Two moms + four kids + 800 miles one way = one crazy road trip. From Texas to Kentucky, the six of us put the Chevy Traverse to the test. Here’s how it measured up to my standards…
The Good
The Traverse handles the road very well. Rain or shine, any terrain. Granted we had the all-wheel drive model, so you’d expect some nice road hugging, but honestly, I LOVED driving it in the mountains. I’ve driven Jeeps, Blazers, Envoys, Durangos, Aleros, and big vans in the same mountains, but when I got that Traverse to my hometown I decided it was the best car I’d ever driven in the mountains.
Speed. I am Speed. Oh, wait, that’s Lightening McQueen. Just don’t tell Jasper (yes, we named the Traverse) that he isn’t a race car. Seriously, that car wanted to cruise around 85mph. I had to set the cruise to the speed limit to avoid going too fast… Zoom!
28 MPG in a family car? NICE. My Durango gets about 17 on a good day. Being on a long trip made us really appreciate the good gas mileage we got in the Chevy Traverse.
It’s quiet. We own a Dodge. To me, Dodges are the loudest cars on the market. They may be powerful, but they’re so loud you can’t hear yourself think. The Chevy Traverse ran so quietly I wondered if it was on. I may or may not have tried to start it when it was already on…
Speaking of quiet… when the kids are using the headsets for the on-board DVD player, the adults can listen to the satellite radio or a CD up front! This makes mommies and daddies very happy. LOL My only disappointment was that there were only two headsets, and we had three young movie watchers, so most of the time we just played the movie through the speakers…
When the 3rd row seat is down you have tons of luggage space or room for groceries. The back hatch door can be opened via a button on the key chain and the auto lift and close is sooo nice when your hands are full.
Auto start is a huge plus. We’d point the keychain out the window and start the car/get the AC running a couple minutes before we loaded up and really enjoyed getting into a cooled off car. In the middle of July in Texas (or anywhere!) a car can heat up fast and door handles and seat belts can burn little hands. I think every car in the south should be equipped with this feature!
Unlike big SUV’s, the Traverse is narrow and easy to park. However, Narrow is both a good and bad thing. See my notes below…
The Not So Good
Seats 7. Sort of. Yes, there were 7 seat belts. No it will not seat 7 adults. The 3rd row seat which is supposed to seat 3 would be hard pressed to get 3 medium sized children in it. We had two car seats back there and the space between them was so small that Dwan’s little girl, who is VERY petite, didn’t even have room for her arms. If the kids hadn’t been in car seats they may have been less squished, but that’s just the thing… if they were big enough to be out of car seats they’d be big enough to take up a full seat and the person in the middle would still be squished.
On the narrow seat note, the buckets are also small. This worked out fine for me a Dwan, but I imagine a larger person would find them a bit uncomfortable.
The wagon style is cool, and while you could fit 6-7 people in it, you can not fit luggage for that many. Once the 3rd row seat is in use, the luggage space shrinks to about 16 inches deep. We were REALLY tight once we got everyone’s luggage in the car (and we packed light!) and had stuff under everyone’s feet.
I’m a techie who generally doesn’t need instructions for things like car stereos, but in the Traverse I was a bit stumped. I just didn’t find the system to be very intuitive. It took Dwan and I most of the trip to figure out the fade so we could play the kid’s movies and not have to listen to them. Once we figure that out it was really nice not to have Finding Nemo coming through the front speakers. Three. Times. A. Day. 
The Verdict…
The Chevy Traverse would be a great family car if you have three or four kids, however, if you plan to travel much you’ll want something a little bigger. Tahoe maybe? If you’re looking for good gas mileage, this car will please!
See my Whrrl story for more pictures!
Disclaimer: This car was loaned to us by @GMTexas for our review. Dwan Perrin (@MommaDJane) and I drove the car, Tweeted about it, and created a Whrrl story or two.
The wagon style is cool.
I think this is great for a family
[...] and I had both previously driven a Chevy Traverse on a road trip, and while we liked it, we were definitely more impressed with Buick’s version, the Enclave. [...]