#a bruno squish would be the ultimate comfort

[aetherdecember]

Encantober Day #27: Comfort

I need a Bruno squishmallow for comfort 🥺

[moonbeamwritings]

falling asleep, falling in love

Summary: Road trips with the group are often hectic and loud, but you find comfort in a nap against a certain white-haired mafioso’s shoulder. Panic ensues.

Author’s Note: This is a direct result of thirsting over Abbacchio and never finding a way to write him. I feel like it’s ooc, but let me know!

You often dreaded going on long car rides with the rest of the gang. Not because you didn’t like spending time with your friends, but mostly due to the fact that they became almost feral when on the road for too long. Narancia and Mista only seemed to get louder, Fugo became much more irritable, and Abbacchio often threw around an alarming amount of harsh words. It was safe to say that when Bruno announced you would all need to travel to the countryside you were less than thrilled, matters made much worse when you were conveniently squished between Abbacchio and Fugo in the backseat. Great.

You’d harbored feelings for Abbacchio for quite some time. Despite his stoic, often cold demeanor, you found him handsome and easy to get along with when you cracked his shell. The two of you had shared many late nights talking about music, reflecting on life, and patching each other up, be it physically or emotionally. You were by no means an expert, but your intuition rivaled only that of Bucciarati’s when it came to the white-haired mafioso. 

The panicked hammering of your heart only seemed to worsen when his knee brushed against yours as he climbed in next to you. 

“Sorry,” he’d mumbled, seemingly aiming to slink as close to the window as possible. 

You were in for a long ride.

It started off well enough, Narancia and Mista somewhat subdued with Trish sitting in between them and they hadn’t seemed to instigate Fugo just yet. Bruno and Giorno were up in the front, speaking quietly amongst themselves. Abbacchio hadn’t said a word since getting in the car, opting to listen to his own music through his headphones.

Suddenly, though, things took a turn for the worse. Mista had pushed into Trish, who in turn fell into Narancia. 

All hell broke loose.

“All I’m saying is that Mista bumped into me first. It’s not my fault you got pushed against the window” Trish argued, glaring at both boys.

Narancia fired back, “You could’ve stopped him!”

“I’m not a mind reader.”

All the while Mista had begun to laugh, clearly pushing against Trish to get a rise out of Narancia.

“Will you three shut up,” Fugo chimed in, whipping around in his seat, “It’s goddamn annoying.”

This only served to make the situation worse than it already was, instigating Narancia to get even more annoyed as Mista continued to cackle.

Bruno had, in vain, attempted to quell the situation from the front, but ultimately fell on deaf ears. Bless his heart. The conversation seemed to go on for hours, eventually turning into nothing but static in your brain, no longer registering as being loud or annoying.

You could feel your eyes start to grow heavy regardless of the chaos behind you and before you knew it, you were dozing off.

The ride had been no easier for Abbacchio, despite keeping to himself. He’d opted for his own music, not only to drown out inevitable arguments and rowdiness, but also to distract himself from you. Sitting so close to you made him nervous beyond belief, the butterflies in his stomach making him nauseous. You were so cute and when Giorno hit potholes or curves in the road, he couldn’t stop his knee from knocking into yours. It was torture.

He was quiet and hard to get along with, that much he knew, but you had tried, gone out of your way in his opinion, to befriend him. It made his heart swell and the ice began to crack, if only slightly. Abbacchio was in no way used to being taken care of or looked after. Bruno certainly did his check-ins, but something about your interactions with him were... different. Not necessarily bad, but it often made Abbacchio uncomfortable, feeling unworthy of your kindness.

Abbacchio was in for the fright of his life when he felt a warm weight fall against his shoulder. He flinched slightly, having drowned out most of the other sounds in the car and getting lost in the landscapes zipping by. Looking down he saw you, cheek pressed against him and sleeping peacefully. He felt a blush creep up his neck and burn the skin on his face, praying to whatever gods would listen for his death to be swift and painless.

“Abbacchio-” Bruno started, stopping short when he turned to see the scene behind him.

While Fugo and Narancia were trying to hit each other over the back of Fugo’s seat, there you and Abbacchio were. You, pressed against his shoulder and sleeping with a content look on your face and Abbacchio, a blush illuminating his pale skin, doing a very poor job of acting unphased. How adorable.

Bruno smirked, raising his voice only slightly, “Abbacchio?”

“Hmm?” Abbacchio responded, refusing to shift his eyes away from the window.

Bruno smirk only grew, reaching back to poke at Abbacchio’s knee, “I didn’t realize it was nap time.”

A hole could not open and swallow Abbacchio up fast enough.

“Shut it, Bucciarati,” he grumbled, pointedly not making eye contact.

The sound of Abbacchio’s voice seemed to capture the attention of the fighting teens, making them stop what they were doing to listen in on the conversation.

“Ooo,” Narancia loudly interjected, “What’s got Abbacchio all worked up?”

“Shh you idiot. They’re sleeping,” Fugo replied, pointing at you.

Bruno’s eyes were still laser focused on Abbacchio, “It’s sweet, that’s all I’m saying. Clearly they’re comfortable enough around you to fall asleep.”

“That’s not-”

Bruno shot his friend a look that screamed, “you and I both know what I’m saying, so you better admit it.”

“Mind your business,” came Abbacchio’s weak reply, finally shifting to narrow his eyes at the capo.

“I’m just saying,” Bruno responded, raising his hands with feigned innocence, “I know you both well enough to put two and two together.”

Abbacchio could barely muster a response, deciding instead to mutter to himself about nosy mafiosos and annoying brats.

The car fell back into relative silence, occasional conversation coming from the backseat as Narancia worked through the implications of Bruno’s comments. 

Abbacchio could feel his own eyes growing heavy, head bobbing up and down as he desperately tried to keep himself awake. He would never live it down if he fell asleep now, but as time went on he felt increasingly powerless against the pull of a nice nap. 

Soon, with his head resting against yours, he fell asleep as well.

“Bucciarati,” Mista hissed, “please tell me you’re gonna get a picture of that.”

[robertkstone]

2018 Chevrolet Traverse First Drive Review: Staycation

We’re nearing the end of summer vacation season in the U.S., so the Bow Tie brand decided to make its super family-friendly, jumbo three-row crossover—the newly redesigned 2018 Chevrolet Traverse—available for long-weekend trips within the great mitten state of Michigan. The timing coincided perfectly with half of the Motor Trend Detroit office editorial staff’s vacation plans—the other half. That left yours very truly hurriedly wheeling the new Traverse all over greater Detroit by myself, usually running late to cover the myriad events of a very busy week. As a result, I took greater note of the V-6’s 310 hp and 266 lb-ft of torque, the transmission’s nine well-spaced ratios, and the suspension’s sharpened responsiveness than I did its cool new tilt-n-slide (even with a child seat!) middle-row captain’s chair, the grand visibility out of its huge windows and dual sunroofs, its 5,000-pound towing capacity, or its 38.2-inch third-row headroom (up from 37.8).

Trust me, despite having grown in every exterior dimension—the largest being a 2.0-inch wheelbase stretch—the most noticeable dimension change from behind the wheel is curb weight. Depending on the model, this big boy has dropped something near 350 pounds. Compounding that roughly 7 percent weight loss is an 8 percent power gain and a 13 percent improvement in first-gear “leverage.” Tally that all up, and this thing felt at least a size class smaller every time a traffic light turned green and I floored it. Chevy is claiming a “sub-7-second” 0–60 time, which compares well with the 7.7-second time we recorded on a loaded all-wheel-drive Traverse LTZ. (Expect the optional 255-hp 2.0-liter turbo to be a bit slower, but perhaps not as much as you’d think—it’ll only be offered with front-drive, it weighs less, and it makes 29 lb-ft more torque than the V-6.)

With all those extra ratios available for selection within milliseconds, it’s a snap to drop the hammer and squirt into an opening in an adjacent lane of swifter-moving traffic. Once up to my comfortable top-gear freeway-cruising speed, the 25 percent broader ratio spread between first and ninth gears left the engine spinning 8 percent slower than the 2016 Traverse’s V-6 would have been. But perhaps the best thing about this nine-speed automatic is how unnoticeable it is. Shifts feel, as the bard of Honolulu, Bruno Mars, put it, “smoother than a fresh jar of Skippy.” There’s never the sense of constant gear shuffling that we’ve noticed in many other nine-speeds, and I never detected a moment’s indecision when a change of mind about throttle position can result in the gearbox clunking into a gear it belatedly determined was best. One constructive criticism for the tranny team: Program in a sport shift logic that holds lower gears longer, and give nerds like me a readout on the display that shows which gear I’m in. Your Ford colleagues are bound to offer these items (as they do with their version of your similarly shared 10-speed automatic in the F-150).

In Chevy’s quest for improved fuel economy, the Traverse’s lighter weight and better-optimized transmission gears are abetted by a sophisticated auto start/stop system that actually motorizes the starter pinion so that it can be synchronized with the speed of the flywheel. Why? So that on those rare occasions when you’re coasting to a stop and the engine shuts down but then the light turns green and you hit the gas before coming to a complete stop, this synchronizer gizmo lets the engine restart before the engine completely stops without that awful “prang” sound you used to get when accidentally trying to start a running engine. These efforts pay off in a 3-mpg improvement in EPA combined fuel economy for both the front-wheel-drive and all-wheel-drive V-6 variants, to 21 and 20 mpg, respectively. (GM is estimating the 2.0-liter front-driver will hit 22 mpg combined.)

Another area of intense effort on the part of the Traverse development team was chassis tuning, where the goal was to preserve the already comfy ride quality while sharpening the crossover’s dynamic handling—even when heavily loaded. On the ride-preservation/improvement front, there are new ZF shocks all around, and they include special preloaded valves that improve damping performance over the smallest inputs and also make the shocks quieter. In short, they make simpler twin-tube shocks behave more like fancy monotube ones. On the handling front, the lateral links in the new five-link rear suspension are hardened, and the ride-control (longitudinal) mounts are hydraulic on the front strut control arms. The front mounts of the rear-suspension cradle are also hydraulic for improved isolation. And to help out the rear coil springs as you load the Traverse down, there’s a big, tall, multimaterial “bump stop” that acts kind of like a variable-rate helper spring and ensures a soft “landing” if it does bottom out.

My Friday morning engagement (sampling the aforementioned Ford 10-speed) was out in the country, affording an opportunity to hustle down a deserted twisty road en route back to HQ, and indeed this big honker seemed to change direction pretty smartly, with minimal roll and none of the kind of slop you often get as all the rubber bits squish before the suspension takes a set. (Any of my vacation-bound colleagues trying maneuvers like these with their broods onboard surely coated their Traverses’ interiors with Cheerios and baby spew while screams of protest drowned out the shocks’ newfound quietness.)

Things did calm down Sunday and Monday, giving me a chance to explore the Traverse’s vast interior (it’s 10 percent larger than the outgoing model), which will accommodate the essential 4-by-8-foot sheet of paneling. Praise be! There’s an underfloor cargo stowage bin that can swallow a smaller roll-aboard bag behind the third-row seat, and there are USB charging ports within a comfortable cord’s reach of every seating position.

Rear-seat comfort was less impressive. The middle-row captain’s chairs felt hard and flat, though they’re elevated sufficiently above the front seats to afford stadium visibility. The wheelbase stretch was supposed to pay off in third-row comfort, but my 5-foot-10 frame felt cramped, and the low cushion and still-too-high floor forced a knees-high seating posture. The VW Atlas we had in a week earlier was vastly more comfortable back there. At least the passenger-side tilt/slide middle-row chair makes it easy to climb in and out, but I fear that children will struggle to operate its latch and will just scoot between the seats to climb in and out through wide rear doors, which now feature stays that hold them open in three positions.

My takeaway from a long weekend spent not vacationing in the Traverse: It’ll make up time when you’re running late about as well as any seven- or eight-seater can, but a sport transmission program would be a welcome upgrade. The ride is comfortable and quiet, it looks good on the outside, and it fits tons of stuff on the inside, but to rank as the ultimate vacation-mobile, the rear-seating comfort could use improvement. That’s a respectably small to-do list for a new Chevy.

2018 Chevrolet Traverse BASE PRICE $30,875-$52,995 VEHICLE LAYOUT Front-engine, FWD/AWD, 7-8-pass, 4-door SUV ENGINES 2.0L/255-hp/295-lb-ft* turbocharged DOHC 16-valve I-4; 3.6L/310-hp/266-lb-ft DOHC 24-valve V-6 TRANSMISSION 9-speed automatic CURB WEIGHT 4,350-4,600 lb (mfr) WHEELBASE 120.9 in LENGTH X WIDTH X HEIGHT 204.3 x 78.6 x 70.7 in 0-60 MPH 6.9-7.4 sec (mfr est) EPA CITY/HWY/COMB FUEL ECON 17-20/25-25/20-22 mpg* ENERGY CONSUMPTION, CITY/HWY 169-198/135-135 kW-hrs/100 miles* CO2 EMISSIONS, COMB 0.88-0.98 lb/mile* ON SALE IN U.S. Currently *2.0-liter hp, torque, EPA figures estimated

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[jesusvasser]

2018 Chevrolet Traverse First Drive Review: Staycation

We’re nearing the end of summer vacation season in the U.S., so the Bow Tie brand decided to make its super family-friendly, jumbo three-row crossover—the newly redesigned 2018 Chevrolet Traverse—available for long-weekend trips within the great mitten state of Michigan. The timing coincided perfectly with half of the Motor Trend Detroit office editorial staff’s vacation plans—the other half. That left yours very truly hurriedly wheeling the new Traverse all over greater Detroit by myself, usually running late to cover the myriad events of a very busy week. As a result, I took greater note of the V-6’s 310 hp and 266 lb-ft of torque, the transmission’s nine well-spaced ratios, and the suspension’s sharpened responsiveness than I did its cool new tilt-n-slide (even with a child seat!) middle-row captain’s chair, the grand visibility out of its huge windows and dual sunroofs, its 5,000-pound towing capacity, or its 38.2-inch third-row headroom (up from 37.8).

Trust me, despite having grown in every exterior dimension—the largest being a 2.0-inch wheelbase stretch—the most noticeable dimension change from behind the wheel is curb weight. Depending on the model, this big boy has dropped something near 350 pounds. Compounding that roughly 7 percent weight loss is an 8 percent power gain and a 13 percent improvement in first-gear “leverage.” Tally that all up, and this thing felt at least a size class smaller every time a traffic light turned green and I floored it. Chevy is claiming a “sub-7-second” 0–60 time, which compares well with the 7.7-second time we recorded on a loaded all-wheel-drive Traverse LTZ. (Expect the optional 255-hp 2.0-liter turbo to be a bit slower, but perhaps not as much as you’d think—it’ll only be offered with front-drive, it weighs less, and it makes 29 lb-ft more torque than the V-6.)

With all those extra ratios available for selection within milliseconds, it’s a snap to drop the hammer and squirt into an opening in an adjacent lane of swifter-moving traffic. Once up to my comfortable top-gear freeway-cruising speed, the 25 percent broader ratio spread between first and ninth gears left the engine spinning 8 percent slower than the 2016 Traverse’s V-6 would have been. But perhaps the best thing about this nine-speed automatic is how unnoticeable it is. Shifts feel, as the bard of Honolulu, Bruno Mars, put it, “smoother than a fresh jar of Skippy.” There’s never the sense of constant gear shuffling that we’ve noticed in many other nine-speeds, and I never detected a moment’s indecision when a change of mind about throttle position can result in the gearbox clunking into a gear it belatedly determined was best. One constructive criticism for the tranny team: Program in a sport shift logic that holds lower gears longer, and give nerds like me a readout on the display that shows which gear I’m in. Your Ford colleagues are bound to offer these items (as they do with their version of your similarly shared 10-speed automatic in the F-150).

In Chevy’s quest for improved fuel economy, the Traverse’s lighter weight and better-optimized transmission gears are abetted by a sophisticated auto start/stop system that actually motorizes the starter pinion so that it can be synchronized with the speed of the flywheel. Why? So that on those rare occasions when you’re coasting to a stop and the engine shuts down but then the light turns green and you hit the gas before coming to a complete stop, this synchronizer gizmo lets the engine restart before the engine completely stops without that awful “prang” sound you used to get when accidentally trying to start a running engine. These efforts pay off in a 3-mpg improvement in EPA combined fuel economy for both the front-wheel-drive and all-wheel-drive V-6 variants, to 21 and 20 mpg, respectively. (GM is estimating the 2.0-liter front-driver will hit 22 mpg combined.)

Another area of intense effort on the part of the Traverse development team was chassis tuning, where the goal was to preserve the already comfy ride quality while sharpening the crossover’s dynamic handling—even when heavily loaded. On the ride-preservation/improvement front, there are new ZF shocks all around, and they include special preloaded valves that improve damping performance over the smallest inputs and also make the shocks quieter. In short, they make simpler twin-tube shocks behave more like fancy monotube ones. On the handling front, the lateral links in the new five-link rear suspension are hardened, and the ride-control (longitudinal) mounts are hydraulic on the front strut control arms. The front mounts of the rear-suspension cradle are also hydraulic for improved isolation. And to help out the rear coil springs as you load the Traverse down, there’s a big, tall, multimaterial “bump stop” that acts kind of like a variable-rate helper spring and ensures a soft “landing” if it does bottom out.

My Friday morning engagement (sampling the aforementioned Ford 10-speed) was out in the country, affording an opportunity to hustle down a deserted twisty road en route back to HQ, and indeed this big honker seemed to change direction pretty smartly, with minimal roll and none of the kind of slop you often get as all the rubber bits squish before the suspension takes a set. (Any of my vacation-bound colleagues trying maneuvers like these with their broods onboard surely coated their Traverses’ interiors with Cheerios and baby spew while screams of protest drowned out the shocks’ newfound quietness.)

Things did calm down Sunday and Monday, giving me a chance to explore the Traverse’s vast interior (it’s 10 percent larger than the outgoing model), which will accommodate the essential 4-by-8-foot sheet of paneling. Praise be! There’s an underfloor cargo stowage bin that can swallow a smaller roll-aboard bag behind the third-row seat, and there are USB charging ports within a comfortable cord’s reach of every seating position.

Rear-seat comfort was less impressive. The middle-row captain’s chairs felt hard and flat, though they’re elevated sufficiently above the front seats to afford stadium visibility. The wheelbase stretch was supposed to pay off in third-row comfort, but my 5-foot-10 frame felt cramped, and the low cushion and still-too-high floor forced a knees-high seating posture. The VW Atlas we had in a week earlier was vastly more comfortable back there. At least the passenger-side tilt/slide middle-row chair makes it easy to climb in and out, but I fear that children will struggle to operate its latch and will just scoot between the seats to climb in and out through wide rear doors, which now feature stays that hold them open in three positions.

My takeaway from a long weekend spent not vacationing in the Traverse: It’ll make up time when you’re running late about as well as any seven- or eight-seater can, but a sport transmission program would be a welcome upgrade. The ride is comfortable and quiet, it looks good on the outside, and it fits tons of stuff on the inside, but to rank as the ultimate vacation-mobile, the rear-seating comfort could use improvement. That’s a respectably small to-do list for a new Chevy.

2018 Chevrolet Traverse BASE PRICE $30,875-$52,995 VEHICLE LAYOUT Front-engine, FWD/AWD, 7-8-pass, 4-door SUV ENGINES 2.0L/255-hp/295-lb-ft* turbocharged DOHC 16-valve I-4; 3.6L/310-hp/266-lb-ft DOHC 24-valve V-6 TRANSMISSION 9-speed automatic CURB WEIGHT 4,350-4,600 lb (mfr) WHEELBASE 120.9 in LENGTH X WIDTH X HEIGHT 204.3 x 78.6 x 70.7 in 0-60 MPH 6.9-7.4 sec (mfr est) EPA CITY/HWY/COMB FUEL ECON 17-20/25-25/20-22 mpg* ENERGY CONSUMPTION, CITY/HWY 169-198/135-135 kW-hrs/100 miles* CO2 EMISSIONS, COMB 0.88-0.98 lb/mile* ON SALE IN U.S. Currently *2.0-liter hp, torque, EPA figures estimated

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[robertkstone]

2018 Chevrolet Traverse First Drive Review: Staycation

We’re nearing the end of summer vacation season in the U.S., so the Bow Tie brand decided to make its super family-friendly, jumbo three-row crossover—the newly redesigned 2018 Chevrolet Traverse—available for long-weekend trips within the great mitten state of Michigan. The timing coincided perfectly with half of the Motor Trend Detroit office editorial staff’s vacation plans—the other half. That left yours very truly hurriedly wheeling the new Traverse all over greater Detroit by myself, usually running late to cover the myriad events of a very busy week. As a result, I took greater note of the V-6’s 310 hp and 266 lb-ft of torque, the transmission’s nine well-spaced ratios, and the suspension’s sharpened responsiveness than I did its cool new tilt-n-slide (even with a child seat!) middle-row captain’s chair, the grand visibility out of its huge windows and dual sunroofs, its 5,000-pound towing capacity, or its 38.2-inch third-row headroom (up from 37.8).

Trust me, despite having grown in every exterior dimension—the largest being a 2.0-inch wheelbase stretch—the most noticeable dimension change from behind the wheel is curb weight. Depending on the model, this big boy has dropped something near 350 pounds. Compounding that roughly 7 percent weight loss is an 8 percent power gain and a 13 percent improvement in first-gear “leverage.” Tally that all up, and this thing felt at least a size class smaller every time a traffic light turned green and I floored it. Chevy is claiming a “sub-7-second” 0–60 time, which compares well with the 7.7-second time we recorded on a loaded all-wheel-drive Traverse LTZ. (Expect the optional 255-hp 2.0-liter turbo to be a bit slower, but perhaps not as much as you’d think—it’ll only be offered with front-drive, it weighs less, and it makes 29 lb-ft more torque than the V-6.)

With all those extra ratios available for selection within milliseconds, it’s a snap to drop the hammer and squirt into an opening in an adjacent lane of swifter-moving traffic. Once up to my comfortable top-gear freeway-cruising speed, the 25 percent broader ratio spread between first and ninth gears left the engine spinning 8 percent slower than the 2016 Traverse’s V-6 would have been. But perhaps the best thing about this nine-speed automatic is how unnoticeable it is. Shifts feel, as the bard of Honolulu, Bruno Mars, put it, “smoother than a fresh jar of Skippy.” There’s never the sense of constant gear shuffling that we’ve noticed in many other nine-speeds, and I never detected a moment’s indecision when a change of mind about throttle position can result in the gearbox clunking into a gear it belatedly determined was best. One constructive criticism for the tranny team: Program in a sport shift logic that holds lower gears longer, and give nerds like me a readout on the display that shows which gear I’m in. Your Ford colleagues are bound to offer these items (as they do with their version of your similarly shared 10-speed automatic in the F-150).

In Chevy’s quest for improved fuel economy, the Traverse’s lighter weight and better-optimized transmission gears are abetted by a sophisticated auto start/stop system that actually motorizes the starter pinion so that it can be synchronized with the speed of the flywheel. Why? So that on those rare occasions when you’re coasting to a stop and the engine shuts down but then the light turns green and you hit the gas before coming to a complete stop, this synchronizer gizmo lets the engine restart before the engine completely stops without that awful “prang” sound you used to get when accidentally trying to start a running engine. These efforts pay off in a 3-mpg improvement in EPA combined fuel economy for both the front-wheel-drive and all-wheel-drive V-6 variants, to 21 and 20 mpg, respectively. (GM is estimating the 2.0-liter front-driver will hit 22 mpg combined.)

Another area of intense effort on the part of the Traverse development team was chassis tuning, where the goal was to preserve the already comfy ride quality while sharpening the crossover’s dynamic handling—even when heavily loaded. On the ride-preservation/improvement front, there are new ZF shocks all around, and they include special preloaded valves that improve damping performance over the smallest inputs and also make the shocks quieter. In short, they make simpler twin-tube shocks behave more like fancy monotube ones. On the handling front, the lateral links in the new five-link rear suspension are hardened, and the ride-control (longitudinal) mounts are hydraulic on the front strut control arms. The front mounts of the rear-suspension cradle are also hydraulic for improved isolation. And to help out the rear coil springs as you load the Traverse down, there’s a big, tall, multimaterial “bump stop” that acts kind of like a variable-rate helper spring and ensures a soft “landing” if it does bottom out.

My Friday morning engagement (sampling the aforementioned Ford 10-speed) was out in the country, affording an opportunity to hustle down a deserted twisty road en route back to HQ, and indeed this big honker seemed to change direction pretty smartly, with minimal roll and none of the kind of slop you often get as all the rubber bits squish before the suspension takes a set. (Any of my vacation-bound colleagues trying maneuvers like these with their broods onboard surely coated their Traverses’ interiors with Cheerios and baby spew while screams of protest drowned out the shocks’ newfound quietness.)

Things did calm down Sunday and Monday, giving me a chance to explore the Traverse’s vast interior (it’s 10 percent larger than the outgoing model), which will accommodate the essential 4-by-8-foot sheet of paneling. Praise be! There’s an underfloor cargo stowage bin that can swallow a smaller roll-aboard bag behind the third-row seat, and there are USB charging ports within a comfortable cord’s reach of every seating position.

Rear-seat comfort was less impressive. The middle-row captain’s chairs felt hard and flat, though they’re elevated sufficiently above the front seats to afford stadium visibility. The wheelbase stretch was supposed to pay off in third-row comfort, but my 5-foot-10 frame felt cramped, and the low cushion and still-too-high floor forced a knees-high seating posture. The VW Atlas we had in a week earlier was vastly more comfortable back there. At least the passenger-side tilt/slide middle-row chair makes it easy to climb in and out, but I fear that children will struggle to operate its latch and will just scoot between the seats to climb in and out through wide rear doors, which now feature stays that hold them open in three positions.

My takeaway from a long weekend spent not vacationing in the Traverse: It’ll make up time when you’re running late about as well as any seven- or eight-seater can, but a sport transmission program would be a welcome upgrade. The ride is comfortable and quiet, it looks good on the outside, and it fits tons of stuff on the inside, but to rank as the ultimate vacation-mobile, the rear-seating comfort could use improvement. That’s a respectably small to-do list for a new Chevy.

2018 Chevrolet Traverse BASE PRICE $30,875-$52,995 VEHICLE LAYOUT Front-engine, FWD/AWD, 7-8-pass, 4-door SUV ENGINES 2.0L/255-hp/295-lb-ft* turbocharged DOHC 16-valve I-4; 3.6L/310-hp/266-lb-ft DOHC 24-valve V-6 TRANSMISSION 9-speed automatic CURB WEIGHT 4,350-4,600 lb (mfr) WHEELBASE 120.9 in LENGTH X WIDTH X HEIGHT 204.3 x 78.6 x 70.7 in 0-60 MPH 6.9-7.4 sec (mfr est) EPA CITY/HWY/COMB FUEL ECON 17-20/25-25/20-22 mpg* ENERGY CONSUMPTION, CITY/HWY 169-198/135-135 kW-hrs/100 miles* CO2 EMISSIONS, COMB 0.88-0.98 lb/mile* ON SALE IN U.S. Currently *2.0-liter hp, torque, EPA figures estimated