We are considering a new Relay van. Does anyone have experience with them.
Also, I may be able to get one for wholesale through a GM employee/friend. Does anyone know how to estimate wholesale price ? e.g. is MSRP say 30% over wholesale ?
Sorry I don't know a thing about them, but of all the GMs in that line, the Saturn has best looking front end, if it is possible!
James
Other than the grille and some minor trim, it's a "badge engineering" job, identical to 1) Chevy Uplander (nee Venture) 2) Pontiac Montana SV6 (nee TranSport)
Looks like it took the place of the Silhouette as the (slightly) upscale variant when GM euthanized Olds Division.
None of the siblings have a particularly good reputation as far as I can tell.
I would recommend against it. It is unreliable, and is in its first year of a completely new design. I would hold off for a year or two.
Honestly, right now you could get one for roughly $6500 off and 0% financing at our dealership, because we cant get rid of them!!! They have a good number of recalls already (alost positive it is 5) for only being in production for 11 months... But can be had pretty cheap.... Hope it helps.
Hardly a "new design", just a re-hash of the previous models, with a nose-job meant to look more like an SUV and less like a "soccer-mom" van
The new GM minivan design is much much safer than the previous platform. However I say wait until the bean counters get fired and the engineers throw out that POS FWD V6 3.5L and install the far superior powertrain found in the Chevy Colorado.
-GM mid size truck-
3.5L I5 (inline 5, easy as hell to work on) RWD Horsepower: 220@5600 Torque: 225@2800 Final Drive Ratio: 3.42 Weight: 3783 lbs MPG: 19 / 24-GM mini van-
3.5L V6 (POS design, ie: about 2 hours to change the t-stat!) FWD Horsepower: 201@5600 Torque: 216@4000 Final Drive Ratio: 3.29 Weight: 4470 lbs MPG: 18 / 25Don't buy a Honda odessy, though. We're waiting patiently for the transmission in ours to go *boom*, I put it at 80k miles. The one in my mom's Acura just up and died at ~~40,000 miles (Mostly highway ones, too). So much for "Honda Quality", even my dad's Chevy _Vega_ went
150,000 on it's origional transmission (automatic, 3 speed). Our '87 Chevy wagon got 225,000 out of that 'Piece of GM American built shit" TH125C. You'd think the Amazing Honda would go forever. Nope, expect to blow the automatic before 100,000 miles. Oh yeah, and the PCM needs to be replaced with it too...HIGHLY unlikely that the inline 5 would fit cross-ways into the van, and that engine is hardly noted for its mechanical refinement. (an I-5 is inherently out of balance, so even with balance shafts, the idle will 'lope' and there will be unpleasant second-order vibration)
- and 700 lbs lighter and only gets 1 mpg more?
(maybe GM's embarrassed agreement with Honda to purchase 3.5L V6 (250 HP,
19/25 mpg for the Saturn Vue) should be extended to the full line)
employee/friend.
Duh, make it RWD which was also the intent of my post which would also create enough room. You have totally missed the point of my post. Pop a hood why dont you... Trust me no one wants that f'ing pos from Honda, that is the worst damn engine you'll ever put your hands on. I'll take the sh***y 3.5v6 from GM before I touch an even sh***ier honda. I'm not screwing with no timing "belt" or a water pump buried behind a timing belt! I dont want to loose fingers nor money working on silly crap. The I5 has more than enough refinement to kick honda to the curb.
The whole point of using the I5 was to create an easy to service van that would be more than enough to compete by numbers alone. Those who like to service their own vehicles or want to save on labor cost should know to put a I5 powered van on top of their list. An easy to service van is something that I havent seen to this day and the I5 is the most accessible engine you can get. The new U platform is more than capable of holding that engine.
Embarrassment? Hardly. GM only gets that pos honda engine because of a trade deal in diesel tech they had and bean counters dont care about intellectual property or well thought out motors...their only care is getting million dollar bonuses for saving GM a million dollars. GM cant make money if they actually start paying retail for that POS Honda engine. They also cant make money off of Honda's already sky high parts racket.
LOL! ;-) I guess you don't visit here much, do you?...
My wife has an '05 VUE with the Honda 3.5L V6, and I'm driving an '03 Malibu with the (marginal) GM 3.1L V6. Despite the 'blah blah' rant, I know which engine impresses me for power, refinement and mileage, and it isn't the GM. An I5 in a rear-wheel drive van hardly reflects 2006 tech, sounds more like a throw-back to the Astro, which were purchased in surprising quantities and regretted equally. The fact that you think a RWD van with this very tall motor sitting North-South is viable would be laughable if it weren't so close to GM's recent product mix. If GM is to survive, they can't keep pushing 70's tech, it just doesn't measure up to the competition. (the 'Vette notwithstanding)
(maybe they should resurrect the tooling for the 'stove-bolt' six and Powerglide 2-speed tranny --- now THAT would be easy to work on, and of course that should be the prime consideration in any auto purchase, right?)
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