Well, Folks.....I just ordered a new vehicle.

mmcartalk

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And all of that echoes my impressions of the Chevy Bolt EV interior: unique, light-colored "technical" polished accents that look great and very high-tech and contemporary and a nice break from the usual wood, piano black or brushed-metal look. It makes all the other so-so graining and gloss of the dark interior plastics all the more jarring (notably worse in the Chevy Bolt than in the Buick).

The Bolt had better have a decent-grade interior LOL.......40K or more for a car the size of something that straddles the border between the A (minicar) and B (subcompact) class.
 

mmcartalk

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A strike at the Incheon/South Korea plant , where the Encore GX and a number of other Buick/Chevy/Opel models are produced, may be delaying my car. I'm going to check at the dealership maybe tomorrow. The top-selling Chevy Trailblazer is also produced there (and demand for that vehicle, despite the pandemic, is enormous)...this may partially explain why dealerships can't keep them in stock.
 

mmcartalk

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Looks clean! I personally would've splurged for the Essence if I was getting one just for the nicer lights and the panoroof.

The Essence also gives you leather seats and the option of ordering the wide-angle rear-view camera, which takes the place of a standard rear-view mirror, but I decided I could live without them. I'm not a big fan of leather seats on cold mornings, even with seat-heaters, or in the hot sun (cloth is much better)....and the standard Blind-Spot-Monitoring and 360-degree camera, with its excellent graphics, that comes with the Select's Advanced Tech-Package, goes a long way towards taking the place of the wide-angle rear-camera.

As for the lights, I know there's a lot of hype about LED headlights nowadays, but they are not a big issue with me....most of the roads in this huge D.C. area are well-lit at night, and I don't drive much after dark.....maybe once a week or so.

Sunroofs are not standard on the Essence....they are part of an add-on package. And sunroofs are a No-No in my book.....I would actually pay extra to NOT get one. They can creak, squeak/rattle, leak in the rain or car-wash, take out some of the frame-integrity of a solid-steel roof, rob tall people of about an inch of headroom when closed, and, worst of all, could jam or fail when a big storm is just ahead. Years ago, automakers gave you an emergency hand-crank for the sunroof if you needed it....now, those have disappeared.

GM deliberately marketed the Trailblazer and Encore GX that way, because it was recognized that some people, like me, simply didn't want sunroofs, but liked other features. So, they made the sunroof-package optional on even the Essence version.
 
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The Essence also gives you leather seats and the option of ordering the wide-angle rear-view camera, which takes the place of a standard rear-view mirror, but I decided I could live without them. I'm not a big fan of leather seats on cold mornings, even with seat-heaters, or in the hot sun (cloth is much better)....and the standard Blind-Spot-Monitoring and 360-degree camera, with its excellent graphics, that comes with the Select's Advanced Tech-Package, goes a long way towards taking the place of the wide-angle rear-camera.

As for the lights, I know there's a lot of hype about LED headlights nowadays, but they are not a big issue with me....most of the roads in this huge D.C. area are well-lit at night, and I don't drive much after dark.....maybe once a week or so.

Sunroofs are not standard on the Essence....they are part of an add-on package. And sunroofs are a No-No in my book.....I would actually pay extra to NOT get one. They can creak, squeak/rattle, leak in the rain or car-wash, take out some of the frame-integrity of a solid-steel roof, rob tall people of about an inch of headroom when closed, and, worst of all, could jam or fail when a big storm is just ahead. Years ago, automakers gave you an emergency hand-crank for the sunroof if you needed it....now, those have disappeared.

GM deliberately marketed the Trailblazer and Encore GX that way, because it was recognized that some people, like me, simply didn't want sunroofs, but liked other features. So, they made the sunroof-package optional on even the Essence version.
I'm glad we still have choices...ideally, I would want those higher options from the Essence available on the base model with the cloth/pleather.