2013 Chevrolet Captiva Lt Experts Reviews and Ratings

When we recall of the Www nowadays, we tend to think of it equally an eternal now where merely the newest and freshest information has any importance whatever. That wasn't why it was created, however; it was meant to be a protocol through which certificate and information storage could be logically organized and quickly retrieved over the long term. This is relevant because here at TTAC nosotros ofttimes run across pretty skilful traffic numbers for articles we published years ago, new-machine reviews in item. Why would anybody desire to read our old reviews? Almost frequently, it's because they are considering the purchase of that car today — when it's a used car.

That's why nosotros're running a review of a armada-only vehicle that private individuals can't even purchase from a Chevy dealer right now; in years to come, these will be on sale everywhere. Consider this, therefore, a letter, written and sealed for futurity readers. As a matter of fact, consider it a warning, written and sealed for future readers, and based on an 898-mile road trip in a variety of conditions.

When I outset encountered the Captiva, it was a loaded, leather-lined LTZ form. The verdict? Not bad, merely also not worth considering. At least it was decently quick, courtesy of the 264-horsepower, direct-injected three-liter 5-half dozen. For 2013 and 2014, however, the Captiva is merely available with the 180-horsepower 2.4-liter Ecotec.

Four-cylinder CUVs are thick on the footing nowadays, so what'southward the large deal? Well, the Captiva scales nearly 3,800 pounds compared to the 3,300 pounds of an equivalent CR-V. This puts the ability-to-weight ratio about level with a five-liter Panther from xx-five years ago. Not good. And sure enough, when it came time to drive the Captiva from sunny Powell, Ohio to Chicago, Illinois, the egg-shaped trucklet revealed its Achilles' heel almost immediately. Or heels, I should say.

The first problem: power, or lack thereof. On flat grades with a headwind, the Captiva couldn't maintain 80mph in 6th gear and had to run in fifth. Throw in a modest course (and I mean small, this is the Ohio-Indiana surface area nosotros're discussing) and information technology would often reach down some other cog to fourth, churning the Ecotec at five grand or more for minutes at a time. The numbers don't tell the full story; in this application, the 2.4 is completely gutless at all times and needs to exist kept in the upper one-half of the tach just to keep pace with Midwest traffic. Does it fifty-fifty need to be said that the resulting engine racket and vibration is offensively coarse?

Naturally, spinning a big-inch four-cylinder hard all the time leads to dismal fuel economy, which is the Captiva'southward other big problem. The on-board computer reported 22.6 miles per gallon during the freeway segments on Interstates 70 and 65, but if anything, it was optimistic; the Captiva swallowed approximately thirteen gallons during a 200-mile jaunt between West Lafayette and the Dayton area. Information technology'due south a rare automobile that makes me cornball for my dearly-departed Town Car's xx-two on the trot, but the Captiva manages the play tricks while simultaneously displaying none of the Lincoln'south ability to run fast and quietly.

Maybe it'south the fault of the absurdly stupid and disobedient six-speed automatic that would frequently modify its mind almost the proper gear twice or even 3 times during dispatch. Fifty-fifty relatively unproblematic situations like a full-throttle launch from a stop would often produce an early on upshift followed by a modify back to the original gear. This item Captiva had thirteen thousand miles on information technology so it might exist a instance of bad "learning" on the part of the transmission's ECU, but if this had been a new car purchased from the dealer I'd take returned information technology for service merely based on the insanity of the gearbox.

The Captiva does, however, do one thing well: information technology handles. Nearly everybody else in the segment could learn quite a bit from the chassis, which combines solid grip and dynamic excellence with surprisingly decent ride quality. Information technology doesn't lean, it doesn't porpoise, and it easily handles fast lane-changes without drama or discomposure. It'southward shut to the class of the CUV field in this regard and if Lemons races of the time to come have a beautiful-ute category this would be the one you'd want, at least for the autocross component, if there is i.

This "LT" model starts at $25,695 co-ordinate to the GM Fleet website. What do you become for what amounts to a relatively lofty price in CUV-land? Not much. The cloth seats are apartment and unsupportive, although the driver's seat is power-operated. There's a leather-wrapped steering wheel only the residuum of the controls experience depressingly cheap and frail. GM's thumbwheels to control radio volume and cruise control feel worn-out when they are new and later a twelvemonth of rental operation they had the wobbly inconsistency of the volume and tuning knobs from the kind of no-make Sony Walkman ripoffs you lot used to go as "free gifts" when you subscribed to National Geographic.

There'southward plenty of space for rear-seat passengers and luggage, although the sloping roofline made the rear expanse less than perfectly useful. My purpose in renting a Captiva was to take a few guitars and amplifiers, plus a wheelchair and a prepare or crutches, to a gig in Irving Park; because of the rear glass, I couldn't store the wheelchair upright and therefore every meal finish became a Jenga game to go the thing out without either breaking something or scratching the hard plastic of the rear doors and interior panels.

Although the Captiva is effectively a decade-old Saturn, the interior was revised to quasi-modern standards when it became a fleet special. The trouble is that the competition has moved on again since that revision. We've long since stopped expecting that GM can match, say, Ford for interior whiz-bang stuff and features — merely when Toyota offers more inches of LCD screen than your product does, yous take a trouble. Nearly all you can say about the Captiva'due south telematics is that the iPod integration is surprisingly good and it allows the driver to skip any nasty three-line LCD interface in favor of choosing the music on the iPod directly. Unfortunately, the pre-amp is then weak, and the Captiva'southward engine is and so noisy, that it'due south hard to even hear music well on the freeway.

The CD player is louder, simply I only had one CD for the entire trip: Joel Frederiksen'south Requiem For A Pink Moon. This anthology was suggested to me by a friend who knows about my Nick Drake obsession. (Readers of my ain blog probably know about it as well; Nick Drake is the 2nd-most mentioned person on said website, after Paul Reed Smith.) While the idea of playing Nick Drake covers with Elizabethan period instruments sounds like a dicey proffer, it works absurdly well in do. Mr. Frederiksen and his group look more Euro than a twin-headlamp E21 BMW 316 parked side by side to a Roman fortification. I'd sell my soul to the Devil to have his voice, which is iii octaves lower than mine and has the power of a cathedral pipe organ. If you lot only have one CD for an eight-hundred-mile trip, make information technology Requiem For A Pinkish Moon! (Disclaimer: I was provided with a review copy of this disc by the publisher. Farther disclaimer: they aren't getting it back.)

It's possible to conceive that the Captiva LTZ AWD V6 might be purchased on the used market past the same kind of person who would purchase an album of ancient-sounding Nick Drake covers. After all, both are European takes on something the British love to a error. (Yes, the English language adore the CUV.) This iv-cylinder cloth-seater, on the other manus, won't strike the desirability chord in anyone's middle. The Captiva's sterling qualities, which would exist restricted to over-the-route handling and general build quality, don't make upwards for its gutless engine, moronic transmission, dismal interior, excessive amount of route dissonance, and lamentable fuel economy. Attending future readers: this is a car to avert at all costs.

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Source: https://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/2014/03/review-2014-chevrolet-captiva-lt-2-4/

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