Derek M

I'm driving an Acadia now courtesy of GM's "Gift to You, Bring it home" promotion.

GM sent a promotion card, through Enterprise Car Rental, offering to drive one of five select GM (PBG) vehicles over two days. Offered were: Yukon, Acadia, Lucerne, G6, Sierra. You get to make two selections, primary and secondary. We selected Acadia and Sierra.

Got the Acadia. We picked it up on Friday and since the Enterprise office is closed on weekends, we get to keep it until Monday, so four days total. It's an SLT model, fairly loaded. Seven passenger, second row captains chairs, leather, Bose 10 speaker, 6 disk MP3 player, steering wheel controls, tri zone climate control, etc. Noticeably missing, or items my wife would like would be memory seating, power folding mirrors, power hatch. Are adjustable pedals even offered?

Impressions so far, the chassis is rock solid. There was some legitimate effort put into road isolation, this is rather noticeable. Handles very competent for a vehicle of it's size. Noise isolation is good as well. The 3.6 with the 6 speed auto is spot on. Good performance in low speed situations, at highway speeds it feels a little laboring, but very competent. Interior is the best out of any GM car I've sat in. Attention was made in choice of materials. The ergonomics are top notch along with efficiency and design of space and placement throughout the vehicle.

Surprising thing is how low you feel in seat while driving. Feeling I have is close to normal car sedan'ish. Though you step out, there's significant drop for your leg to touch the ground, so your made aware it’s not a sedan.

Only thing so far that bugs me, not necessarily the Acadia, but a number of cars in general these days is the diversity between driver and front passenger power seat configurations. Why is it you can't get the same number of adjustments the driver has on the passenger size? Does being front passenger, delegate you to some second class vehicle citizen? In this vehicle, the driver is four way adjustable; the passenger is two way adjustable. I'm one for thigh support, can't do it with this trim level. It appears that even with an SLT2 package the driver gets eight way, and the passenger is saddled with four way. If we buy one like this looks like my wife is going to be getting used the side of the vehicle without the steering wheel and pedals.

One amazing thing to us is the MPG. I reset the DIC average MPG calculation shortly after driving it off the lot. We’re seeing 19.5MPG. That’s very impressive for a vehicle this large weighing 4750lbs.

Overall it's a very impressive vehicle for its intentions. It's amazing to see the leap in perceived and observed quality a person gets after getting into and experiencing one of these new GM vehicles.

For size comparsion I'm including some picks of the Acadia next to our Tahoe.

Derek M

Slappy3243

Damn, that really is a good looking truck. Is that cow leather an option or just part of the baby seat

Honestly though, I am totally impressed. The interior is sexy as well as the exterior. I totally love it from the front and the rear but not so much the side. If I was in the market for an SUV, this would totally be it.

Nice review

JG/70Z

lol @ second class citizen. "They didn't put extra cinnamon on my frappe latte!!, is this a third world country?!?"

The reason the driver has more adjustments for their seat is fairly obvious....they're in control of the vehicle. The least awkward position you can be in while driving the better. The passenger just sits there and comes along for the ride. 4 way control is plenty enough for passenger IMO.

unvc92camarors

Exactly. Not to mention the driver is the one paying for the vehicle (though in your case, the fact that your wife or you ride in it a lot as well might influence your decision, though it's really trivial).

Good write up though. I like it from the side and front but those rear lights look quite tacky. I think it'll sell pretty well though.

ckt101

It is quite attractive both inside and out. GM seems to be on a roll lately, lots of great looking product.

Derek M

One item of note the interior is truly a "brick red" color, it's not nearly as orange'ish as most of the pics make it out to be.

Another item that I was very impressed about that wasn't detailed in my first post was the steering. It's very nicely weighted for the given speed. It's also very precise, probably more so feeling than my GTO. It’s amazing how spot perfect it is. The engineering team that did the steering in this thing should receive a bonus.

The two way power seat on the passenger, IMHO just sucks. There's no manual adjustment for the seat bottom to tilt back. You have for and aft, that's all. Thus I can't get the thigh support I like. Unsolicited, even my wife tonight said we'd have to opt for one of the packages or options that would give the passenger 4 way. She stated it feels that the front of the seat is angled down. That's saying something when she comes out and states such, cause although I lover her to death, she's not the most perceptual person of details that I know.

Derek M

Now that's too d@mn funny!!!

The reason the driver has more adjustments for their seat is fairly obvious....they're in control of the vehicle. The least awkward position you can be in while driving the better. The passenger just sits there and comes along for the ride. 4 way control is plenty enough for passenger IMO.[/QUOTE]

"Sits there and comes along for the ride"

That's assuming that my wife will just ride, no talking, no attempting to get into some philosophical discussion, or if the outfit she's wearing makes her look fat.

I'm very picky on the seat thing, don't know why. To show an indicator of my level of pickiness..... My wife wanted buckets in our 2002 Silverado, I wanted the bench. Well we got buckets. Thank God actually. My brother has an 2002 Silverado with 40/20/40 bench, and the power tilt on his seats doesn't have the same range as my buckets go figure. My buckets will allow for noticeably more tight support than his bench. Who would a thought.

JG/70Z

You should see what GM offered in my Camaro 37 years ago...talk about no support. It had 1 adjustment: forward and back.

Good thing they changed them in 71.

guionM

I strongly advise everyone who ca afford to, to rent at least 1 new vehicle every few months (it's typically only $50-75 for a single day), if even only for a day. It will expand your horizons, and give you a great appriciation of today's cars.

SSbaby

These GM SUVs should be available all over the world. I don't know why they're only sold in NA? Holden are starved of SUVs with which to take the fight to Toyota.

91_z28_4me

Let them at least launch all the NA lambdas and get the second plant up and running before you Aussies start begging for exports. Alright I guess we can send you guys some Acadias, but only if you send us some Utes in exchange. Deal, or no deal?

90rocz

I saw it at NAIAS, it looked really good, my wife was like ooooohhhhh...I want one!

Derek M

Yea, that's the problem now. Wife stated several times Sunday. "I really like this car..... no no no you don't understand I REALLY like this car."

Nice promotion GM!!!

HuJass

How do they pick the people who get this promotion?