Allow me to introduce you to General Motors in the early 2000s, where no idea was too preposterous, no thought too absurd and no concept too crazy to put into production. This is the General Motors that gave us the Pontiac Aztek, the Chevy SSR convertible pickup truck and the Chevy TrailBlazer that was called a Saab.
It’s also the General Motors that gave us an SUV designed to carry grandfather clocks.
Actually, I’m being unfair to General Motors. It wasn’t just grandfather clocks the 2004 GMC Envoy XUV could carry. It could also transport trees. And, I suppose, giraffes. See the 2004 GMC Envoy XUV models for sale near you
Here’s the situation. In the early 2000s, General Motors rolled out a new SUV that was replicated with an almost unending number of brands: first as the Chevrolet TrailBlazer, the GMC Envoy and the Oldsmobile Bravada, and then as the Isuzu Ascender, the Buick Rainier and the Saab 9-7X. Yes, that’s right, there was once an Oldsmobile that was also a Saab. These were dark days.
In an effort to stretch out this platform for even more profit, General Motors decided to boldly go where no automaker had gone before. Namely, the grandfather clock-toting market. The resulting SUV was called the GMC Envoy XUV, and it had an SUV body with a retractable roof over the cargo area in case you needed to carry tall items, plus fold-down rear seats and a removable partition, allowing you to bring the elements into the interior. I’m serious! Virtually every press photo of this car showed it transporting a large item no person would ever carry anywhere, unless they were bringing a family heirloom to Antiques Roadshow.
Unsurprisingly, the Envoy XUV was canceled after two years, and eventually, the Envoy was replaced with the Acadia. However, if you look closely, you can still see the occasional Envoy XUV on the road, cargo area cover open, waiting for an eager grandfather clock to jump inside. Find a 2004 GMC Envoy XUV for sale
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You’ve got to start giving us more pictures in these posts.
Seriously Doug, an article about a vehicle with a crazy retractable roof and not one photo showing off the roof?!? Personally, I’d be happy with one decent retracted roof photo but came to see a grandfather clock towering over the SUV.
Those things were so ugly too. I still see one driving around every once in a while and wonder how they feel being stuck with that thing.
Uggh this was my #DougCar5 suggestion, back to the drawing board for #DougCar6….
On a similar note, I’ve always wondered what the actual use rate was on the Avalanche’s removable midgate. I don’t think I’ve ever seen it actually in use, though I’ve seen plenty of them on the road.