekend. I’m so excited and thankful the wonderful Chevy dealers gave me a one day extension on the test drive so I could get one last haul out of the cargo space. I was simply dreading stuffing all our gear into the Jetta. We’ve done it before, but it’s never an easy task loading and unloading the gear! This will no doubt make our trip all the more enjoyable and relaxing.

So thanks again to our local Kansas City Chevy Dealers, CBS Radio (Mix 93.3, Star 102.1, and Q104.3), and Massage Envy for putting this thing together and letting me be a part of it!

If you have any questions/comments for me about the Chevy Traverse, or anything else, leave a comment here, or you can find me at mytwo.wordpress.com.

Mirror Mirror – by Lori Oswald

One of the great things about the Traverse is the ride and feeling of safety. It sits up high, but not so high that it feels top-heavy. And it seems the people at Chevy have thought out so many of the safety features, including the side-view mirrors.

Size really does matter! In that large of a vehicle, you’ve got to be aware of your surroundings. I noticed right off the bat as I drove away in the LS model almost 8 weeks ago, I felt like I had an incredible view of the road around me, just through the side-view mirrors! They are quite large, and I could easily see 3 to 4 lanes of traffic on either side, much more visibility than I had with the Jetta.

When I upgraded to the LT model, the mirrors were even better. They have a built in blind-spot mirror that’s inset in the outside corner of the mirror so you can also see what’s right up next to the vehicle but not in the view of the regular mirror.
i took this photo on I-35 this morning – check out the “ghost” truck in the blind spot mirror.

It was right next to me but not visible in the regular mirror. It took a bit to get used to this feature, but it is SO helpful!

It’s also a reminder that if you don’t have this feature – CHECK YOUR BLINDSPOT. That photo really shows how deceiving a standard, even if larger side-view mirror can be!

Clean Freak – Lori Oswald

This weekend Ronnie spent some time shining up the chrome on his Harley (as he does most weekends!).

But then he looked at the Traverse and realized its wheels were also in need of some polishing! So he took the Traverse to the carwash and then got it all cleaned up!

From Mommy Madness to…well…Madness – Lori Oswald

One of our Mommy Missions provided by Chevy was to head to a KC Royal’s game. I was so excited to go see the new stadium, but as it turned out, the weekend of the Chevy sponsored game was the weekend that we already had tickets to go to Rockfest, an annual all-day rock concert event held at Liberty Memorial (It’s actually now the biggest single-day music festival in the country, at over 50,000 concert-goers). Ronnie and I look forward to going every year, and had purchased tickets months in advance, almost as soon as they went on sale.

Skyler’s grandma took her for the day and we met up with another couple and headed out to Rockfest. Of course I wanted to show off the Traverse and take our friends for a ride, but I didn’t feel comfortable parking it downtown all day among all the rock fans who can get a little rowdy. So, the Traverse stayed in the driveway and we played it safe by taking a cab. I did take them out there before we left to show it off, and we took the token photo with the Traverse in the background! Be sure to check out the video of our fun day at Rockfest! It may not have been “mommy madness,” but it was a madness all its own!

L to the T – Lori Oswald

My week started out nicely when work dismissed us upon arrival this morning due to a major power outage in our building. My day got even better when the nice people at Morse Chevrolet in Overland Park delivered me my upgraded Chevy Traverse LT, a beautiful “Cyber Gray Metallic” with light gray leather interior!

My favorite thing so far – Rearview camera. As soon as I shift to reverse, this magical image of what’s behind my car appears in the rearview mirror! I can’t get too used to this, otherwise I’ll never be able to back out again in any vehicle without a Magic Mirror.

And, there is a button on the keyless remote that opens the tailgate automatically – and closes it. What will they think of next?

Reality Check – Lori Oswald

The other morning I was getting ready to back out for work and realized the Jetta was parked behind the Traverse in the driveway, and there wasn’t enough room for me to wiggle my way out. I ran inside to grab the Jetta keys so I could move it onto the street and out of my way.

Oh.Em.Gee! That car is small. Has anyone seen those Smart Cars? The Jetta isn’t nearly that small, but that is what it felt like behind the wheel after getting used to the Traverse. And it was loud and slow and just…heavy. Yuck. Never again. I don’t even know how I stepped back out of that thing without getting stuck in the doorway or bumping my head.

I’ve got less than one month left on this Traverse test drive. I’m going to soak it up and enjoy it – and time is tickin’ for me to convince the hubby that I need one!

Standard Features – Lori Oswald

I think it takes time to figure out what features you really appreciate of anything – whether it’s your relationship, your job, your vehicle. When I first started driving the Traverse, I liked it ALL. It was all better than my previous vehicle, so it was almost overwhelming to try to pick out anything that really stood out to me about the Traverse.

Now that I’ve been driving it for a month (that thought makes me sad because that means I’m halfway through the test drive already!), I’ve started noticing particular features that I really enjoy.

Many have mentioned it already, but the auxillary input for an MP3 player is really handy. I have one in the stereo we installed in the Jetta, but I have to change the channel to “auxillary” before it will play, and I have to turn my ipod up to full blast volume to play through the speakers.The Traverse auxillary input switches your stereo automatically to play what’s on your MP3 player, and the volume level is much easier to adjust without also adjusting the player’s volume. I can’t tell you how many times I nearly blew out my eardrums after having my ipod’s volume at full blast in the car and forgetting to adjust it before listening with my headphones!

Others have also mentioned the plethora of cupholders. I don’t so much need that many; I’ve got one child that I haul around and to be honest I prefer not to take her drinks with us or set them in car cupholders because I know that besides potential spillage, we would inevitably leave them in there and I can’t stand the thought of the curdled, rotten soy muck I would find in such left behind cups – especially if it was stinking up my lovely Traverse!

But, the plethora of cupholders has benefited me personally quite well. I leave the house every morning with a homemade protein shake – it’s my breakfast-to-go. I don’t always have a tall skinny cup/thermos clean, so sometimes a standard coffee mug is the only drinkware I can find. It doesn’t exactly fit well in standard cupholders!

However, I discovered the in-the-door cupholders, which have a much more convenient shape for holding drinks with handles on them. Now I just have to remember to get my own leftover mugs out of the car!

Short on time, but not on words – Lori Oswald

I haven’t had as much chance to post lately, because with gorgeous Spring/Summer weather, comes lots of fun things to do! Last weekend was of course Memorial Day weekend, and Ronnie and I celebrated our 3rd wedding anniversary that Saturday (even though it was actually the 26th) by getting our free 1 hour massages at Massage Envy (see “I Feel Good” video). It was absolutely wonderful, and then we came home to get dressed and head to dinner at Capital Grille, which OMG let me just say LOBSTER BISQUE!

I was even going to try and get some video clips of our date, but to be honest I just felt a little too conspicuous recording the valet driving off in our Traverse through the Plaza, especially when there was a fancy black Mazaratti parked on the curb right in front of me. But in the end, the restaurant ambience was way too dark to get any video footage anyway, so there wasn’t much to see!

Prior to our relaxing date, we had spent the morning running around to Costco and Home Depot getting food, supplies, and patio furniture for cooking out the following day with friends. I failed to bring the camera with me to catch the Traverse in action, but it was a trooper! We loaded it with a few large Costco grocery items, a big bag of wood for the smoker, two new wrought iron outdoor benches, and then strapped the giant box holding our new 5 piece patio set to the roof! The morning’s errands would’ve been impossible with our previous vehicles, and I was so glad to have the Traverse!

Today, we handed off Skyler to Grandma, and we are headed with friends to rock out at Rockfest at Liberty Memorial. We try to make this an annual tradition (this is our 3rd year going, though we skipped one summer in ‘07 when I was pregnant with Skyler). And unfortunately, for safety and liability, the Traverse will be staying put in our driveway while we take cabs to the park for the concert. You never know what might happen with 50,000 hard rock fans in one place!

Since I failed to photograph the Traverse at work last weekend, I guess I’ll just have to post some cute pics from the BBQ on Sunday that was a complete success thanks to the Traverse’ cargo space!

[Unfair] Comparisons by Lori Oswald

As I drive the Traverse, I try to keep a mental note of all the things I love, especially when comparing to my old car, the Jetta. I find myself thinking on almost every comparison, that the Traverse is so much better than the Jetta.

However, to be completely honest, I have two small complaints about the Traverse when comparing to the Jetta. But as you will see below, any sane person can render those complaints invalid.

1) The LS model does not have heated seats. Not that this feature even matters right now because the weather is gorgeous. But when you don’t have a garage (our house and most in our older neighborhood have single-car garages that are converted into living space) the heated seats are a must in the wintertime, and our old Jetta’s got that going for it! This isn’t a total losing situation for the Traverse, as the top-of-the-line trim model LTZ does come with heated and cooled seats. I guess our Jetta is the top trim from it’s year & model, so if you can compare them, the Traverse LTZ actually has it beat with the addition of cooled seats too!

2) Gas mileage! While the Traverse is rated best in class for 8-passenger crossover vehicles on gas mileage,  it’s still tough to get used to getting half as many miles to the gallon than the Jetta. We have the Jetta TDI, which burns diesel gas, combined with being a small economy car, so it’s pretty tough to beat unless you’ve got a hybrid. I drive mostly in-town, and the Traverse has averaged between 17 and 18 MPG, versus the 34 MPG I was used to in the Jetta.  So it’s really not a fair thing to compare gas mileage of an SUV to one of the most economical small cars out there.

So I’ve decided to do a little experiment, which I also did last summer when gas prices were much higher and I was trying to eek out every last mile from my gas tank.  There is this way of driving called “hypermiling,” which I’ve been experimenting on this current tank in the Traverse. In short, it involves shifting to neutral and coasting to a stop or on downhills, so your engine RPM’s go down, burning less gas on parts of the road where you can use gravity and momentum to your advantage.

The Jetta was not a good car for hypermiling; for some reason it never coasted very well or for very long, but I guess it didn’t need the extra MPG’s. The Traverse, is an excellent coaster! I was in shock how far it could coast while still maintaining the speed limit on some of the roads that I frequent. I’m only halfway through this gas tank, but I have a feeling I’m going to see a nice boost when I fill up next and calculate the MPG’s. I will be sure to report back with my findings, which will probably be middle of next week.

Pronunciation & Protests – Lori Oswald

I’m going to come right out and admit it. I’m having trouble pronouncing “Traverse.” I keep putting the emphasis on the first syllable, but I think it’s actually supposed to be the second syllable that’s stressed. And now that I’m concentrating on how to pronounce it, I’m pretty sure it ends up all awkward and bumbly most of the time when I say it. Sorry Chevy – I’ll try to get it right soon enough!

Mispronunciations aside, my recent video “Protest” is a glimpse of what happens lately when we pull up in our driveway after daycare. Skyler does not want to get out of the Traverse! This has been happening since last week – she whines & shoves my hands away as I try to undo her seatbelt. Once I finally do get her out, she waves and says “bye-bye” to the car over and over as we walk into the house. I really didn’t expect her to pay that much attention to the car, but maybe she just sees how much I love it, and it’s contagious!

Find out for yourself if you love the Traverse as much as we do and go test drive one! You’ll get a free 1 hour massage just for doing it! If you have any questions, leave a comment here, or find me at mytwo.wordpress.com.

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