A Closer Look - 2010 GMC Acadia
Monday, March 1, 2010 at 3:21PM 
On the whole, I tend to view crossovers as a sort of awkward, pubescent form of car design. While SUVs are busy throwing touchdown passes and getting with lead cheerleaders everywhere, the car/truck half-breeds spend their time spilling milk at the dinner table and debating the feasibility of Boba Fett’s survival in the sarlacc pit. And at first, the GMC Acadia did little to change my opinion. While I was absolutely impressed with the excellent interior and handsome styling of its cousin, the Chevrolet Traverse, the professional-grade version did little to push any buttons.
The Acadia is attractive enough outside – GM’s designers did a sharp job of keeping the proportions in check, and from a distance you don’t realize how massive this thing is. You’re rolling on a 118.9-inch wheelbase, which makes room for a total of seven seats inside, and at 201.1-inches long, you feel like you’re driving a school bus from behind the wheel. That is, if a school bus had uncharacteristically quick steering.
But like a teenager who hasn’t quite figured out how to handle themselves in public, you wind up lurching the Acadia through parking lots as you do your best to park like you have more than two hours of driving experience under your belt. Aside from the bizarre steering ratio, the crossover has capable mechanicals under it. A 288-horsepower, 3.6-liter, direct-injection V-6 provides the pep, and GM’s slick new six-speed automatic transmission makes easy work of picking gears. Even so, fuel economy sits at 17/24 (city/hwy) for the front-wheel-drive version and 1 mpg less for the all-wheel-drive model.
Those are all good numbers, and I was particularly impressed with how easy it was to get the third row of seats to fold flat. Lift up on one lever and the head rests fold forward, seat backs fall into place and you’ve got plenty of storage for things like a full set of new wheels and tires for a Triumph Spitfire. Or a baby stroller. Whatever. The Acadia also boasts one of my favorite features on any vehicle – a handy heads-up display with information on vehicle speed, outside temperature and the like, but you’ve got to pay extra for that bit of tech.
Given the functionality of the Acadia, I’d be happy to forgive the crossover its faults were it not for the interior. While so many GM models have risen above the cheap plastic feel of vehicles gone by, the Acadia hasn’t. With its dark on darker motif, flimsy-looking red gauges and plenty of hard plastics, you get the feeling you’re driving a crossover in the low-$30,000 range. Thing is, our topped-out model carried a price tag of $47,740, and that’s astronomical by anyone’s gauge.
Did I love the remote start, heated seats and auto liftgate during the frigid snow/ice of last week? Sure, but I also loathed the placement of the controls for the rear wiper, and couldn’t for the life of me figure out how to set up the Bluetooth hands-free calling, even with the owner’s manual. Those are problems, to be sure, but they pale in comparison to the fact that for $40,635, you can have a base Chevrolet Suburban with seating for nine, more horsepower, a better towing rating and 21 mpg. Sorry Acadia, but I’m still in love with the quarterback, er, SUV, and I get the feeling most of America is too.
-Zach Bowman
2010, 2010 GMC, 2010 GMC Acadia, Acadia, Crossover, GMC, GMC Acaida, review 
Reader Comments (6)
Nicely done, Mr. Bowman. All put together, in a handy overhead compartment size. Plus you started with the Fett-Man analogy. How could it go bad from there.
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And according to this article, I totally agree with your opinion, but only this time!
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