Remote Start - Love It

I know a lot of cars these days have this remote start feature on their premium models.  But this is the first car I have owned with it (neither of my Infiniti's had it).

I love it.  It was ~100 degrees today and I knew my car would be a scorcher, so while I was finishing getting ready to leave (putting on clothes/feeding the cat), I started it from my house.

By the time I got out to my car and in it, it was icy cool inside. Yay!

Furthermore, I was at the store and my friend wanted to wait in the car, despite the 100 degree heat and a warning, he insisted. Well, about 5 minutes later I got a text saying, "omg its hot". I remote started the car for fun (from inside the store!) and shortly after got another text, "ty" (thank you).

Just like to say that for future vehicle purchases, I just might have to make this a hot button feature to shop for.  I love it!

Blown rear sub :(

I have never turned the volume past 20 (which is still I think less than half of the total max volume).  I generally keep it on 12.

Just passed 5000 miles and it appears my left rear sub-woofer (up near the rear window) is blown.  Unless the song I'm listening to has very little bass or I turn the bass way down via Tune - it makes terrible vibration/buzz/rattle noises.

At first I thought it was just loose and bouncing around, but accessing it from the trunk proves that it is mounted quite solidly in there so it must be blown.

Sad day. :(

2012 Buick Verano - Months Later

No qualms.  No additional issues.

I am approaching 4000 miles and have not had anything break or malfunction.  No rattles or squeaks have surfaced.  Just as great as the day I got it.  This is my commuter car and my daily driver.  On the odd nice day or weekend, I drive a 2002 Honda S2000.

They are both great cars.

But...I just caught wind of the new 2013 Buick Verano Turbo...

Intellilink available with Navigation?  Yes please.

Back-up camera?  Yes please.

250 horsepower and 260 ft-lb torque?  Yes please.

Blind spot alert?  Yes please.

Honestly, I'm giving serious thought to trading-up when this new Verano comes out.  That is how much I like the Verano, but also how much I wouldn't mind paying a little extra for those additional features.

Hope everyone out there is enjoying their Verano as much as I am!

Long trip experience

Well.  I've had my Buick Verano for over 1000 miles now.  I just got back from a 2-day trip of sorts that had bouts of 2 hour long drives.

Still having issues with back comfort.  But that aside...

Car handled well.  Smooth ride.  Would do it again.  For the price, the car is a gem.  In terms of ride quality and some features I'd say it's easily worth $5000 more.  Sure, there are a ton of nuances missing or oddly implemented, but for the most part they're easily not worried about.  And that statement is coming from someone who is an extremely picky consumer.

My only beef right now is that on highways or rough roads, the seatbelt height adjustments rattled - on both sides.  It is weird to me that Buick spent all this time on NVH (Noise, Vibration, Harshness) and then put these seemingly flimsy plastic on plastic in plastic seatbelt height adjustments in the B pillar. Don't get me wrong, I love seatbelt height adjustments, but I've never before had issues with one rattling in previous cars.

My solution:  Turn the radio up.  But I shouldn't have to do this.  I will probably try fitting some tan-colored (my car interior is coccachino) felt dots inside to stop the plastic-on-plastic rattling.

So overall, I would label that trip a success.  I also like the car.  I really can't wait until the Turbo model, though, if only for the factory dual-exhaust.  I'm an odd stickler for symmetry and looking at the car from the back is jarring (not to mention my trunk still doesn't close in perfect alignment).

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As noted on a couple of forums, if you're switching too quickly between AM/FM <-> XM stations, the menu pointed seems to get completely dropped.  The station will still play, but you will have no visibly selected channel, and when you go to select one, no matter where you were before, you go back to #1.  No big deal really, and probably something that can be remedied in a future software bug.  I'd definitely say its not as bad as Infiniti's terribly inconsistent steering wheel controls for menu items that aren't actually a bug, but just an extremely poorly designed feature that they have no plans of "fixing".

Just to prove it's probably just me...

Here's an article about the Buick Verano's seat R&D:  http://media.gm.com/content/media/us/en/buick/news.detail.html/content/Pages/news/us/en/2011/Oct/1018_verano

Here's an article where someone has driven it across a state and his back was just fine:  http://www.tampabay.com/news/business/autos/the-daily-drivers-buick-verano-is-quiet-in-a-good-way/1215611

It seriously just must be me.  I really am sad about this.  I want to love the car, but my body is just screaming "no!"

Buick Verano, a little over a week later...

New positives:

• If you adjust the windshield wiper speed faster and they aren't mid-swing, they will swing.  This is perfect given that I usually know I need to adjust it faster when I'm approaching no-visibility.  Also, adjusting the speed *down* doesn't cause them to wipe.  Also perfect, since I generally do that when the windshield is drying up.  Nice touch.
• Remotely starting the car does not turn off as soon as a door is opened.  This is different than, say, Toyota's which actually shut off as soon as a handle is pulled.  I prefer it.  Keep in mind, you can't drive off until you sit in the car with the key and push the power button anyway - so the car is still safe.
• Average fuel economy has dropped from around 26-27 to 24.6 right now.  Still better than my previous car which averaged 19.2.
• Heated seats and steering wheel heat up *fast*.  My Infiniti took minutes upon minutes, especially on a cold day.  These tend to heat up practically before I leave a parking lot.
• The way the doors shut.  It's smooth and solid.  I shouts stability and refinement, and I like it.
• The factory tinting to the windows is nice.

Some negatives:

• Navigation, Weather, Traffic, etc. cannot be operated unless the radio unit is turned ON.  So the only way to use the touch-screen features (including access to any options) is to have the radio on.  If you don't want it on, you have to turn the volume to 0 or press the mute button to continue operation.  When the radio goes off, so do the touch-screen features.
• As previously mentioned, you also cannot dim the touchscreen independent from the other dash back-lighting.  For me, the perfect nighttime touchscreen brightness is unfortunately at the same all the dash/meter back-lights go completely out.  Not exactly ideal.
• The left/right blinker switch is too stiff.  Maybe I am not used to GM vehicles in general (I come from Toyota, Mazda, Infiniti, MItsubishi) - but it takes quite a bit of force to click it on to signal.
• Voice commands related to navigation, weather, and traffic relate to and only work with OnStar.  For example, if I say "traffic" I would expect to go to the XM Traffic menu, but infact, it dials up OnStar.  If I say, "cancel route" while using the touchscreen navigation, it will say there is no route because it is expecting to cancel an OnStar Turn-by-Turn route.  There is no way to configure these commands, thus, they are useless for my use case.
• Hardly any cup holders!  Might not be a big deal for some, but there are only two for the front and two for the back (and only if the middle armrest is down).
• The "joystick" you think might be used to navigate menus is a useless addition.  The reason being, you can't push it in to select things.  It also doesn't let you navigate menus.  In fact, the only thing I've figured out that it does is let you move around the crosshairs while viewing the map.  Also, the dial surrounding it can be used to select things (versus pushing the joystick itself in), but it is recessed so pushing it in to select takes a little finesse while driving.

Oddity:  There's a black knob on the dash panels that one would normally use to cycle through the various informative screens near the speedometer - however - this doesn't cycle.  In fact, its only purpose so far seems to be to clear or reset whatever screen you're on.  The funky part about that is that to get to those various screens you use the left steering column lever buttons, which also includes a clear button.  I can't for the life of me figure out if there is a point to that extra knob.

Possible goodbye:

Unfortunately, the back pain is actually starting to become unbearable.  The aches have become shooting pains.  And whereas they would go away shortly after exiting the car and walking around, they're now sticking with me for hours.  This is despite attempts at using a lumbar cushion and a bottom-seat ergonomic cushion.  I sit while at home and work, and experience 0 pain.  5-10 minutes into driving this car now, the pain becomes...well...painful.

This is likely going to be a deal-breaker for me.  Tomorrow I am going to look into possible service options to remedy this.  But to be honest I think I just want to walk away.  As such, I am also going to look at another car and, depending on how the numbers work out, I may be saying good bye to the Buick Verano.

Don't get me wrong.  For its price and class, it really shines.  I would definitely recommend this car to people (granted they aren't as seat-picky as me).  But I bought this car for myself, to use as a commuter vehicle, and I since can't go 5-10 minutes in it without feeling like I've just been beat in the back with a bat, I think it has to go.  As much as I like the car and want to love it, it just doesn't seem like it is going to work out.

It has been fun.

Buick Verano - A few more things...

Seat is still terribly uncomfortable.  Will probably end up using a towel or pillow until I can find a shop willing to pad the seat some more.  Hopefully, future Verano models address this by adding up/down tilt to the rear part of the seat, as well as lumbar adjustment.

Auto-dimming rear view mirror is top notch!  It is more sensitive and faster to change than my Infiniti G37x was.  There were many times headlights were shining in my eyes and the Infiniti mirror didn't seem to do anything.  Have yet to have that issue with the Verano's.

Tinted strip along the top of the windshield is a nice addition.

Car has a rough shift point around 21mph both when accelerating and when braking, nothing too bothersome.

Shortly after starting the car, as I'm driving away, I always hear a weird mechanical crumple.  I'm not sure what it is - I assume something or other is engaging, but its definitely a really awkward sound.  In other cars its barely audible, this almost sounds like I ran over a few aluminum cans.  Every single time.  I actually thought I accidentally hit something the first time I noticed it.  Might mention it to service next time I'm in and get a better explanation.

I've dropped down to about 25.6mpg.  Not complaining though.