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04 Regal LS Rental Report
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#11
 
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Re: 04 Regal LS Rental Report -
09-16-2004
, 09:50 AM
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----- Original Message ----- From: "Harry Face" <harryface (AT) webtv (DOT) net Newsgroups: alt.autos.pontiac,alt.autos.gm Sent: Tuesday, September 14, 2004 12:34 AM Subject: 04 Regal LS Rental Report Went to Seattle / Vancouver BC this past weekend. National Car Rental Reservation : Large Car. Drove it Thursday to Monday. 677 Miles driven. Impala was the first choice. I asked about upgrading to Park Avenue, it was $99 a day. The Large car was $55 a day, but I was getting it for $29 a day. I got a good travel agent. Tell the counter guy I'll take the Impala if you got one - Berry Red or White please. Fills out the paper work, then we go downstairs to the pick up area at SeaTac Airport. HF - Got a reservation for a Large car, hopefully Impala. Clerk - Or first available. HF ( Pointing to the stalls )- I see two Impala's over there. Clerk - Those are reserved. HF - Well...... maybe one is RESERVED for ME ! Clerk - We got a Rendezvous ready now. HF - I don't want a Rendezvous, we want a " car " with a trunk. Clerk - You'll have to wait then. So we wait a few minutes, Looking over at the Impala I notice its the base model with the 3400 V6. MMmmm some nice Devilles in the next row - oh wait those are $99 a day. After about 6 minutes we see amber DRL parking lights approach the booth, car dripping wet, 04 Buick Regal LS - hey that has a 3800 V6 ! I hope we get that. Clerk - We got a Regal ready. HF - I'll take it, its faster than the Impala's you got sitting over there. Silver / Graphite Interior, Power everything, Auto Climate Control, AM- FM -CD. Leather seats, no lumbar adjust thank god. Ride & handling was good, Although hard to tell on Interstate 5 around Seattle area - due to poor quality pavement that made the tires roar like a lion. I would hate to live there & have to drive that road everyday. The original Goodyear Eagle LS tires on my '99 Regal LS roared on course pavement. The next set of Firestone FT-70c's were much quieter, a bit smoother, had much better wet weather traction, but at the sacrifice of some handling. Currently, my third set of tires are Goodyear Eagle GA's. I'm back to my original complaints. They are even noisier and impossible to balance, but they were given to me. I'm trying to wear them out so I can buy something I like better. Didn't bother with checking the gas mileage for this car. Over 82,000 miles since new, I've averaged a bit over 22 MPG. I average about 60% city, 40% highway, often have a heavy foot, and I idle a lot. I've gotten as high as 28 on a highway trip and as low as 14 during city driving exclusively. Drove in both wet & dry conditions. V6 had 205 Horsepower / 230 Torque Acceleration was good. Better than the 1991 3800. Loads of legroom up front. Headroom was fine, but a higher seat setting and your head would brush the door frame opening but cleared the headliner still. The radio sound was decent - I didn't bring any CD's. I programmed the Volume speed control to OFF. The Concert Sound II sound system is sufficient for most people, but a 10" subwoofer and amp cured my desire for a tad more bass. Visibility - Front & Rear was good. Exterior Power Mirrors - Big, Good rearward vision. Interior mirror had reading lights on the bottom which were very bright. Good trunk space, flat floor & deep. Fold down rear seat. Non intrusive trunk lid hinges. Wet Arm Wipers ( Washer Jets on the wiper arm ) really flooded the winshield good. A green " Cruise " light, lights up on the dashboard when the desired speed is set. You know me, there ARE some grievances ---------~~ Intrusive footwell for drivers left foot at the far left side of floorboard. Toes also hit lower dash trim. I guess I've never been offended by the footwell nor have my toes ever hit the lower dash trim. The Auto Climate Control, while it worked just fine, setting it while in motion was risky. You have to push a paddle button for the Blower Setting, the Temperature setting and the Air Flow setting ( where the air comes out from ). etc. 10 different buttons in all. Plus while pushing the buttons you have to watch the digital settings / bar graph readings to see that you got the settings you want. After you've lived with the car for a while, you can operate the climate control blindfolded. 99% of the time, I prefer to leave mine on the AUTO setting and let it do its thing. One exception would be that in some mild temperature conditions, it prefers to direct cold air to the windshield and warm air to the floor. It results in what feels like an uncomfortable cold draft from the front of the car. I usually override it and direct the airflow to the floor temporarily. Here we go with the Power Driver Seat again - Unfortunately it was a back killer for me. It would of been a super comfortable seat if only the side bolsters on the backrest were 2 to 3 inches further out. There were pressing to hard against my sides. The seat cushion was great, firm support. The tennis racquet style headrests--- well lets use them as tennis racquet and not headrests, they were useless. I've yet to find a vehicle that suits my body in terms of long trip comfort. The closest I ever came was the seats in my '95 Probe. DRL's & Automatic Headlights --- GRrrrrr. At night - you had to turn the headlight switch dimmer down to " MIN " every time you got out of the car. This way, when you hit the Lock button on the Remote Keyless Fob the headlights and tailights would go out immediately. If you left the switch set near or on " MAX " the exterior lights would stay on for a loooong time. When you would start up again at night you would have to then turn the headlight switch dimmer up to MAX again so the gauge cluster could be seen again.. I'm a bit confused by the wording of this comment. The MIN and MAX settings on my headlight knob exclusively control the brightness of the instrument panel lights. It has nothing to do with the delay of interior lighting unless it's set to the "dome lamp on" detent just past the "MAX" setting. In that case, the interior lights will stay on until the battery saver feature cuts power to them (about 20 minutes). Otherwise, they fade out in about 40 seconds or shut off immediately when you press the LOCK button on the keyfob. Perhaps this particular example was defective? Wiper delay --- When turned to the delay cycle position the wipers would make the jerky single sweep at a unusual high rate of speed. With the floorshift & center console there is no room to put anything. The storage armrest was good, but there was no room to set a map or road atlas anywhere. The door panel pockets were too small. One AAA book filled it. It was too narrow for sun glasses. The flip out cup holder in the console was ready to flip your cup out on turns & hard stops. The bottom of the front seats had plastic trim right down to the carpet making it difficult to tuck things down next to the seats. There is no P R N D L1 L2 indicator on the console trim plate for the floor shift. Its a digital read out on the dash. Interesting. Very interesting. Mine has shift indicators in the instrument cluster and down by the shift lever itself. So do two '04 Regals on a local Buick dealer's lot here. The console armrest for leaning on & holding the wheel with the right hand was way too low and too far back. The storage area under the flip up ashtray door, although it was deep - you had to reach way in to retrieve anything behind the ashtray. In doing so it looked like you were elbow deep in a barracuda's mouth. And forget about visually seeing anything you had in there. I agree that the armrest is too low and too far back - particularly the further forward and the higher you have the seat adjusted. LOL @ the comment about the storage area behind the ashtray! Many '97-up Regals were actually equipped with a lamp assembly inside the ashtry storage compartment, however, it's not connected to anything. Some of those Regals also had a microswitch activated by the ashtray console lid making the lamp functional. Mine has the lamp, but not the switch. Maybe I'll add it next time I have to pull the console for some reason. The Climate Control unit is to low in dashboard. No Climate Control buttons on the steering wheel hub - only radio controls. Personally, I've never desired duplicate climate controls on the steering wheel for anything more than show or entertainment purposes. The AUTO setting seems to do just what it's designed to do in my opinion. I akin this to having a RF remote for the thermostat in your home, walking around changing it everytime you feel a degree or two too warm or cool.  )Fog Lights - Who lit those candles? Not to bright. Yup. Purely for cosmetic purposes. I even resorted to installing lower wattage bulbs in my fog lamps after the original wattage bulbs kept resulting in cracked plastic fog light housings. Elbow OFF Door Sills - Impossible to rest your left arm on top of the door sill with the window up. Eh, poor driving posture anyway. You should have both hands firmly on the wheel at all times. <grin Visors are to small. I wear sunshades. Kilometer numbers on speedometer very small to read. Not an issue for US Regal's drivin in the US. The MPH markings are plenty large. While in Vancouver Canada I didn't see any Canadian Tire Stores or Ian, our GM Mechanic. 04 Buick Regal LS - another car I can cross off my To Buy List. I've put 82,000 trouble-free miles on mine since I bought it new in '99. Although a bit of a grandma car in non-GS form for someone 26 years old, I'd buy another one when this one dies. However, that's a moot point (unless I buy a used one) since its replacement - the LaCrosse - arrives in a few months. I'll miss the availability of the SC 3800, but I'll reserve final judgement until I drove a LaCross CXL with the new 3.6L VVT V-6. Roger |
#12
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I've put 82,000 trouble-free miles on mine since I bought it new in '99. Although a bit of a grandma car in non-GS form for someone 26 years old, I'd buy another one when this one dies. However, that's a moot point (unless I buy a used one) since its replacement - the LaCrosse - arrives in a few months. I'll miss the availability of the SC 3800, but I'll reserve final judgement until I drove a LaCross CXL with the new 3.6L VVT V-6. |
the CXS has the 3.6L VVT V-6.
Roger
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