I just returned from a 1200-mile trip picking up a member of the family from college for the summer. Here are my impressions regarding the HL (Limited):
Good:
1. Overall, the experience was very nice. The car was largely quiet (absolutely no rattles - for now), but there were (are) some issues (see below).
2. I particularly enjoyed the Entune system. It worked very well. It was very intuitive and the learning curve was not that steep (this is not my primary car). I really liked the voice-guided navigation. The signal was much more accurate than the one on my three-year old Garmin GPS. In town, it worked flawlessly. The timely traffic congestion warnings tied to HD radio are very useful and rather accurate. The voice was pleasant, helpful, and always timely. I also learned the hard way that you cannot set up a new phone while driving.
3. Doing 80-85 MPH, the car was very stable and confident on the road.
4. Passing was done effortlessly.
5. The seats were very comfortable, despite sitting on them for about 9 hours almost non-stop, each way (a couple of breaks for gas and coffee).
6. Visibility from the driver's seat was excellent.
7. The average MPG for the highway portion of the trip was about 22.3 (the high speed did not help).
Bad:
1. The GPS failed to pick up the shortest route for the major part of the trip. All options that it provided were at least one hour longer than what the Garmin provided. I hope that there is some kind of a solution to this.
2. At high speeds, I noticed the hood sheet metal vibrating from the wind. I never noticed that before on my other car on the same route.
3. The wind noise, which I mentioned in previous posts, is still puzzling. This is not normal wind noise that you get with most other cars at high speeds. There is a "faint" rushing/gushing crosswind-like noise coming from the passenger side of the car. Of course, road noise varied by road surface, but it was quite acceptable.
4. We had a heavier load on the way back and the tire pressure warning came on at the beginning of the return trip. Eventually, it went off on its own(?).
Good:
1. Overall, the experience was very nice. The car was largely quiet (absolutely no rattles - for now), but there were (are) some issues (see below).
2. I particularly enjoyed the Entune system. It worked very well. It was very intuitive and the learning curve was not that steep (this is not my primary car). I really liked the voice-guided navigation. The signal was much more accurate than the one on my three-year old Garmin GPS. In town, it worked flawlessly. The timely traffic congestion warnings tied to HD radio are very useful and rather accurate. The voice was pleasant, helpful, and always timely. I also learned the hard way that you cannot set up a new phone while driving.
3. Doing 80-85 MPH, the car was very stable and confident on the road.
4. Passing was done effortlessly.
5. The seats were very comfortable, despite sitting on them for about 9 hours almost non-stop, each way (a couple of breaks for gas and coffee).
6. Visibility from the driver's seat was excellent.
7. The average MPG for the highway portion of the trip was about 22.3 (the high speed did not help).
Bad:
1. The GPS failed to pick up the shortest route for the major part of the trip. All options that it provided were at least one hour longer than what the Garmin provided. I hope that there is some kind of a solution to this.
2. At high speeds, I noticed the hood sheet metal vibrating from the wind. I never noticed that before on my other car on the same route.
3. The wind noise, which I mentioned in previous posts, is still puzzling. This is not normal wind noise that you get with most other cars at high speeds. There is a "faint" rushing/gushing crosswind-like noise coming from the passenger side of the car. Of course, road noise varied by road surface, but it was quite acceptable.
4. We had a heavier load on the way back and the tire pressure warning came on at the beginning of the return trip. Eventually, it went off on its own(?).
