Cruise control 03vs04

[DURAMAX TIM]

This is mostly for Mac but other may find it useful.
Just got back from a 600 mile X-mas road trip down through eastern KY, some decent rolling hills.
The cruise on the 04 when set on 62-63 mph and 1800 rpm would down shift on some of the hills.
70% of time the rpms would go up to 2300.
29% of the time rpms would increase to 2800.
1 time it went up to 4000 rpm on a short steep hill.
Some hills I thought it would downshift on but it pulled right up.
It seems better than the 03 we had and it held the speed very well +/- 1 mph.
The 04 has less than 2000 miles too.

Yell'r 04 Lux w/ air, sunroof,F&R brush bars
Traded 03 White Lux
03 GMC D/A CC SLT LB soon to be 04

[DURAMAX TIM]

This is mostly for Mac but other may find it useful.
Just got back from a 600 mile X-mas road trip down through eastern KY, some decent rolling hills.
The cruise on the 04 when set on 62-63 mph and 1800 rpm would down shift on some of the hills.
70% of time the rpms would go up to 2300.
29% of the time rpms would increase to 2800.
1 time it went up to 4000 rpm on a short steep hill.
Some hills I thought it would downshift on but it pulled right up.
It seems better than the 03 we had and it held the speed very well +/- 1 mph.
The 04 has less than 2000 miles too.

Yell'r 04 Lux w/ air, sunroof,F&R brush bars
Traded 03 White Lux
03 GMC D/A CC SLT LB soon to be 04

[MAC]

Tim, The subject goes back many months, I remembered Ed was quite passionated about this subject, and everything else. Cruise control was discussed at length, my Hummer seemed to downshift less often and less dramatically than few others. This is a difficult subject to quantify, since we were not able to pinpoint the road condition or the climb.

One of the example used was from my home to San Jose which is from the edge to the heart of the Silicon Valley, we will be on the same trip tomorrow night for a dinner party, it is 30 minutes of nonstop rolling hills. But that will not be a good comparison, because I cruise at 80MPH, Tim cruised at 62-63MPH.

What is more interesting to me is how and why you change autos every year? You traded your 03 H2 for a 04 H2, which is basically the same auto, and you will trade 03 GMC to a 04? In general, that is quite costly to trade in yearly, how and why do you do that? especially puzzling is trade between same model, there maybe some emotional reason to trade for a different auto to try out new automobiles. Do tell please.

[DURAMAX TIM]

I knew there was a lot of talk on the cruise before and I thought u were in it.
This was the first extended trip in the H2 and the cruise works real good in the 04 (maybe we got a GOOD one from the factory).
I notice over 1 mpg better fuel mileage in the 04 vs the 03 and the 04 isn't broke in yet.

I work for GM (NOT in the PR)and since we get good discounts ($7000+ on H2) and have dealers around us that can sell slightly used vehicles we trade quite often (we have to keep them 6 months).
I usually get what I paid on the trade value.
Some of the dealers let me trade/sell through them to save on salestax.
For a long time I kept the same loan and paid the difference out of pocket and the plan was to get both vehicles paid for and still drive new vehicles w/ no maintenance costs.
I'm on my 8th duramax truck and some run a little better than others but I haven't seen the difference like the 03 to 04 H2.
Wouldn't u want to get a 04 H2 w/ 0 miles for a 2-3 thousand $$$.
Besides we need to keep the economy rolling

Yell'r 04 Lux w/ air, sunroof,F&R brush bars
04 Chevy D/A CC SLT LB

[Frank Hewitt]

According to the GM/H2 info that I can find, there has been no update on the vehicle that would explain any changes in economy or performance in the '04 vs. '03 H2- because it has been UNCHANGED for the most part(except nav system). Why change something that works??!! I have heard many-a-folk-lore that there are various reasons to buy an '04 vs. '03 H2, including extra mileage and etc. From what I can surmise, if you deduct the on-board navigation system, the vehicle is the same. So why buy an '03??? Because it is the same bad-ass ride for less than an '04. Pretty simple. I always enjoy hearing folks who have some mystical and magical reason that their '04 gets better mileage or is better 0ff-road. If I lost my '03 I'd only hope to find an '03 replacement that I wanted because I would feel that I wasted money buying a '04 with no improvements for the money. I'm sure there are reasons for others to buy an '04, but considering that there are are such incredible prices on '03s remaining in stock, I couldn't personally rationallize paying more for an '04.

gasman

[Centerfire]

Frank..

i wonder if the better mileage on the brand new 04's can be contributed to the fact that most people drive their new vec. really nice, easy and slower than their usual driving style..

I know I ddrive mine a lot nicer when they are barnd new.. then go back to my usual " Ball to the Wall" method of driving.

Mike

[MAC]

Tim, Sounds perfectly reasonable to me to sell your 03 and get a 04. Great benefit working for GM, actually help move the products. I remembered one of the reasons why IBM was the No.1 seller of PCs and chips was because their own internal use of the new PCs and chips was so great, that alone pushed IBM to No.1 spot. Similar logic used in some mergers, the new parent corp.'s purchases can dramatically increase the sales of the newly accuqired division.

Yes you are correct that we had some extended discussions about the cruise control. My 03 Hummer cruise control works pretty well with some reasonable downshifts on uphills, I don't think the RPM ever gets above 3,000. On some spots even with a full load of 6 on steep climb on tall San Mateo bridge @ 75MPH, the cruise did not downshift, which was amazing to me.

I don't know how my driving style is comparing to others, pretty smooth and gentle to me, but I know I am absolutely in the aggressive and fast category. The only time I was slow and extra careful was within the first 500 miles.

I am at 10.9MPG average @ 21250 miles. Mostly due to the constant steep twisty mountain roads I drive daily. The freeway driving helps even the numbers out, otherwise, it could be a lot worse than 10.9MPG.

[H2 Bill]

It is also possible that they altered the PCM programming a little to increase shift points, change the torque mangagement a little, etc. This is something that could have been done without any publicity.

2003 H2 Hummer, Yellow,Polished Whipple Supercharged, Edelbrock ceramics, catback,18" Ambush w/mudders,lots of goodies!
Y2K Corvette Millennium Yellow Convert/Blk/Blk, B&B headers, B&B Tri-Flo's, H-Tech MAG,GMS MAF, RM Racing TwinFlow.
1994 Chev 454 Suburban, Blown, Doug Thorley
1970 Trans Am, balanced, blue printed, Hooker ceramics

www.4swimwear.com

[DURAMAX TIM]

I posted a while back that they put different pistons (ceramic coating and free floated pins if I recall) and some other little changes.
My wife drives it 95% of the time and only about 5 miles one way.
My dealer also ?? us on the last HH as others have asked him about the 04 running better than the 03, so I don't know.
I wonder if they gave it some more mid rpm power?
About the only way to tell would be a chassis dyno, I know Hypertech has one that H2 will work on.

Yell'r 04 Lux w/ air, sunroof,F&R brush bars
04 Chevy D/A CC SLT LB