Background:

We needed a rental car at the Long Beach Airport and thanks to a special being run by Alamo were able to get a small SUV for less than a mid-sized car. The Alamo site said it could be a Chevy Avalanche or similar. I was hoping it would actually be the Pontiac and as it turned out we are giving a 2006 Pontiac Torrent with Front Wheel Drive and about 12,000 miles on it.

I am trying to decide what kind of vehicle I am going to buy in the next year. This is probably the first time in my life that I am wide open on what kind of vehicle I am going to purchase. I like to have something that I can sit high in no matter if it’s a car or a small SUV.

The Torrent:

I just cannot decide if I like the looks the Torrent or not. It is not butt-ugly like the Subaru Edsel sorry I mean the Tribeca (at least they have changed it this year). But you cannot say it is a good looking vehicle, it is just, well…boring.

The front end of the vehicle clearly has the Pontiac grill. The side and rear of the Torrent looks like almost all the other small SUVs out on the market. I also noticed that the Pontiac does have a resemblance to the Honda Pilot.

The Interior of the Torrent:

I have to say that I love interiors that are designed for drivers. What I mean by that is that the instrumentation and all the controls are designed for the ease of the driver. There are few cars that I have seen that have done a good job of this. Once again the Torrent was so-so.

I found the seats to be supportive and comfortable even on long trips which can be a problem for me with my bad back. In addition the seats have heaters while most of the time it was very hot outside we did get one opportunity to try the heaters and we had to turn them off after about two or three minutes because they became so hot.

The radio and climate controls are located in a section of the dashboard that curves down into the center console. While the radio is relatively easy to reach it is difficult to reach the climate controls depending on where the gearshift lever is. Also it was difficult to see what gear you were in. Power window controls are in the center console just behind the gear shift lever.

Another downfall I found was that it was hard to see the 20-40mph range depending on how you have the steering wheel and seats adjusted.

Meanwhile my wife and sister who both rode in the back seat said that it was comfortable and gave a good ride.

I was also not overly impressed with the A/C. It seemed to have a hard time keeping the front seat area cool. Even on a two hour straight drive the vehicle did not get that cool.

We did not use the radio a lot but when we did the sound was good and we picked up stations well even along old 66 in the middle of no mans land.

Driving the Torrent:

Over the 10 days that we had the Torrent we had the opportunity to drive it on a wide range of roads. From regular interstate driving, to the city streets of Southern California, to the two lane roads of old route 66 and other US highways, and finally canyon roads. In other words we were able to drive the Torrent in about every type of road condition you would find in every day life.

In every day driving in city streets the Torrent did pretty good. The vehicle has good get up and go, and even on some rough pavement did not seem overly bumpy. The vehicle also did well in tight maneuvering in parking lots and urban areas.

We also did a trip along former route 66 from Victorville to Barstow then up to Calico Ghost town. Along this road, where we traveled around 60mph the vehicle did very well, held its lane well, and overall was easy to drive.

The downfall of the vehicle was interstate driving. Any time the speed limit was at about 70mph or higher the vehicle would start to wander. Especially in areas where you are traveling 75 or so the vehicle did not feel that stable. If there was any major wind present the instability was even worse. The quality of the pavement did not seem to matter as we were on a wide range of freeways and the instability seemed to be about the same.

Power:

The Torrent is powered by a 3.4L 3400 V6 with 185 horsepower at 5200 rpm and 210lb ft. of torque at 3800 rpm.

The power plant in this vehicle is enough to make me not want to purchase this vehicle. For those of you that have read my update on the review on the 1996 Chevy Lumina APV will know that the Lumina APV was also equipped with the 3.4L 3400 and blew a head gasket at just over 100,000 miles. To top it all off, it was the third vehicle I know of with that motor to blow a head gasket with just around 120,000 miles. Hopefully there has been changes since then.

Now back to the Torrent. Overall, I was pretty happy with the power of the Torrent. Even driving up Cajon Pass the Torrent had good power and was able to pass vehicles with ease. In city driving the Torrent had good get up and go and I had no problem passing vehicles on the two lane highways.

Fuel Mileage:

The Torrent Front Wheel Drive is rated at 19mpg City/25 mpg highway compared to the All Wheel Drive model which is rated 19/26. Overall we averaged about 21mpg, which is the same as my 1996 Ford Ranger 4X4 got, so gas mileage did not impress me.

Cargo Room:

The cargo room on the vehicle fit our needs nicely. We had three full size suitcases with us, plus my duffel bag that we carry books and other reading material in. They all fit nicely into the back cargo area of vehicle with no problem. It proved to be much nicer than having to fit everything into the truck of a car.

Overall Impressions:

So what are my overall impressions of the Torrent? Well, I think it is an ok vehicle, I am just not impressed with the vehicle.

The vehicle does drive well, but Pontiac needs to work on the ergonomic features in the interior. In addition, the vehicle has styling which has to be called boring. There is nothing exciting about it but that goes for many SUV’s on the market today.

The vehicle does have good power and drives well except when it comes to Interstate driving at 70mph or above.

So in other words, the Torrent is a mixed bag, it is not a bad vehicle, it is not a great vehicle it is just average.



Amount Paid (US$): 300.00
Model Year: 2006