Tag: chevrolet
Last month, I went glamping for the first time to Norfolk County and thanks to General Motors Canada, I had another chance to drive the Chevrolet Equinox.
As a small personal challenge, I decided I’d do all of the driving for the trip (I usually prefer to share the driving duties). Having just driven the Cadillac Escalade, the Equinox felt positively petite! As I’ve mentioned before, I’m a fan of the Equinox as I feel it’s quite luxe but fits right into my lifestyle, which incorporates pseudo-rugged fun, such as glamping! Although the gorgeous interior I suppose makes it much more swish rather than rugged.
We packed way too much for this glamping trip: sleeping bags, a cooler, marshmallow roasting sticks and so many snacks. All things we didn’t need as Long Point Eco Adventures had bed linens on the beds, a mini fridge and roasting sticks by the campfire. And all of the snacks weren’t necessary as we ate so well in the area that we were never very hungry for snacks. But no biggie, thanks to the spacious Equinox, we had plenty of room to pack all of this gear into the car though.
Being the sole driver, the safety features like the blind spot assist made me feel at ease in the driver’s seat. And there’s nothing that stresses me out more than getting lost, so the GPS was very much appreciated (I find GPS systems can vary in terms of user-friendliness and this one has never done me wrong). And features like the button to close the trunk is something I appreciate (so much easier and less strenuous than pulling down the trunk door manually).
I thought the car was fuel efficient as we did a fair amount of driving (we drove to and from Toronto and did a decent amount of driving in Norfolk County for our meals) and didn’t have to stop at a gas station. I think I must’ve driven much more than I realized my last experience with this SUV in Prince Edward County.
From the drop-dead views of some crops from atop a hill to the prettiest beach sunset, it was almost as though the stars had aligned so that I had just the right vehicle for these beautiful summery memories. Finding new roads in the Equinox makes for some sweet summer seventeen memories.
October 3, 2017
I think I’ve ‘fessed up before that I don’t love driving. So why do I keep snapping up the opportunity to drive performance cars on a race track? I figure that even though these are performance cars and the experience different than driving you’d do in the city, the more time and skills I develop behind the wheel of any car will help me feel more comfortable and maybe even more skilled handling a car when I’m on the road.
You’ll recall I was on a track in honour of Father’s Day, and more recently I had the chance to go to Chevrolet Ron Fellows Driving Experience at the Canadian Tire Motorsport Park to drive both a Camaro and a Corvette. And this was a very different experience because I wasn’t in the car with my instructor, but rather Ron instructed us through a headset. I was pretty intimidated at first, but once we started going, I felt safe on the track and did my best to follow the racing line (keep eyes ahead and looking for those pylons for guidance!).
Photo: Ben Marans Photography
Unfortunately, I forgot to record the data from my time on the track (I guess I was so anxious to get going that I forgot to hit “start recording” for the USB as I was supposed to). I think the fastest I noticed on the speedometer was more then 150 kilometres an hour, which doesn’t sound very fast (I’ve, um, maybe accidentally done it on a highway…) but on a curvy and notoriously difficult race track, that is plenty fast to me!
Photo: Ben Marans Photography
That day, I got to learn about the Chevrolet performance car lineup (four cars were launched in 2016, including the Camaro ZL1 and Corvette Grand Sport). Most interesting to me were the reasons behind Chevy doing performance cars at all: it creates fans worldwide, drives new technologies and drives competition, and racing and performances helps inform their production vehicles (so things they learn from the performance cars can trickle into improvements to the cars that we drive on the roads); those are just a few of the reasons.
I will say that this day had me feeling like I was in a scene from the Fast & The Furious. In fact, my new motto may very well be “I live my life a quarter mile at a time.” And why’d I categorize this under “health”? Because trying new things and getting that adrenaline pumping is always healthy in my book. And, oh, I must mention that I was the only girl in the whole group of media, so patting myself on the back for my day of keeping up with the boys!
September 20, 2017
On my the fourth road trip of the summer, I went camping for the first time, and I loved it. More on that in a future post.
For this road trip, I was looking to try a car I’d never driven before so for this camping weekend, thanks to General Motors Canada, I had the chance to test drive the Chevrolet Trax. I will say, when I checked it out online, I was skeptical about whether it’d fit all of the camping gear, food, and my dog, Billie Jean. It is definitely much smaller than the other SUVs I’ve driven recently, such as the Buick Envision, Chevy Equinox and GMC Acadia.
So how was the Trax? When I picked up the car, it was indeed as petite IRL as it’d looked online (it’s category is indeed small SUV). This made the car way easier to park and simple for sometimes hectic city driving, so it definitely gets points for that. Much like the Chevy Cruze I drove the WayHome, it was a breeze to park in my cramped underground parking garage.
I did get concerned as I started packing the car for the weekend, though. Trunk space is limited. Once I put in one large MEC bag of gear and my carry-on bag, and it was essentially full (save for some nooks and crannies I was able to stuff small, soft items into). Thankfully, my friend knew that the flap that covers the trunk space can easily be removed, and once we took that off, we were able to pile much more gear into the back trunk space.
From there, we put the rest of our stuff into the backseat, leaving one spot for Billie Jean to sit. It was tight, but we made it work. So ultimately, the Trax is just big enough for a camping trip for two to three people. Although, I should mention that we ended up bringing more gear than we needed (such as an extra sleeping bag, some awkward-to-travel-with chairs, and some sleeping mats, we didn’t end up using).
The soft lines of the car make it a really cute and fun SUV, and so in that way, I think it was perfect for our little girlfriends getaway. We both thought it handled well on the road and appreciated the blind-spot assist (we took turns driving that weekend) and we loved being able to connect our iPhones with Apple CarPlay. I thought it was well designed and I appreciated the black finishes (all of it felt sturdy and well-made). In terms of what we didn’t love: we found that the backseat headrests get in the way of looking through the rear window when driving; and while not a big deal, I did miss having that compartment you’ll often find between the driver and passenger seat (I usually find this cubbyhole helpful for storing things like maps and sunglasses). And the trunk doesn’t feature a button to close it (and we went into the trunk a lot over the weekend since it served as a storage space for our food and some gear).
Since I’d be primarily driving a car in the city and only doing getaways calling for a lot of space (like this camping weekend) occasionally, I think this car makes a lot of sense for someone with a similar lifestyle.
I have another two road trips this month so be sure to check back to read about my camping and driving adventures. And if you’re an avid camper, I’d love to hear any tips and tricks you’ve got!
August 18, 2017
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