It’s no secret that America is in love with crossovers. You can get them in all shapes and sizes and even with nameplates that used to belong to cars. Automakers are all jockeying for a shot at being in your driveway. GMC has opened its latest salvo in the crossover arms race with the 2024 GMC Acadia. Despite the model year (many 2025s are launching soon), this is an all-new crossover and your neighbor is probably going to buy one if they haven’t already.
After driving the 2024 GMC Acadia Denali and the 2024 GMC Acadia AT4, I think the Acadia will deserve to fit in those driveways, too. It isn’t going to thrill you, but GMC has seemingly built a solid family car capable of eating up countless miles with ease. The crossover can even tow something here and there, too.
[Full Disclosure: GMC invited me out to South Carolina to test the 2024 GMC Acadia Denali and AT4. The automaker flew me out, put me up in a resort that costs more than my rent, and provided enough ice-cold drinks to offset the insane temperatures and humidity.]
The GMC Acadia is probably not a vehicle that the average Autopian thinks too much about. It’s not the latest and greatest Mazda Miata or the supercar of the week, but it’s something you should care about. After all, a lot of you probably drive regular cars to haul your family around during the week. That’s what the GMC Acadia is all about.
The original GMC Acadia launched in 2006 for the 2007 model year and marked a first for the historic automaker. GMC, the brand known for its hard-working trucks and sinister hot rod trucks, was building something that wasn’t a truck or SUV at all. The 2007 GMC Acadia was the brand’s first front-wheel-drive crossover. The whole point of the original Acadia was to provide eight seats like a van, the form factor of an SUV, and dynamics similar to a car.
The Acadia wasn’t alone, either. It had backup in the form of the Buick Enclave, Chevrolet Traverse, and Saturn Outlook, all of which rode on the GM Lambda platform. They all got the 3.6-liter High Feature V6, an engine that is infamous in the car repair world. Despite the Lambda’s spread, the brands found plenty of buyers. GMC sold 72,765 Acadias in 2007 and sales remained healthy throughout the Great Recession. Sales have remained pretty steady ever since with occasional peaks near or above 100,000 units.
In 2017, GMC was one of a few brands to buck the bloat trend with the second-generation Acadia. Whereas a first-generation Acadia was 200.8 inches long and 78.9 inches wide, the second-generation model lost seven inches of length and three inches of width, shaving 700 pounds in the process. The dramatic weight loss meant an improvement in fuel economy. Unfortunately, it also translated to a loss of a rear seat, down to a max of seven.
Despite this, sales remained healthy. However, GMC began receiving complaints from owners that the Acadia had gotten too small. GMC recognized this as a mistake, and in response, the 2024 GMC Acadia is back to being big. How big? At 203 inches, the new Acadia is three inches longer than the original Acadia and is almost an inch wider. To put this into perspective, the new Acadia is just seven inches shorter than a GMC Yukon.
The new crossover rides on the GM C1 platform, or specifically the C1XX-2 platform. The base C1 platform made its original debut in the second-generation Acadia as well as the Cadillac XT5. Variants of the platform find themselves also underpinning the Buick Enclave, Chevrolet Traverse, Cadillac XT6, Chevrolet Blazer, and Chinese versions of the Blazer and Enclave.
The Acadia’s platform isn’t going to blow you away. It’s a front-wheel-drive-oriented, transverse-mounted engine layout. The art of the C1 and its derivatives is the fact that GM is able to mass-produce so many crossovers on this platform. For the 2024 GMC Acadia, GMC says you get a longer 120.9 wheelbase. Another platform update also allows the dashboard to be lower and smaller, which we’ll get to in a bit.
Handsome And Not Overwrought
Let’s start with the exterior. GMC says the new Acadia is longer, wider, and taller. Your eyes probably see a chunky crossover in these pictures. Well, it’s like that in person, too.
The GMC Acadia looks muscular and handsome. Thankfully, it doesn’t look like a gym rat like so many trucks and SUVs try to be, but it looks like there are some thoroughbreds under the power barn. GMC has continued with the common trends of pronounced wheel arches, a little kink at the D-pillar, and creases that make the crossover look rugged. GMC’s designers also employed the visual trick of making the crossover look taller by using black plastic down below.
In terms of design, I don’t think the GMC Acadia is pushing the envelope. In a way, that’s a good thing. Sure, you’re not going to snap necks, but an Acadia is equally at home either in the drive-through of a McDonald’s as it is parked at a country club. Likewise, I doubt anyone is going to turn their nose up to you for arriving in this ride. One thing I do like is how the Acadia still has brightwork, but GMC decided to make it not as shiny as chrome. You get that nice bling, but it’s not in your face.
My one complaint is with that grille. It looks like it’s a nod to GMC’s trucks, but I still wish we didn’t have this era of massive front ends. With that said, there is some good design to be wowed by once you open the doors.
The Interior Slims Down
Open the door and you’re presented with an interior featuring either high-quality cloth or leather with two different grains. The dashboard gets more of that toned-down brightwork and when it’s equipped with wood, you’re getting a real wood veneer. Seating for eight people is also back, in theory.
(Update: So here’s something confusing. GMC’s press materials for the Acadia say that the crossover has seating for seven with an option to seat eight. However, you cannot create this vehicle in the configurator. Likewise, the new Acadia product page says seating for seven. It would appear GMC may have either delayed or discontinued the eight-seat option without updating press materials. I will ask for clarification.)
(Update: June 14 – GMC has confirmed that the eight-seat option has been deleted since the publishing of the press release. The GMC Acadia is a seven-seater for now and into the foreseeable future.)
Most of the surfaces in the Acadia feel good to the touch. There are some hard plastics here and there, but the majority of what you’ll touch feels like quality pieces. I loved running my fingers across the wood. The interior is interesting because, by GMC’s admission, this is supposed to be more than a Chevrolet, but less than a Cadillac. Automakers call it “premium” and it’s like luxury, but not. So everything feels like it wants to be in a Cadillac when it grows up, but it isn’t allowed to be. One neat touch is the fact that the second-row seats can fold forward for third-row entry without removing a child seat, removing one headache from parents.
The centerpiece of the interior is the 15-inch portrait-style display. Normally, I’m not a huge fan of displays but I do like what I see here. The volume knob is physical, large, and integrated with the screen. The controls that you use the most, like climate controls, are also physical buttons. The screen handles secondary functions like the heated and ventilated front seats, activating the rear climate control, vehicle information, and infotainment.
Personally, I love it when automakers give their vehicles interfaces similar to your phone. I think GMC has achieved something like that here. If you use a smartphone, you shouldn’t have much of a problem navigating this system. There’s another screen up front, and it’s an 11-inch digital instrument cluster with some customization options. For example, you could have it display turn-by-turn directions and your speed right there. The Acadia also has a handy head-up display which shows you critical information in a crisp rectangle of space. Of course, you get your favorite apps, including Apple CarPlay and Android Auto as well.
Of course, I love listening to music, and I love it louder than many people play their tunes. I got to try the system in a base Acadia AT4 and the Acadia Denali, which had a Bose system in it. The base stereo sounded pretty meh. It wasn’t bad, but it’s not something worth screaming from the rooftops about. Sound clarity was merely ok, as was the bass and its resistance to distortion. If I had this stereo, I wouldn’t swap it out, but it’s also not something I’m going to brag about.
The Bose sound system, which starts with 12 speakers but could be optioned to have 16, doesn’t sound as awesome as it looks. The speaker grilles pop and catch your attention, but the sound system leaves some to be desired. It hits harder than the standard sound system but sounds more like the base system in my 2010 Volkswagen Jetta SportWagen TDI, but with more speakers. To put it another way, my 2004 Volkswagen Phaeton has a 12-speaker sound system, of which only 8 speakers are still functional. I’d take the Phaeton’s stereo over the Bose.
While it sounds like I’m being harsh, I still had fun with the sound system. Both systems played loud and hard while keeping my tunes clear enough. Both systems are Mercedes Jam Session Approved and I do think it’s worth upgrading to the better Bose system. With that said, I expected better from a system with the famous Bose name emblazoned on it.
GMC is also quite proud of the 15 safety features being introduced with the 2024 GMC Acadia. I won’t list them all out, but you get collision alerts, high beam assist, parking assist, pedestrian detection, automatic emergency braking, a rearview mirror camera, and more.
Seven cameras come standard as well, with an option to get nine cameras peeking out of every angle of the crossover. To me, there are two real highlights of the interior. The first is the dashboard. GMC says improvements to the Acadia’s platform meant that the designers were able to lower the passenger airbag and thus lower the dashboard. This has the effect of making the cabin feel a bit more spacious. I also like how shorter drivers have a better time seeing out of the vehicle now.
Another design change happened in the back. GMC says there are 97.5 cubic feet of cargo space with the second and third rows folded. Meanwhile, there’s 23.0 cubic feet of space with the third row up. These are said to be 23 percent increases and 80 percent increases over 2023, respectively. That’s cool, but what I like is that third-seat arrangement. GMC gives third-row passengers real adult room back there. Even better for some is that the C-pillar was thinned and the D-pillar was moved back so that the third-row passengers could look out of the windows without craning their necks.
One more neat interior bit is the fact that if you walk up to the tailgate with your key on your body, it’ll open all by itself. There are no weird kicking maneuvers or anything like that. Just stand there for long enough and the tailgate will open so you can load heavy stuff with both hands occupied.
Before we leave the interior, I did spot something a bit weird. The windows in the Acadia have an auto-down function. However, the driver door panel in my tester only gave the driver the option of rolling down their window automatically. The passenger window is automatic, but the automatic function is on the passenger door rather than the driver door.
Driving The Acadia
The 2024 GMC Acadia comes in three trim levels. The Elevation is supposed to be the high-content base model. In the middle is the AT4, which is the off-road variant. Then the top-of-the-line is the Denali. GMC didn’t bring an Elevation along for the ride. Instead, I tested a high-option Denali and a low-option AT4.
I’ll start this off the easy way. Despite the changes between the Denali and the AT4, both crossovers drive alike. The AT4 is ever so slightly looser, and I mean ever so slightly that you might not even notice. To the average driver, both drive exactly the same.
All trims of the 2024 GMC Acadia come with an aluminum 2.5-liter turbocharged four making 328 HP and 326 lb-ft of torque. That sounds like a lot of power, but the Acadia seems to hide it.
I started my drives in both the Denali and the AT4 in Sport mode. When you punch the throttle, you first feel like there’s a half-second or so delay before the pedal does anything. Then the engine starts building power, but the power hits slowly like there’s a bunch of turbo lag. Peak torque is supposed to hit at 3,500 RPM, so it’s not like you have to find the end of the tachometer to get thrust. Instead, this feels like a pedal calibration thing. No matter what you do, you just won’t feel that turbocharged hit of power that you’re expecting.
That said I can forgive the Acadia because it’s not really supposed to be a sports car. It’s a family hauler, and it will remind you of that every time you hit the gas.
Hitting the gas also reveals that the engine isn’t the nicest thing to listen to. Punch it and you’ll listen to a soundtrack that almost sounds agricultural in nature. The engine makes a lot of mechanical noise up front and the exhaust tone in the back is comparable to a base model Toyota Corolla. None of this noise is offensive but it does feel out of place. This is a premium crossover that you might spend well over $60,000 on, yet it sounds like the Nissan Versa that you rented last week.
Unfortunately, this seems to be the state of affairs for many gas engines right now. These little fours are better on emissions and will still deliver good power and decent fuel economy. Speaking of fuel economy, FWD models are supposed to get 27 mpg on the highway while AWD models get 24 mpg on the highway. Those numbers change to 20 mpg in the city and 19 mpg in the city, respectively. In my testing, I was able to hit those marks without trying.
Ignoring the pedal delay, the 2024 GMC Acadia does get moving with some alacrity, and most of the time you don’t even notice that the eight-speed automatic is there. Another thing I liked is the haptic feedback sent through the driver seat. The vehicle will warn you of dangers like vehicles and people in your blindspots by vibrating your seat. It’s a neat reminder in case your eyes happen to be elsewhere while you’re trying to change lanes or turn.
There isn’t much to talk about with handling. The Acadia gets struts up front and a five-link setup in the rear. Body roll is well controlled, but carving corners isn’t the Acadia’s forte. A FWD Acadia weighs 4,501 pounds while AWD models weigh 4,695 pounds. You feel that weight when you push the Acadia through corners and you can practically hear “seriously?” come from deep within the chassis. That’s to say that the Acadia is a family crossover, not a Miata. Drive accordingly and you’ll be fine.
If you drive it like a crossover you will have a good time. The seats are comfortable and road noise is also well controlled. The suspension soaks up bumps well enough, too.
Super Cruise
GMC is proud of the fact that every trim level gets available Super Cruise. If you do not know what Super Cruise is, you’re looking at GM’s version of Autopilot and other level 2 driver assistance systems.
Super Cruise sets itself apart in a few ways. GM is actively mapping out as much of the United States as it can, starting with Interstates and trickling down to state roads. At first, Super Cruise worked only on divided highways that GM had mapped out first. Now, the system can handle highways without medians.
The system works using real-time cameras, sensors, GPS, and LiDAR map data to read the road ahead. There’s also an interior monitoring system that allows you to use Super Cruise hands-free so long as you’re paying attention to the road. If you look away from the road for too long it’ll get mad at you and disengage Super Cruise.
When Super Cruise works, it works great. The system usually has an easy time staying in the middle of a lane, keeping speed, and not freaking out in complex situations. Super Cruise also has the ability to change lanes by itself and handle all of these operations while towing a trailer, too. When Super Cruise is working as it should, you don’t feel like you’re babysitting a robot with the driving abilities of a 15-year-old.
Sometimes Super Cruise falls on its face. As noted above, the system works only on roads GM has mapped. Weirdly, GM’s mapping is inconsistent, so you’ll be driving just fine and then run into a random three-mile section that hasn’t been mapped, throwing you out of Super Cruise. The robot can also get a bit confused and when it does, it swerves back and forth in its lane like a drunk. If it gets super confused, it tosses you out of Super Cruise in an instant. Sometimes, it also seemed as if it wasn’t going to stop, too. Because of this, I ended up hovering my hand next to the steering wheel in case the robot got turned around.
Again, when Super Cruise worked, and it worked most of the time, it was an excellent system. I caught a glimpse of what Tesla fans love so much about their cars. However, the Super Cruise failures left me not fully trusting the system. With that said, if you keep your Super Cruise use to the interstates for now, I bet the ride should be pretty great.
Off-Roading
At first, I intended the Acadia AT4 drive to be a separate review. However, the off-roading offered by GMC at the event was so mild that it’s going to be more like a few paragraphs instead.
The 2024 GMC Acadia AT4 is similar to the two other trim levels, but GMC added some off-road bits. Whereas the Acadia Denali gets large 22-inch wheels, the AT4 has 18-inchers shod in 265/65R18 all-terrain tires. Those tires are ever so slightly larger in size, which gives the AT4 a 1.2-inch lift over the other trim levels. Don’t expect that to mean an actual lift in ground clearance. An Acadia Denali has 7.30 inches of ground clearance while the AT4 has 7.75 inches of ground clearance.
That said, you do get some real off-road goodies, including real off-road recovery hooks up front, an aluminum approach skid plate, and a steel engine skid plate. Hey, that’s better than what you’d get with a Subaru Wilderness nowadays. Other goodies with the AT4 include clearance lights, matte flares for a taller look, and a slightly wider stance.
There are two types of AWD systems available. The Elevation and Denali get the option of a standard AWD system with a 50/50 torque split. They also get a general off-road mode. Step up to the AT4 and you get a rear twin-clutch drive unit capable of torque vectoring and sending up to 70 percent of available power to the rear wheels.
Unlike other off-road-esque crossovers, the GMC Acadia doesn’t have the option to “lock” the rear clutch pack. Instead, you get a Terrain driving mode, which is intended to be a sort of one-pedal off-road driving mode. It uses off-road traction control and off-road cruise control to get you through obstacles.
The off-pavement situation around the venue consisted of dirt roads a bone-stock Toyota Prius could handle. The exception was a 10-second obstacle course set up by GMC. This course was highly controlled and while it showed that the off-road traction control does work and the off-road-tuned suspension does its job, it didn’t really show what the Acadia could actually handle. We didn’t even get to scrape the skid plates. I wish automakers trusted journalists a bit more with off-roading.
As another note, don’t think you’re going to get more ride height just through bigger tires. The A/Ts mounted to the AT4 are already very close to scrubbing the inside of the wheel wells. So, you’ll have to lift it another way first before going for bigger tires.
With that said, I think the GMC Acadia AT4 should be fine for getting down that fire road to your favorite camping spot. GMC calls the Acadia a credible off-roader and I think that claim is true so long as you keep your expectations in check. You aren’t going to conquer Moab with your Jeep buddies, but getting to a weekend campsite with your kids will be fine. Besides, that’s the kind of driving the Acadia was built for.
Towing
Towing was another experience that wasn’t long enough. The GMC Acadia can tow up to 5,000 pounds. GMC has not published payload weights as of yet but did let us tow a 3,500-pound enclosed cargo trailer.
In my experience, the Acadia towed exactly as you’d hope a tow vehicle to haul. The engine got the rig up to speed fast enough and had no problems holding speed. The towing driving mode also kept the crossover in the correct gear for keeping in a good torque range. Important to me was the fact that it also wasn’t hunting for gears all of the time. Some big trucks have that problem on such an annoying level.
Trailer control was also good. The trailer didn’t sway and I always felt like I was in control, be it accelerating, braking, or cornering. The Acadia doesn’t use any trailering tricks like today’s full-size pickups do, but it doesn’t need to, either. Towing a trailer with the Acadia is what I’d call a “classic” experience. If you know how to tow a trailer, hauling with the Acadia will be second nature. Sadly, I did not get a read of fuel economy during the towing test.
A final comment I will make about towing is that you will definitely feel the trailer back there. You will feel it in the reduced acceleration. You will feel it when the trailer loads the rear suspension on bumps. You will feel it when stopping, turning, or doing anything with the crossover. But that’s also just the nature of towing with a crossover and it’s just fine.
Might Be Your Next Daily Driver
I finished my drives in the 2024 GMC Acadias with one conclusion: This could be your next daily driver.
The Acadia is not a sports car and it’s not going to raise your heart rate. Likewise, the Acadia isn’t going to steal the show at Cars & Coffee. But it’s not meant to do that so I wouldn’t expect that out of one. Instead, the 2024 GMC Acadia is meant to do one thing really well, and that’s haul your family in comfort. I think it does that in stride.
The 2024 GMC Acadia is loaded with GM’s latest technology and genuinely feels like a step forward in crossovers. I like how you can cram eight people into this thing and everyone will get decent legroom. I like how third-row passengers won’t feel like they’re trapped in a dungeon and that the driver doesn’t have to be six feet tall to see over the dashboard. I even like the unnecessary but still neat headlight animation that you get with the Denali.
But most important is the comfort and the environment. A car that makes you sore and a car that is horrible to look at and touch fatigues you on a long journey. I feel like I could drive from Chicago to Orlando in a single sitting and get there feeling like a million bucks. That’s what the Acadia rocks at.
The hard part to swallow is the price. GMC’s target customers are between 35 and 55 years old and have an income of $120,000 or more. The base 2024 GMC Acadia Elevation is $42,600 with FWD or $44,600 with AWD. Next up is the 2024 GMC Acadia AT4, which is AWD only for $50,000. Finally, we arrive at the 2024 GMC Acadia Denali, which starts at $54,300 for FWD and rises to $56,300 for AWD. If you option your Denali with the high-end options shown in the tester, you’re looking at around $65,000. All of this is before a $1,395 destination fee.
Still, while the 2024 GMC Acadia offers some sticker shock, I think it’s a solid vehicle overall. The Acadia went on sale in May, so you may have already seen one. Heck, you may even want one yourself, and I couldn’t blame you. I have no doubt you’ll see these popping up in driveways very soon.
“I wish automakers trusted journalists a bit more with off-roading.” I wouldn’t trust automotive journalists with a shopping cart. History is not on your side may I remind you of a little adventure from automotive journalists in the past.
https://www.caranddriver.com/features/a18202584/fear-and-loathing-in-a-100-year-el-nino-in-baja/
Looks OK and nice inside, but with regards to my previous experience with American build quality, I swear that new Acadia is already falling apart.
1) Bigger outside, smaller inside! I am sure a lot of people asked for that bullshit
2) That fucking trailer EMPTY is the total load it can tow, talk about bullshit and you posting two shots of it makes me question your objectiveness.
3)People buying AT4’s of this trim are total idiots.
4)Styling is improved
It is larger on the inside than the outgoing model.
I’m not entirely sure what you’re on about here. I have lots of pictures of towing the trailer. In fact, I took about 200 pictures of these crossovers in total over this barely 24-hour event.
I asked to tow the Sea-Doo Switch, something representative of what a real owner might tow. However, GMC’s reps denied that request, stating that the automaker had been burned in the past by journalists who didn’t know how to tow a trailer and wrecked an expensive boat or RV. Those vehicles aren’t owned by GMC, but are on loan from their manufacturers.
So the big empty cargo trailer is not supposed to be representative of the type of trailer that will be towed, because yeah, you can’t put really anything in it. But it was there to give us an idea of what towing 3,500 pounds with the crossover should feel like.
I am full of bad takes today, I’m going to put myself in timeout. Appreciate the breakdown on the towing.
I sort of liked the previous Acadia, being right sized with the ability to cram some extra kids in the back. I understand why they Bob’s Big Boy’ed this thing back to plump, but once you get to that point, just get the van.
I’m sure I’ll be seeing these everywhere locally, as the Traverse and Acadia are the official vehicle of wanted a Tahoe but couldn’t afford it.
I just realized. The front – grill is stolen from subaru – hexagon. Sides-top legs short. Lower leg -longer. The rear.- Ford Edge tail lights.
Not a fan of the styling. It looks to me very much like a Haval H9. “What the f is a Haval H9”, you ask? Well…
In Australia we started in the last 5 or so what years getting a Chinese brand Haval (rhymes with gravel), a sub brand of Great Wall Motors. They make a large SUV called the H9. I think it looks ungainly and derivative. “Well no shit, the Chinese one is a knockoff of the GMC,” you might say. Except, the Havel has been on the market for 2 or 3 years.
Why, oh, why, reinvent the wheel??
Google has nearly the whole world mapped, and it’s right on my phone! Allow drivers or passengers to sync their phones to the monitors for Google Maps (or Waze, if someone feels the urge to report an accident or slowdown). Also, allow me to use my phone to sync up MY already subscribed Sirius and Spotify and the other ones! Simply all that electronics shit and MAYBE I’ll buy a new car. Until then, no thanks.
Also, I am not in the market for this particular truck-like vehicle, but does check a lot of boxes for the “large families who haul things” market.
Because Google isn’t going to agree to liability for it and it likely doesn’t have the detail required, but I’m sure you know more about this than these folks do and they’re just stupid instead of being smart like you. Fire off an email, they’ll probably give you a job.
The quote above noted that GM was “actively mapping out the United States,” which has already been done, for the most part. Which means that the GM Map is not complete nor compleat. Guessing the best way for GM to actively do this is to tap into all GM cars and create maps based on where the cars go, on the assumption that where the cars go are legitimate roads.
I have Google Maps on my phone and Google doesn’t give a shit about that liability. Instead of car companies being in the business of updating maps, which they probably will eventually decide to stop doing, let people sync their phones to the monitors. Should be way less expensive than making a map system, the selling of the driving behavior data notwithstanding, of course.
You do realize there’s a difference between you reading a map to go get pizza and Super Cruise using that map to drive a car, right?
Like when you see that a road doesn’t really exist you just avoid it, but if the Acadia drive into a field because google said there was a road there in 2012 it might cause a problem
I immediately had this thought as well. In fact why would we trust GM to do it better than Google?
Maybe – if the latest google map is say, not within the last 2 years, it cannot be trusted as the road may have been reconstructed. But how would GM prevent the same situation?
Because the maps that supercruise uses are a lot more detailed than google maps. They scan the roads with cameras and LiDAR, google maps is solely gps coordinates. (street view’s photosphere every 500 feet or whatever isn’t gonna be very useful for computer vision)
A 3-row vehicle that can go offroad and tow 5,000 lbs isn’t a crossover. It’s a full-sized SUV. Unless basically every non-sedan is a crossover.
I believe the differentiation is body-on-frame vs. unibody, though many famous SUVs are unibody, so… the taxonomy may have to be made clearer.
so since the maverick is a unibody its a crossover too?
Crossovers would be entirely covered, and the Maverick is not. If we follow that all vehicles with an open bed are trucks, then it’s one of those.
I actually liked the size of the last gen Traverse/Acadia, so I’m a bit disappointed to see it grew so much. However, aside from the grill being a tad too large, the styling is good.
As for the Bose setup, I’ve had multiple vehicles with their systems since the early 90s, and the run joke has always been “No highs? No lows? Must be Bose!”
The Traverse was larger than the Acadia in the second generation. This change brings the Acadia back in line with the Traverse. I have a 2019 Acadia and bought it exactly for its smaller size, but am heavily shopping the new ones to downsize from our Yukon XL that sucks gas. Still keeping the ’19 Acadia though.
Ah, I had forgotten the Traverse was larger.
We were car shopping to replace our minivan earlier this year and looked at the 2023 Acadia (my wife thought the Traverse was ugly). The smaller size was appealing, but the only ones on the lot with the V6 and AWD were Denali ones beyond our budget. After the insultingly-low trade-in offers we got, we elected to keep the van for a few more years and have it be the “teenager car” when the kids start driving. It sadly just means a few more years of my wife borrowing my car to get the kids to school on heavy snow days, as the van can get down our hill, but not back up (even with snow tires and chains).
6400 lb GVWR so this is going to get sold like crazy for the tax writeoffs. God I hate that loophole.
Also also, that magical 18cm (7.1 inch ground clearance minimum). Weird how that happens to exist.
https://www.crestcapital.com/section-179-deduction-vehicle-list-over-6000-lbs “only for businesses” but in reality it means a lot of contractors or doctors etc use it. Thats one reason why your 2000s doctors so commonly drove huge exhibitions etc.
As an Explorer Sport driver, and after acknowledging that this has been said a million times…this is too expensive for a lifted full size car wagon thing. You can get an Explorer ST optioned out for the same price, way more pull, and rear wheel drive based with Ford’s nannies. It’s time for a good ol’ fashioned Ford vs GM BATTLE!!!!
This thing exists only to be used for BS section 179 tax credits. Which let you write off up to 47k of the value year 1.
I had a last-gen Sorento and between that and the outgoing Acadia which were about the same size I felt they were an ideal “goldilocks” size for a suburban crossover, the touch of extra length and eh third-row made for a lot more flexibility in a compact+ CUV body.
So I think it’s a shame that the Traverse and Acadia are now the same(?) size but I get why it’s back to full-size.
Look I get that expensive cars are just the new normal, but $65k for an Acadia is batshit insane.
Seriously.
That’s E Class money.
Does the E tow 5k pounds and seat 7?
Does every Acadia tow 5K pounds and haul 7 people every time it’s used?
So everyone should buy an E class and then spend even more money on a second, cheaper vehicle for those times?
I didn’t say that.
I only said that the Acadia cost as much as an E Class.
The majority of drivers will not use all of the Acadia’s ability – and also believe they can’t afford a Mercedes-Benz.
Are you saying people buy an Acadia because they want an E Class but don’t think they can afford it?
My point is the cars do two completely different things, you might as well go to someone looking at an F350 and tell them they could buy a C8 Corvette with that kind of money. What’s the point? They aren’t cross shopping the two.
This thing you guys do where you pretend any car that isn’t maxing out it’s capabilities is a wasted purchase are wild, mostly because it only applies to capabilities you don’t value, whereas if we have someone cruising a Miata no one complains about how impractical it is because you can’t road course it on the street.
Even if they never tow with an Acadia it’s still AWD and seats 7 or 8 people. The only person I know that had one had it because she wanted to fit three car seats and hated minivans.