Some more: We ordered the 2nd row bench seat and I'm happy with the decision. Unlike our minivans, the middle row seats don't recline very much. That's ok but my teenager likes to sleep whenever and wherever she can. Yesterday, she was able to stretch out across the bench and catch up with her beauty sleep! :sosad:
We were travelling this past weekend from restaurant to hotel to house to party center and used the turn by turn OnStar feature many times. It actually shows a small map on the radio display along with data about how far ahead the turn will be. It rings twice at the exact point where the turn is. I think the system must be biased towards highways instead of local roads because in one instance it insisted on sending us via the Palisades Parkway instead of via the preferred 9W two-lane road. If you ignore the spoken directions it will first try to get you back on the original course but eventually it will reconfigure the route using the local road. Also, we were able to call the OnStar operator and request an alternate route around a traffic jam approaching the GWB. That was nice. Finally, unlike dvd-based nav systems, one doesn't need to pay for updates: the OnStar data is continually updated and current. I like the Turn-by-Turn and I think nav is basically redundant.
The XM radio seems to sound much better than the Sirius radio in my Jetta. I could listen to classical music without cringing. Does anyone know if the compression scheme is "better" on XM? It was great being able to listen to Tribe games even though we were 300 miles from Ohio! We may keep the XM after the 3 month trial.
Our dealer prepped the car beautifully though he didn't understand all the electronics built in to the vehicle. He gave us the helpful hint to not give your credit card number to OnStar. They will prompt us when subscriptions are about to expire. I didn't want automatic credit card charges to be made. I paid $100 over invoice plus 2% advertising fees. I also got the $1000 Conquest rebate. Needless to say, we're very happy... so far!
Jay
