wife spun out on the freeway

orbee · November 6, 2004

my wife was in the fast lane ( one located next to the carpool ) going 55mph , she attempted to merge into the carpool lane . the 04 trailblazer w/ 1800 miles on it started to veer towards the center divider , she says she tried to steer away from the wall , the truck then began doing a S formation without stopping as she tried to apply the brakes . at that time she hit the middle divider and then did a 360 turn on the freeway at the last spin she hit a Lexus GS300 , at that point she stalled on the freeway . i need your guys advice whether it be biased or laying blame on her cause im furious about this truck . i myself have a 04 silverado 1500 crew cab and that would never happen in that truck , trust me im a nascar fan and i can handle my truck . anyways we took the truck to Ostrom Chevrolet in Montebello for repairs , CHP declared my wife negligent in this case . i called GM to fight it i stated that since i drove it a few times i never liked that sensitive steering i felt it was unsafe ! now i know i shoulda took it in for inspection being i have the majorguard and is still in warrenty . so im i screwed or can they do a full inspection on the suspension of this top heavy underpowered truck ? thank you again sorry to nag about this truck as you guys know me and my family are die hard chevrolet fans but this is unacceptable !!!! please respond pi***** off in WHITTIER

sgiangregorio · November 6, 2004

It's really hard to say what happened...have the vehicle inspected for a failure of some sort. If they don't find anything, I'd say it's not in GMs court. If this was a problem across the board, I'd think there would be many complaints too. My wife has an '03 Envoy XL SLT and the steering is fine. Is your wife sure she didn't catch a ridge in the road or something, or just oversteer and slightly catch the left edge of the road? Don't be offended by my asking, but that could certainly cause the effect you describe.

orbee · November 6, 2004

It's really hard to say what happened...have the vehicle inspected for a failure of some sort. If they don't find anything, I'd say it's not in GMs court. If this was a problem across the board, I'd think there would be many complaints too. My wife has an '03 Envoy XL SLT and the steering is fine. Is your wife sure she didn't catch a ridge in the road or something, or just oversteer and slightly catch the left edge of the road? Don't be offended by my asking, but that could certainly cause the effect you describe.

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no offense taken . ill ask her about that , she went to work , this is the kinda info ill need feedback . im stumped also once again thank you and ill post her reply.

orbee · November 6, 2004

It's really hard to say what happened...have the vehicle inspected for a failure of some sort. If they don't find anything, I'd say it's not in GMs court. If this was a problem across the board, I'd think there would be many complaints too. My wife has an '03 Envoy XL SLT and the steering is fine. Is your wife sure she didn't catch a ridge in the road or something, or just oversteer and slightly catch the left edge of the road? Don't be offended by my asking, but that could certainly cause the effect you describe.

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no offense taken . ill ask her about that , she went to work , this is the kinda info ill need feedback . im stumped also once again thank you and ill post her reply.

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oh i forgot to add that the freeways in Los Angeles County have no ridge on the left side they are all 3-4 lanes with a concrete barrier in the middle . the farther out you go from the inner city is were you'll find that type of road that you described !

dannyukonxl · November 6, 2004

tires... overinflated, underinflated? road condition at the site of the accident? i think the most likely cause is over correction and the oversensetive steering, its a new car too so its hard to get used to the steering and especially harder in a panic situation as you dont know what position the wheel is in relative to the steering wheel, an exagerated circumstance would be taking a 19XX buick wild cat and trying to do a slolom with it, its going to handle like a boat at 20 mph and probably flip at 40, at that point i would be happy the car didnt do 180 degrees or flip, never rule out the fact that it might be a lemon and i agree get it thoroughly checked out at the dealer. also i dont know what part of the freeways your talking about but theres a lot of parts where they have quadruple yellows like in orange county and the paint and tires wont grip very well so any sudden movement would break the tires loose, hope you get things figured out

sgiangregorio · November 9, 2004

Cool. I

I'm really curious to hear though. At least she's a-ok.

orbee · November 9, 2004

Cool. I
I'm really curious to hear though. At least she's a-ok.

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yeah shes fine , thanks for your concern . the body shop had called to leave me the final review of the damage . it came out to 6180.86 in mostly sheet metal damage . i insisted that it go through the frame checker. the GM rep called also to assure us that there is no recall or tsb on the steering / brakes , but said that the vehicle will go through an extensive suspension and rack and pinion check. i told her to go with the Highlander but no she wanted to be pro union and buy the Trailblazer , funny thing is were both union pavement at the time was dry , this happened last thursday. and the tires im not sure about inflation cause i figured since we bought new it should be up to par , big mistake on my part being that i worked as a P.M. tech for a large diesel company ( remeber Rollings Trucking & Leasing ) which all we did was service , # one rule of thumb for those drivers were the tires tires tires , well hope to give you the final update on what they found if anything . i know i need to learn to place my commas better

GMCSLE · November 9, 2004

No offense but it sounds like you're trying to place blame on the truck that you apparently disliked to begin with. Top heavy? Well, aren't MOST SUV's with any kind of ground clearance? Underpowered? By whose standards? It sounds to me like the truck got away from your wife and having more power certainly wouldn't have helped that situation at all.

Has she ever driven a larger RWD SUV/Truck before on a regular basis? My guess is that there wasn't a failure on the truck and that it simply got away from her. As far as the steering goes, our Envoy seems to follow the track we expect it to. It's when you start feeding it drastic input and then feeding it even more drastic counter-input where you're going to see sensitive steering and accidents like this. But... that's to be expected with any truck or even many cars at those speeds.

No offense, I just don't get blaming it on a brand new truck. Glad to hear she's ok.

orbee · November 9, 2004

No offense but it sounds like you're trying to place blame on the truck that you apparently disliked to begin with. Top heavy? Well, aren't MOST SUV's with any kind of ground clearance? Underpowered? By whose standards? It sounds to me like the truck got away from your wife and having more power certainly wouldn't have helped that situation at all.

Has she ever driven a larger RWD SUV/Truck before on a regular basis? My guess is that there wasn't a failure on the truck and that it simply got away from her. As far as the steering goes, our Envoy seems to follow the track we expect it to. It's when you start feeding it drastic input and then feeding it even more drastic counter-input where you're going to see sensitive steering and accidents like this. But... that's to be expected with any truck or even many cars at those speeds.

No offense, I just don't get blaming it on a brand new truck. Glad to hear she's ok.

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i guess it is kinda natural if you know what i mean ! We also own a Navigator so id say she has driven a larger SUV . thank you again hey no offense taken at all. btw she wont even read any of these posts cause she does not want to hear the negative , part of life though !

millerwd · November 10, 2004

Your misfortunate wife lost control of the vehicle and had an accident

Get over it.

From the way you write about it all you value your cars more than your relationship with your wife.

Did you take the time to discuss the accident in a compasonate manner? Did you review the accident with her an offer suggestions to her on how to prevent it from reoccuring?

With your driving expertise gained while being a NASCAR fan I'm sure you could offer some valuable suggestions.

My suggestion.

Your wife should get a husband replacement.

DR Phil

orbee · November 10, 2004

Your misfortunate wife lost control of the vehicle and had an accident
Get over it.

From the way you write about it all you value your cars more than your relationship with your wife.

Did you take the time to discuss the accident in a compasonate manner? Did you review the accident with her an offer suggestions to her on how to prevent it from reoccuring?

With your driving expertise gained while being a NASCAR fan I'm sure you could offer some valuable suggestions.

My suggestion.

Your wife should get a husband replacement.

DR Phil

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hahaha Miller i enjoyed that comment , thanks again

GMMediumDutyMQ · December 16, 2004

Glad to hear she's okay.

My family's had three of the 360/370 variants (TB, TB Ext, Ranier) so far, and being in MI, I've had some experience with controlling a skid. I've not really found them difficult to control or anything, unless, obviously, I was in 2wd, and I was standing on it. But nonetheless, it was still correctible. I'm no fan of the steering system on these, but they're not the worst I've driven in terms of over sensitivity.

I don't find them as top heavy as per se a full sized van, or even bigger utes like your Navigator. And I don't think they're that underpowered; or how that would even have made a difference.

Even the best drivers have their vehicles get into situations where it cannot be controlled at any cost. That's why it's called an accident; it couldn't be prevented. But I don't think the blame lies either on your wife or on the truck. Things just happen, and in this case, it's really unfortunate.

FWIW.

orbee · December 22, 2004

We sat down and talked about the entire accident . She believes that she probably could have controlled the steering a little better . I was just upset didn't want to blame GM but now that im ok and since shes ok we laugh about the situation. Bottom line ( its not GM's fault ) we took a crazy hit on insurance . Will i buy another GM product ? or what kind of GM will i buy ? ill get my most sought after dream car the 96' IMPALA SS thanks for all the kind remarks and the not so kind remarks i understand i came into this forum bad mouthing GM its only natural though cya

Steve Cornell · December 22, 2004

hey orbee,

If your looking for a prestine 96 Impala SS with many many extras, mine is for sale.

here's the link to my web site http://www.rtol.net/scornell/

496 CUBIC INCHES · December 22, 2004

trust me im a nascar fan and i can handle my truck .

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Me, I'm a porn fan. I can really handle my schlong.

Dude, thats the funniest thing I've read all day. You watch NASCAR,so that makes you a good driver? I don't mean to bust your balls,but do you know how goofy that sounds? You might want to make a few calls,there are some guys that are hanging it up after this year,maybe you could score a Nextel Cup ride.