With 54 miles on it (446 to go 'til breakout time), some early observations:

One concern I had having not test driven the vehicle first was the "harsh ride" that some said the Comp G had. I've got a real good "proving grounds" on the street my office is on. After driving to work & back today, all I can surmise is that 6 years of must have my 97, because the Comp G felt like a Sedan DeVille by comparison.

I only "pushed" it once, merging onto a freeway coming back from lunch today, and my two passengers were impressed, but I'm waiting for break-in to fully exploit it. For the same reason, I haven't used the TAPshift yet.

I also haven't had a chance to work with the OnStar system yet; I hope to by the weekend.

The XM is pretty cool; my wife and I went through all the channels last night. So far the only presets are NASCAR (the reason I bought XM), Torch, and Fish, but I'm sure Chrome will follow shortly (anyone who doesn't have XM has no idea ; those that do can look them up!).

Some things are a little different from the 97 and take getting used to. The steering wheel volume control is a little lower on the 04; I've already turned on the wipers 3 times because the new stalk is so close to the wheel it's easy to bump; the air conditioning is a LOT more complicated than the auto control on the 97 - it took a while to get it right for my lunchtime crew :p .

Some things that you guys might be able help me out with - the HUD seems to fade and brighten fairly constantly, especially at night. I'm guessing it's because it's light sensitive and it reacts to passing under street lights, but of course by the time it changes it's now dark again, and it's kind of annoying. I don't know if anything can be done about it, but any input would be appreciated. The other issue is my wife's - when we made a sharp turn that we were familiar with, she automatically reached up for the grab handle, only to grasp air. She said, "I need a handle up there, especially with you driving!" Would it be possible to install one on the passenger side? Our family sanity may depend on it.

One thing I found tonight that makes a much bigger difference than I thought it would is the trunk opening. The brochures and such touted the new trunk opening as easy to get into with the low sill, yada, yada. The 97 had a pretty low sill so I didn't see what the big deal would be. After grocery shopping tonight, I can say that's a fantastic design on the new trunk! You don't even have to lift up at all over the opening to put grocery bags in or out, and the latch won't get caught up in the plastic bags like the old one would if you weren't careful. Definitely a major plus for the redesign. Forget the performance upgrades, I like the new trunk !

All in all, it's pretty cool and I can't wait to get to 500 miles so I can reap the full benefits :p !