The engine starts easily and idles smoothly. The transmission shifts easily at part throttle. Push hard on the right pedal and the torque comes instantly. The Vortec V6 pulls like a smallmouth bass unhappy about being hooked, right down to that tingle you can feel in your hands. It's not nearly as slick as some of its overhead-cam rivals from Japan when accelerating hard, but the difference on the highway is imperceptible.

On the road the only noises when cruising are a slight ruffle of air around the mirrors, tire noise coming up from the highway and a bass note from the engine. It's all subdued, however, allowing for easy conversation between the front and rear seat, or a rolling concert environment for listening to the audio system. You'll almost regret reaching your destination. Back seat passengers wearing headphones can listen independently to other programming.

The ZW7 suspension lives up to its luxury billing, with a soft ride over the road, soaking up expansion joints. Unimproved roads, however, will jostle the inhabitants, which is to be expected. The ZW7 package does not have the lateral control of some of the other Jimmy suspensions, and on winding roads the Envoy tends to lean in corners. A sightseeing trip to the Lackawaxen home of Zane Gray required traversing some narrow, bumpy highways in the Pocono Mountains of Pennsylvania, and here we would have preferred a little more rebound damping in the shocks and a fatter anti-roll bar. Back on Interstate 84, however, the Envoy was in its element. It almost made us wish we had a trailer to tow.

We also had the chance to climb a hill on an ice-covered road. The Auto 4WD mode worked exactly as advertised, shifting into four-wheel drive with no indication to the driver that anything unusual was going on. The Envoy scaled the icy climb so easily that we tried it again with the transfer case in 2-Hi (two-wheel drive). Barely able to make forward progress on the uphill section, we came to a stop and shifted back into Auto 4WD. Even from rest on an incline we pulled away and reached the top. It was slippery enough to test the ABS as well, and we certainly would have found going down the hill much more thrilling without the antilock system -- but we didn't try that.

Those exotic-looking headlamps, incidentally, are more than just for looks. Halogen lights pale in comparison to the bluish white light of the Envoy's high-intensity discharge low beams. They really come into their own on dark, stormy nights.

A dealer-installed option is GM's OnStar Communication System. It uses the Global Positioning System and cellular telephone communications to provide the driver with directions or unlock the car when you leave the keys in it. It automatically sends a signal to an OnStar representative when the airbags are deployed; and if you don't respond the OnStar representative will contact emergency personnel and direct them to you.

Bringing home the groceries was made easier by a net that keeps those plastic bags and gallon milk jugs from sliding all over the cargo area. A cargo cover reels from side to side, which means there's no bar with the cover inside to deal with when lowing the rear seatback for a large load, and it's also easier to reach. The cargo floor also has tie downs to secure loads.