Driving an H3 for a couple of days

[KenP]

I've got a rental H3 I'll be sporting around for a couple of days and thought I'd post my impressions. Just remember that this is a base, base, base model rental.

My first impression getting in the truck was positive. I like the substantial sterring wheel and gear shifter. They feel very sturdy and solid. I'm happy so far.

The truck is smaller than what I'm used to, but it's not tiny in anyway. Sort of a Mama Bear size, not Papa or Baby bear. Maybe it's just right and I certainly could get used to it.

I don't know why people complain about the power. It's fine for around town driving. Maybe it isn't so good on hills and whatnot, but it's flat as a pancake here, so power isn't that big a deal.

Visibility was what I expected, limited just like the 2.

The ride was nice. It soaked up the potholes fine and didn't jar my teeth out, so that's all good. Those combined make for a nice truck that would be great on long trips. However...

I do have a couple of things I don't care for, two of which have been discussed here at length, so they're nothing new. The damn window switches. WTF??? You have to be a contortionist to get to them. GM is changing them, right?

The other thing is the location of the foot pedals. A size 13 foot wrapped in Croc's doesn't fit between the brake and the trans tunnel. I had to nearly lay my foot on it's side to use the heel-toe-brake-gas method. I could never get used to that.

The truck's seats are supportive, so the problems with the seats are unique to this truck and my experience. It has cloth seats and I haven't had cloth seats since '87. Also, the seats aren't powered so I couldn't get the seat adjusted to my liking. I'm 6'4" and 220lbs so my size didn't help things either. No up and down, no lumbar support. Combine that with the funky leg position and I had problems getting comfortable.

Basically, it really gets down to me having just one problem with H3's in general, the damn brake pedal location. I could get used to the switches, and power seats would fix my comfort problem. Again, this was a rental and frankly, they suck. I mean hell, I had to manually adjust the mirrors! WTF!?!?

GM, FIX THE PEDAL LOCATION!