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Calling all 2019 Avenir's...

19K views 69 replies 10 participants last post by  dporter22 
#1 ·
...do you love it? Any problems with it? Is it worth the extra money over the Chevy Traverse High Country? What do you not like about it?
 
#2 ·
I guess you know why they make 37 flavors of ice cream? With that being said, I LOVE THE AVENIR!

We sold our 2008 Enclave to buy this vehicle. We waited patiently for 2 months for it to get here. Obviously there have been many updates since the 08! LOL

I read a lot of reviews before the purchase. There were a few complaints about features missing, and etc. But buying a car is like buying a house that someone else built. There is very rarely one that will have everything that you want. So at the end of the day you have to decide what is important to you and what are the features that you can not live without.

We had to have the adaptive cruise control. We had it in a Chrysler and we loved it. The upgraded suspension is awesome. This vehicle feels solid and it is quiet.

Even though I did a lot of research, it does things that I did not know about. As a matter of fact, there are so many things that you can customize, that I have not figured them all out. When you start the vehicle, the heated seats and steering wheel come on if it is cold. The vented seats come on if it is hot. The lock can lock automatically when you walk away from the vehicle. I love this feature. The cameras and large screen are fantastic. No more opening the door to see how close you are to the parking line! We also love the camera in the rear view mirror.

And as with any vehicle it has things that I could care less about. The sun roof to me is worthless, but can not be excluded at this trim level. WIFI, not needed.

For the price there are some things missing. Rain sensing wipers. Button operated sun roof. Fog lights. I am not sure why on the fog lights. Maybe they are not needed.

We highlighted all of the features that we had to have in the list in the back of the book. We then noted ones that we wanted, but could live without. In the end we had to have the Avenir.

I am sure the car manufacturers have a plan to get more money from us by combining options in bundles and trim levels to force unwanted features on us.

We have been driving our 2019 for 3 weeks and everyone who has ridden it it loves it! I would do it all over again.
 
#3 ·
Thank you for taking the time to provide a great picture of your experience with the 2019. There are many things I like about it and have done a lot of research. I didn't know about the "missing" fog lights, I would have missed that entirely. Being in New England and near the ocean, we have quite a bit of fog and use our fog lights regularly. That's a great point for us to ponder in our pro's and con's. Thanks again!
 
#6 ·
Just took delivery last night of a 2019 Satin Steel/Ebony Avenir AWD with tech package and towing. Haven't even had it 24 hours so my experience so far is very limited, but my first impression is that it's a nice vehicle and we're happy with it overall.

I was already aware of the annoying deficiencies that have been discussed in other posts, so I won't complain about them here. I will say though that the lack of interior ambient lighting is worse than I expected. There are tiny, white, dim LEDs in the front door handles and a couple in the front dash, but that's it. Nothing in the rear, nothing in the foot wells, nothing overhead. Very bland and not befitting of this level of vehicle.

Regarding my previous post about the lack of fog lamps, the Enclave has LEDs around the turn signal area so you do get some "coolness". I didn't know this before we took delivery and was pleasantly surprised.

On a nit picky level, I don't prefer the color scheme of the displays. Both the driver display and the infotainment screen are predominantly an unpleasant teal and orange. It looks cheap and downscale compared to most every other brand. Just my opinion though.

Also, the second row seats are flat, hard, and not very comfortable, and the third row seats are even worse. I realize third row seats aren't intended to be great, but these are really bad. Very hard and instead of there being a slight depression to settle into, the center of the seats feel like they protrude upwards. I actually got up and checked underneath me to see if I had sat on something when I first sat back there.

Beyond the known issues and some subjective opinions, it feels solid, handles well, and has met our expectations. Will post updates as we get more miles.

Never thought I would own a GM product so hopefully everything goes well.
 
#8 ·
Thanks a bunch, this is very helpful. I'm test driving next week andIll be sure to check these items out to see if they matter enough to us to take the Enclave off the list. I appreciate your time to respond. My kids will surely want their seats to be comfy and it could be a deal breaker for them since they spend the most time back there. I once had a car with terrible ambient lighting and I found it does matter at times when you need to find your window button at night, that kind of thing. Another great item to check out. Thanks again!
 
#7 ·
Congratulations on your new ride. Here's hoping you get many good miles with it.

I am wondering if they've changed things a bit in the 2019 models. I like the displays. The only orange I see in the DIC is a brief, small orange strip when a notification pops up. I don't see any on the nav screen. Also, I definitely have lighting in the second row and there is a bright light on the liftgate that lights up the entire rear area unless the third row seats are up. I agree that they could have lit up the footwells better. I haven't noticed any protrusions in the second row seats.

Here's a shot of what my display looks like (not mine) although I usually keep it in touring mode. Is that what you are seeing?
 

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#12 ·
I was referring more to the various displays which are predominantly teal and brownish orange. I much prefer the more upscale displays of some other manufacturers who use nice blues, whites, and grays. Just an opinion though.

The first two pics are my Enclave, the third one is a Pacifica.
 

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#9 ·
I tried the back seats again and for me they are just very uncomfortable. Very hard and definitely don't have any depression to sit in which makes it feel like you're sitting on a bump. Everyone's different though.

Keep in mind that when I was describing the lack of ambient lighting, I wasn't referring to window buttons and such. All the controls are lighted, it's just that there is no overhead, foot well, door pocket, etc. lighting like is found in every other luxury brand and even most mid-level brands. Not a deal breaker but disappointing nonetheless.

I discovered a few more pros and cons.

Cons:
Apparently every time you rotate the tires you have to reprogram all the TPMS sensors with a special tool. I assume a Buick service department can do this, but don't know about other places, and they recommend rotation every 7500 miles. I've had other vehicles with TPMS and this was never required.

None of the seat belts are height adjustable.

The front passenger seat only adjusts 6 ways, not 8 like the driver seat. You can only raise or lower the entire seat instead of being able to raise or lower the front and back separately.

Stop/start really is annoying, useless, and idiotic IMO. Can't wait to get the override module installed.

Android Auto doesn't work, at least not in my particular vehicle. It won't maintain a connection and the screen freezes making it unusable. It works fine in other vehicles with my same phone.

Pros:
When you're filling the tires it'll indicate when the correct pressure is reached by flashing the turn signals.

If it's raining and you have the front wipers on, if you shift into reverse the rear wiper will automatically turn on.

There's a washer for when the rear camera lens gets dirty.

You can set the rear lift gate to open to any height you want (above a certain minimum).

You can adjust the brightness of the rear camera mirror.

The infotainment touchscreen is acceptably quick/responsive.

There are tons of customizable settings so you have a lot of control over various features.
 
#10 ·
I had a 2015 Enclave and the TPMS system on that car also needed the GM tool to resync the tires after a rotation. I would have the tire pressure scene up on the DIC and while filling a tire I could see the wrong tire changing the value. I know Discount Tire stores have the tool and can do the resync.
 
#11 ·
Not related to the vehicle itself, but as a side note we had a very unpleasant buying experience once we got to the final paperwork and I asked about the advertising fees and doc fees they were charging me. The general manager came in and became very rude and unprofessional when I wanted to negotiate them. How dare I question the numbers on the purchase order!












Does anyone have actual knowledge of these fees for GM vehicles? Information on the web is nebulous regarding whether advertising fees are negotiable or not, whether the dealer get reimbursed or not, whether doc fees are required, etc. He told me the advertising fees that he chooses to participate in are required to be passed on to the customer and aren't reimbursed, and that he's legally required to charge a $394 doc fee, in addition to the title and license fees, to every customer if he processes the title and license.







It's a done deal now, but I'd still like to know the truth.
 
#62 ·
That's just BS. Refuse to pay the fees and start to walk and they will disappear, always ask for total drive out price when you discuss price so its easy to put it back on them. What he did is bully you. I would have walked out, I would of also called 20 dealerships and gotten bids from the internet sales manager.
 
#13 ·
Looks like the displays haven't changed, and I see what you mean by the brownish colors in the settings and radio links, which I never thought twice about. More and more manufacturers are using multi=color displays in just about everything (thermostats, sprinkler clocks, printers, etc.). It's just a matter of time when the automobile manufacturers will get on board with more lifelike colors.
 
#14 ·
Still can't get Android Auto to work. The Android Auto icon appears on the infotainment screen when the phone is connected by USB, but pressing the icon freezes the screen and none of the functions work.


Also, the infotainment guide makes it seem like you can access your phone's voice functions by pressing and holding the voice button on the steering wheel, but that doesn't work for me. Phone is paired successfully but pressing and holding the button doesn't do anything.


Note: I disconnected the hood latch sensor which successfully disabled stop/start, but as expected the 'Check Engine' icon remains on.
 
#15 ·
I can access the phone voice functions by pressing the voice button on the steering wheel once. I did see something in the manual about accessing voice pass thru functions by holding that button a few seconds, but have no idea what they are talking about.
 
#18 ·
That could be the problem. My cheap phone works in the vehicle but locks up the screen until I shut off the phone and restart it or shut off the engine. It is not on the compatibility list, but for $7/month, I can't complain. I rarely use it. :smile_big:
 
#19 ·
About 650 miles now and we're still happy overall.

The transmission is very annoying though and it's not getting any better with miles. The constant hunting for gears, especially while decelerating instead of smoothly coasting when you lift off the throttle, makes the driving experience much less enjoyable than it should be with this level of vehicle. Handling is great however, even though I don't notice any difference between Sport and Touring modes.

The dumb gear shifter is still dumb and unpleasant. Very poor ergonomic/functional design. What would have been so difficult about simply using PRND? Forward and left to go backwards?! It would have been interesting to sit in the design meeting where someone said, "Hey, instead of an intuitive and ergonomically pleasurable gear shift pattern on this brand new luxury vehicle, let's make it annoying, unintuitive, and unpleasant for the driver." And all the multimillionaire executives said, "Ohh, that's a great idea! And let's not test it with test groups or use any common sense and just do it!"

We're finding the front camera to be very useful, but it would be better if it came on automatically below 5 mph so you didn't have to manually turn it on every time you're maneuvering in a tight spot and have to take your eyes off what you're doing to reach over and turn it on.

I noticed that the OLM is already at 80% with mostly city driving. At this rate it'll need an oil change every 3,000 miles which would be much more often than any other car I've ever owned. I thought the newer oils and newer engines were designed to have generally longer oil change intervals.
 
#20 ·
Also noticed that temporarily taking control of gear selection as described in the "Getting to Know Guide" doesn't work.

To temporarily take control of gear selection while
in Drive (D), press either paddle behind the steering
wheel. Automatic shifting returns after no manual
shifts have occurred for 7 to 10 seconds.

Tapping the paddles does nothing. Too bad because if this feature worked I could quickly and easily upshift when letting off the gas to avoid the clunky automatic downshifts with this transmission.
 
#21 ·
That's a mistake in the manual. It should say "shift to low, then use the paddles". When you shift to low it drops it down one gear.

The shifter is awkward at first, but I'm pretty used to it now and like the storage space below, which would not be available with a mechanical shifter.
 
#22 ·
Pretty big proofreading mistake when the preceding paragraph explains shifting to low then using the paddles, and then intentionally adding an entirely new paragraph for a capability that doesn't exist explaining how you can temporarily use the paddles without shifting to low. Obviously they knew that doesn't work, and it must have gone through several levels of review and approval, but they left it in the guide anyway.

I agree that an electronic shifter is better than a mechanical one, but they could easily have designed the electronic shift pattern better. In fact it would have been simpler and less expensive to simply have PRND, but they intentionally made it unintuitive and ergonomically unpleasant just to be different. That's the definition of poor design and an inferior senior management culture.

Still loving most everything else though!
 
#23 ·
I've never owned another vehicle with an electronic shifter, so I have nothing to compare it to. It is definitely unintuitive, but I have to believe it was done to prevent some sort of safety issue. It is certainly not cool. I can see why they used a button for Park, to prevent putting it there while in motion. The side button and shift up and to the left would seem to prevent shifting into reverse by accident. I suppose they could have implemented electronic safeties to prevent unintended shifting.
 
#26 ·
Here is a tip I just discovered. If you miss the analog clock that was on the dash of older models, just touch the time display at the top right corner of the infotainment display. Instant analog clock. You won't be able to use the other functions of the display while that screen is up but it is cool looking.
 
#27 ·
I was curious about the low speed pedestrian warning/braking so I set up a soft object and drove slowly toward it. There was never a warning and the vehicle didn't brake even after touching the object.

I also haven't seen any warnings or braking when cars have slowed or stopped suddenly in front of me. A couple of times the warning has displayed when a car has cut closely into my lane.

All of the safety features are turned on and I've tried with the distance at far, medium, and near.

Has anyone experienced the safety features working to prevent a collision with a car or pedestrian?

Also, I got my first rock damage to the windshield. Barely a month old and my pristine ride has a giant hole and star right in the middle of the driver's side. Had it filled but it looks the same.
 
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