CGM SS/RS #17571 Delivered!!! Review inside, CAUTION... LENGTHY!

[JDBeck23]

I know you guys may want to hate on me for getting my car so fast. But I just got EXTREMELY lucky! For the most part!

Anyways, here's my thought's on the first 700 miles I put on her after a 9 hour drive home.

Ok first impressions... Just like everyone has said. In person, this car is AMAZING! Sometimes cameras slightly distort proportions, etc, etc. It's truly a gorgeous car inside and out. I had a 600 mile drive home after flying into upstate NY to pick her up. Here's my impressions in approximate chronological order...

Startup: Awesome rumble/pur from the engine. I ordered the manual so LS3 engine, the engine has a really nice tone and gurgle to it that's plainly audible inside the car. The exhaust is muffled but not dead silent. It sounds soooo good!

Clutch: I read somewhere on here where a member of the site said the clutch was soft as butter. I call BS! It's by no means a "hard" clutch, but no means soft either. Be warned, there's a steep clutch quadrant on it, so when you're letting out the clutch to start down the road, the closer you get to the end of the clutch travel, the harder the clutch pedal wants to snap all the way to the top. Dont be that guy that gets in the car for the first time and stalls it in the dealer parking lot!!! (Read: dont be LIKE ME and stall it! OOPS!)

Transmission: Very "positive" feel when shifting. You can really tell the tranny has big beefy gears. The shift gates are a little notchy, but if I wanted silky smooth, I would have kept my honda accord 4 banger! The double overdrive really keeps the RPMs down on the highway. The "dreaded" 1-4 shift isnt the worst thing in the world, but I may disable it, a 1-3 shift works alot better for me and doesnt lug the engine down near as much.

Power: As I expected, it's a torque monster! Wow, it wants to MOVE! It's really hard staying out of it. It just sounds so good from 2-3 grand on the tach, I wanna hear it all day long!

Radio: AWESOME! The sound isnt stellar, im sure many "audiophiles" will have it ripped out and replaced soon, but as far as functionality, sound and overall features... I think it's GREAT! It looks cool, has lots of adjustability on it, and does everything I need it to do. If you listen to your iPod or equivalent most of the time, then the factory BA system will be just fine for you too!

Seats: I was surprised that the "sport bucket" seats werent more sporty. I was expecting a bit more firmness and to hold me in the seat more. Instead they're alot more soft and forgiving than I expected as well! Very comfortable seats. At first I was worried that the leather wouldnt hold up that long because of the softness of the seat, but the leather seems to be equally as soft, so apparently GM is on top of things. Either way, I rate the seats as awesome even though they dont hold you in the seat all that well. I'd say more "bucket", than "sport bucket", but im definitely not complaining!

Rear view mirror: Yes, it's huge. No it's no a huge problem. Im 5'10'' I have my seat in the middle/low of the adjustment available. I have a few inches of headroom left, and I can see under the mirror and out the windshield fine. The very first thing I did was move the mirror and far up as it would go, this helped a ton! There's a thread on the boards about fliipping the mirror, I may do this as well, it cant hurt. But for me, the mirror size is noticeable, but not a problem. It would have been nice if GM hadnt used such a mammoth mirror to begin with though!

Sun visors: In a few words... What a joke! They're smaller than a piece of printer paper folded in half width wise. They're tiny and pretty much useless except for the nice vinyl sleeve that holds my folded up registration card.

Trunk: Actually it's a pretty nice sized trunk... but the submarine hatch renders it far less useful than the size. That being said, if you need to get large items in the trunk, fold the back seats down, that's the only way you're gonna get anything big in the trunk.

Fit and Finish: I must say, that I was a bit surprised about the paint. It seemed to have a pretty uniform amount of slight orange peel. This is probably from the way they heat the body up to dry the paint. But either way, it was one of the first things I noticed when I got close to make sure there were no scratches. Interior is awesome, the ABL is tits! I LOVE the HID headlights, OUTSTANDING at night! The interior feel is great too, you feel like you're in a hotrod... the windshield is low, the window line is tall, you're definitely "in" the car!

The only "con" I can think of is the seatbelt. It chafes the shit out of my neck! It's not adjustable, so im not sure how im gonna fix it. And I HATE those seat belt pads, they're way to "pep boyish" to me!

All in all, I give the whole car a 10 out of 10 with a few caveats! It is truly an amazing mix of technology, finesse and brute strength. Truly an amazing car! Im so glad I bought it!

[69Firebird]

Sounds good!

Congrats on the new Ride.

I feel like the huge rear view mirror and crappy sun visors could be one of the first things they fix for 2011.

[VR Code R6P]

Congrats on your car! Very interesting read.

[jdurhan]

Great write up, thanks for sharing your thoughts. I can't wait to get mine...Damn.

[2SSRS@Gen5diy]

Congrats on the car.

[SS4PK]

if you haven't already put the seatbelt in the little loop on the seat, that fixes the neck issue.

[JDBeck23]

Originally Posted by SS4PK

if you haven't already put the seatbelt in the little loop on the seat, that fixes the neck issue.

Yeah I tried that... helped but still chafed the hell out of my neck! had to pull my tshirt up to give my skin a break!