Seeing a Studebaker Wagonaire with a tall refrigerator standing upright in its open-top rear cargo area at the NATMUS museum this weekend reminded me of this Envoy XUV I had shot just the week before. Given that the Wagonaire hardly was a big success, it’s a bit surprising that GM decided to make something similar.
FWIW, the XUV was a bit more practical than the Wagonaire, as its rear compartment could be sealed off from the passenger compartment, and the load area was waterproof. Not so on the Wagonaire.
I didn’t take a shot of the Wagonaire with the fridge in it, but it was like this.
I figured for sure I’d be able to find a shot of an Envoy XUV with a fridge in the back too, but no such luck. About as much luck GMC had in selling these; some 12,000 did find homes in 2004, less than a third of what was projected. Production ended early in MY 2005.
I live in a county of 75,000 people with one GMC dealer who does a brisk business. I have seen exactly one of these in the wild.
I can see a practical use for one of these quite a good concept, not that I want one or can get one.
I wish you could still get Wagonaires. I’d buy one right now. Well, a used one.
This development was part of GM’s directive that 40% of new products had to be “innovative”.
A salesman at my local GMC dealer was given a hefty spiff for finally unloading the one they had in stock after sitting for over a year.
I wonder if a fridge would even fit in the Envoy. It has a much steeper tumblehome than the Wagonaire, so it might be too narrow at the top.
That wasn’t just any fridge – it was an *International Harvester* fridge!
Did you see the note on the steering wheel of that Stude? It warned the next person in it there were 2×4’s in the rear suspension so the bumper wasn’t on the ground from the Cornbinder Cooler.
If the fridge-toting Stude were parked outside, which would rust faster – the Studebaker or the International Harvester fridge? I see a QOTD here.
I worked at a GMC/Pontiac dealer when these were new. You got less water inside with the top open!!
I saw one when I worked at GM. It leaked like crazy in wet weather.
So much for the “if only Studebaker had possessed the resources of GM to engineer that opening roof mechanism” line of reasoning.
Despite my hatred for all modern things GM, I thought this was a great idea.
It seemed that these were popular in Miami, I still see a few on the road, and I know someone who still owns the one they bought new, he seems to still be happy with his, he’s well over 100K in miles and he never really had much trouble with the power roof, what’s interesting is that he was about 29, single and had no kids when bought an Envoy XUV new, which I thought was odd since this seemed like a “family” type vehicle.
I used to call it the Popemobile, it was kind of cool to stand up in the open rear compartment like you were Idi Amin or something, all you needed was a tan military dress uniform and some mirrored Ray Bans to complete the 3rd world dictator look.
That is a good idea as a parade vehcile, isn’t it?
I also thought this was a good idea; even though the taller roof makes the vehicle look somewhat ungainly. Surprised they couldn’t seal it properly–how is it that different from a big sunroof? I also seem to remember hearing that they were overpriced.
Sunroofs are kind of a different story. Your simple pop-up variety, like the kind ASC used to install as a dealer or aftermarket add-on, just sits on a rubber seal. The roof panel is flat, so as long as the seal is intact and seated properly, it won’t leak. I don’t think that approach is really workable with these sorts of roofs because the roof has to be articulated to retract, which means that any kind of gaps in the articulation will potentially allow water to enter.
Modern factory sunroof/moonroof installations of the kind where the panel disappears into the space above the headliner don’t really attempt to stop water entry so much as give the water somewhere to go other than into the cabin. The rationale is that it’s difficult to get the roof panel to sit tightly enough to seal out water when closed while still allowing it to slide off the seal back into the car when opened. There are seals around the panel and the opening, but they’re more to keep out dust and debris. If you open the sunroof and look into the space behind the opening, you’ll usually see two big stainless steel (or maybe plastic) channels, one on either side of the gap. Those feed into drainage tubes at each end, which are piped through the roof pillars to exhaust into the wheel wells or under the car. The idea is that any major water infiltration that passes the external seal goes into the channels and is carried out of the car.
The problem with this is that it’s damnably difficult to design a drainage system like this that will work 100 percent effectively in all conditions. If for instance you’re parked on a steep hill in a downpour, some of the water will not end up in the drainage channels, but will go into the space above the headliner and either leak into the cabin or pool up and then leak into the cabin the next time the car changes orientation. Also, if the drainage tubes get plugged with dust and dirt, they won’t drain, with similar results. (File all this under “Why the last time I bought a new car, I told the salesman I wouldn’t buy one with a moonroof even if they offered me the option for free.”)
I’m not familiar enough with the XUV to know how they approached weatherproofing, but I imagine it was something similar, so I can see how they might have had all kinds of problems with it, given the greater complexity of the roof panel.
They should have sold them in Texas as a hunting vehicle!
these vehicles always amazed me. GM redesigns the popular Blazer/Jimmy, at the height of the SUV craze, and does such a good job that they go out of production. Amazing.
The TrailBlazer/Envoy/etc ended up overlapping the Tahoe/Yukon. When the big trucks were redone, the newer Tahoes got better MPG, and more room, then the TrailBlazer Sextuplets. Then, the Great Recession killed them off.
‘height of SUV craze’?
SUV craze was temporarily cooled, remember the big deal about the Civic outselling the F-150, for a single month in summer 2008? But now, trucky rigs are back in style.
Exactly, these were nice, but they grew in size and when they were stretched even further for a 3rd row, they ended up being longer than an already 3 row full size Tahoe/Yukon and they were just as expensive, without any of the cache of the “real” full size suv’s.
Also, the GMT 360-305-370 and 368 was made from 2002 through 2009 and was the basis for 10 vehicles from the Trailblazer to the SSR, so it wasn’t exactly a flash in the pan. There were several million cars made on this platform during its 9 year run.
These were sort of the Colonnade of midsized SUV’s for GM, designed during good times, 1998-2000, but released right before the cooling off of the economy that took place after the September 11 attacks and the war which resulted in general start of the decline in the SUV market. I imagine that this wasn’t a cheap car to make either, it had a fair amount of GMT-360 only components, including the DI 4200 I-6 that was never used in anything but the GMT360’s, though it was part of a family that spawned the smaller 4 and 5 cylinders that were used in the Colorado/Canyon.
I also imagine that the lack shared cheaper higher volume truck version hurt the GMT360’s cost projections, the previous S-truck shared with everything from the lowly S10 to the Bravada. You could see that GM was trying to find other outlets for the GMT360 with the “almost-made” 2001 GMT360 based Chevrolet Bel-Air concept car and the SSR, A Cadillac version was on the table at one point too.
The other killer for the GMT360’s started development at GM shortly after the GMT360’s launched in, the Lambda, which essentially replaced these in the eyes of most consumers with a more practically car based large 3 row SUV. The successful launch of the Lambda triplets Outlook-Acadia-Enclave in 2006 and the later Chevrolet Traverse pretty much sealed the fate of these.
Good points and summary. These are still everywhere in my area, and usually still in nice homes and neighborhoods. They seem to hold up well.
I took a brand new 2006 Trailblazer for a week as a rental. It had been backed off the delivery truck at the rental yard and had 10 miles on it. I very much enjoyed my week with it and racked up over 300 miles.
I never quite realized some were longer than a Tahoe, but I always thought they drove lighter on their feet than the full size, and some of these offered pretty good towing capacity, something the Traverse does not.
Worthy vehicles that ended too soon.
The GMT platform did have its high points–perhaps one of the highest being the Trailblazer SS. While some folks might decry applying the SS moniker to anything that wasn’t a car, it was pretty badass for a truck. LS2 V8, 20″ polished wheels, self-leveling rear suspension, and quite mean in the looks department too. My boss had one back around 2010 and I always thought of it as sort of the SUV counterpart to my Marauder, though I think the SS probably would have beat me in a drag race!
I always liked the Saab 9-7. Not because it made any sense as a Saab (which it certainly didn’t), but because it was a Chevy SUV with a half-decent interior.
The application of the SAAB name to a Chevy always bothered me too much to have anything other than antipathy toward it. Plus the corporate nose didn’t look right on this big body.
Swap the front clip for one from an Envoy Denali, though, and we might be in business. (Actually shouldn’t the interior on those have been pretty nice?)
The GMC interior was probably technically OK, but I was never very fond of GM’s interior designs of this period. Too many bulbous and awkward shapes.
GM? Bulbous? Awkward? Noooo…
The main reason I’ll never own a 1st-gen CTS is that hideous, atrocious, bulging center stack. How anyone thought that was a good idea is beyond me. Thankfully, the 2nd-gen cars got rid of that horrible thing and actually have pleasant, attractive interiors.
The only GMC vehicle in which I’ve been a passenger in the last five years or so was a 2012 Terrain. For a rental, I thought the interior was actually quite nice
I think the 9-7 was actually the Bravada reincarnated.
Actually the Buick Rainier was the Bravada’s 2nd life.
I got double stung by the platform. The Saab 9-7 (brand now dead) and Isuzu Ascender (brand now dead). Add in the Olds Bravada (now dead) and this platform was the brand kiss of death.
How to make a bad car worse
Interesting, three-years later development of the Chevrolet Avalanche, boxing in the Avalanche’s cargo bed.
The Avalanche sold a lot better, lasting from 2001 to 2013 when it (and its gussied-up version the Cadillac Escalade EXT) was discontinued.
I think you’ve nailed it. The success of the Avalanche/EXT were likely what inspired the XUV. While the failure of the old Wagonaire might have given GM some pause in the plan, it’s not like Studebaker’s timing was all that great. And, in theory, it really does ‘seem’ like it has practical potential.
The problem is how often is someone going to need that added cargo height in an SUV? Aside from hauling a refrigerator, grandfather clock, or maybe someone who does a lot of landscaping with trees? So, the opening rear roof would seem to have a quite limited appeal or need, whether it be back in 1963 or 41 years later.
Who knows, maybe in another forty years, someone else will give it another try.
GMC was probably jealous that it wasn’t invited to the Avalanche/EXT party.
Never drove one but I’ve heard they’re very tippy-feeling. With the weight of that glass panel sitting up so high I would imagine that to be true.
I’ve seen at least 4 or 5 of these on the road, a couple when I lived in Memphis and a couple here in Florida. It seems to be the vehicle that folks who wanted something different, bought.
I too figured they looked top-heavy and tippy. 70% seem to be white and 30% are charcoal color.
A close friend posted a shot of an XUV just last week, although their purpose was to publish what they concluded was an amusing personalized license plate. I ALMOST began an analysis of what a fail the Envoy XUV was before I remembered: this ain’t CC! None of the viewers of that post would’ve gotten it, and I would’ve come off as the car-crazed lunatic, again. Know the feeling?! 🙂
The funny thing about the Envoy XUV, is that GM had a big push for “gotta have products” in the early 2000s, and this is one of the vehicles they were pushing hard, along with the Maibu MAXX, Avalanche, G6 with the accordion sunroof, XLR Hummer H2, and Saab 9-3 convertible. Talk about a group of duds.
Well, the H2 was a pretty big hit for a couple of years, inspiring further investment into the Hummer, the was the H2 truck and then the H3 suv and truck, most of the other cars mentioned were a dead end from the start, but the H2 had traction initially, they were everywhere, and they must have been making a killing on them.
right until gas prices doubled and they died off like the dinosaurs.
I always thought the XUT or whatever the Hummer H3 pickup was called was pretty neat – a real backseat plus a decent sized bed. Too bad it came out right before they killed Hummer.
Yeah, the H2 was the “it” car for a while. Problem with that is that it had very little else to offer once fashions changed.
“Gentlemen, the boss says we gotta wring one more SUV outta this 360 platform. Any ideas?”
The Maxx was the attractive one of the two Malibu’s. The huge back seat with the entertainment system and glass roof was a treat on long trips. Though not perfect, I wish I kept it. Traded it in for one of the first Volt, How far Chevy came from 2004 to 2011!
+1 It had it’s quirks, but the high end model had many usable features. We had one between our coolant eating Olds Silhouette and Yukon XL.
AFAIK, the 4.2 liter inline 6 in these was the only factory DOHC “high-tech” straight six from Detroit (Not counting the Aussie Ford Falcon six). A pity it wasn’t put to more widespread use.
Agreed – I thought for sure that GM would find more applications for it, like maybe full sized pickups and vans.
I always thought that it would eventually replace the ancient 4.3 V6 that was the base engine in the trucks and vans, but it never did, I recall talking to a GM rep and he said they were thinking about it, but there were some issues with the length of the 4200 engine fitting in the CK and Vans and crash testing and whatnot.
Studebaker never managed to solve the water leakage problem with Wagonaires.
There is one of these XUV in my neighborhood. In Santiago, Chile. Still has the sticker of the original dealer in the US.
A friend of mine had one of these, which he never seemed to carry anything in, however he was sort of an adult child, with an apartment that looked like a dorm room. The XUV was likely purchased because it was full of gadgets. It wasn’t very comfortable inside, and seemed, giant, heavy and plasticky.
I always found the concept of these to be an answer to a question no one asked. If SUVs were born from the idea of enclosing the bed on a pickup, why would you then take an SUV and semi-reverse the process? It was great if you carried grandfather clocks around on a regular basis, but the rest of the time you were stuck with all sorts of fritzy moving parts, and giant, ungainly chrome sliding tracks. Just an unfortunate vehicle all around, and very expensive.
I had a friend who bought one.
He criticized me for buying a 2004 Thunderbird.
Never, ever seen one…..there are still automotive wonders :-), to be seen.
Back in 2004 my father was a salesman for a Phoenix area Pontiac-GMC dealer…he sold exactly one of these.
Crazy thing is that I saw one of these last night! The CC effect strikes again.
The swiss army knife of cars, aka rolling wish list, couldn’t leave anything out. I have no doubt they are versatile, but surely a case of jack of all trades, master of none.
I still remember that when I was writing the piece on the 63 Wagonaire, I had forgotten all about these until my brother in law brought them up. Since then I have seen a handful of them, but not many by any means. I remember being amazed that these sold just about as many annual units as the Studebaker version did.
I will surprise Carmine here, but I would kind of like one of these. I like the sliding roof idea, I like the inline six, and this was the kind of vehicle that GM seemed pretty competent at building.
My neighbor from my previous house had an identical color vehicle as the last promo photo in the article. She loved it and I definitely saw the utility of having one. The Trailblazer, Envoy etc were decent SUV’s introduced at the wrong time. As stated in an earlier post, the Lambda platform essentially replaced these with better efficiency and drive-ability
A shame really because, the GM designed inline six was a decent motor and I was surprised that it did not find another home in the lineup..
We got a 2003 Envoy XL in 2005. I was on a search for this particular vehicle and finally found it. We had bought a 2003 VW Passat that was an absolute piece of garbage so the search was on for an Envoy. I wanted the XL because of the larger rear doors… the 3rd row was a bonus. I also found out you could get them with the 5.3L V-8. I searched and searched then saw it on our way back from dinner one night… a white Envoy XL. I told my wife that if it had leather seats and a V-8 that I was buying it the next day. Got out of the car and saw the V8 tag on the fender. Eureka!!! Bought it the next day. It was perfect… V-8 power, auto climate control, sunroof, charcoal leather interior, 3rd row seating. I had to eat $4k on the trade of the Passat but was very happy to do so… that Passat was that bad!!!
We kept the Envoy for 7 years. It was a great vehicle for a family with a baby… the big rear doors made loading the kid a snap… the V-8 gave it plenty of power to pull the boat or a trailer with motorcycles on board. Yeah, it had it’s issues but all were easily repaired, mostly by me. We really enjoyed it but needed some serious gas mileage once my daughter started private school so we opted for a 2010 Corolla S.
The XUV was never an option… how could it NOT leak?