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Test Drive: 2009 GMC Acadia SLT-2 car review; Making the grade
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Do your own free association psychological testing. What do you think of when I say “Chevrolet.” Probably something like baseball, hotdogs and apple pie. “Buick” might be golf (Tiger thinks so), fancy hors d'oeuvres and something served on china. “Saturn,” perhaps mountain biking, granola bars and apple cobbler from a hand-cast cast iron dutch oven cooked under a mound of designer charcoal.
Fine. You’ve just described the personalities of the Chevrolet Traverse, Buick Enclave and Saturn Outlook.
But what of the GMC Acadia, another General Motors crossover cut from, if not the same cloth, the same pattern? GMC is horseshoes, and a ham sandwiches and an apple from a steel lunchbox.So how indeed does GMC reconcile this crossover vehicle with its ‘Professional Grade” motto. The big red GMC logo, like one on a GMC Sierra 3500HD pickup, is on the grille of the Acadia, but behind it is the same SUV-looking 3-row vehicle, nominally front-wheel driven with optional all-wheel drive and same 3.6-liter V-6 as its siblings from other brands.
It’s not the same 3.6-liter as last year, however. While based on the same double-overhead camshaft as its predecessor, V-6 in the 2009 models has a new direct-injection system that increase power and torque to 288 horses and 270 lb-ft, compared to last year’s port-injected V-6 that made 275 horsepower and 251 lb-ft of torque. While making more power the new engine also gets better fuel economy:
| GMC Acadia | 2008 | 2009 |
| FWD | 16/24 | 17/24 |
| AWD | 16/22 | 16/23 |
The new direct injection engine also reduces cold-start emissions—the “dirtiest” stage of engine operation—by up to 25 percent. And it requires not a smidge higher than 87 octane regular unleaded gasoline, largely a factor of its direct injection.
The six-speed automatic transmission with optional all-wheel drive is, naturally, identical to that of the other models, and like them is a full-time system and them has no low range. There’s no evidence of its presence until there’s a low-traction situation such as sand on the pavement or snow. Acceleration is strong but drag racing isn’t the Acadia’s long suit.Suspension is fully-independent, giving the Acadia a smooth highway ride, and cornering is good for a tall, large vehicle—72.8 inches tall and 4925 lbs curb weight—so getting it around corners is a little like herding a bowling ball. Fortunately GMC has given the Acadia a good hook.
At 78.9 inches, the Acadia is wide and its turning circle is 40.4 feet. That translates to cumbersome in the parking lot.
The Acadia gives back the community in interior space, however. First and second row seats are very cushy but while the third row has sufficient leg room it’s low and more thinly padded than row one and row two. Put the kids back there. They don’t need to know better and they’ll like it in the way-back anyway.
Unlike smaller three-row vehicles, the Acadia still has generous cargo room behind the third row, at 24.1 cubic feet larger than the traditional full-size American sedan’s trunk. With the third and second row folded, maximum cargo jumps to a minivan-like 116.6 cubic feet, fully usable thanks to seatbacks that fold to make a flat load floor. The Acadia is tow rated (from mid-year 2009) at 5,200 pounds, no special towing packages required.
The four-wheel disc brakes have standard ABS with brake assist, which applies full-braking in panic brake situations, and brake proportioning, which changes braking proportioning front-to-rear based on load and driving conditions. Front and first-row side-impact airbags are standard, as are side-curtain airbags for all three rows.The GMC Acadia is a vehicle that will make General Motors known for its quality interior design and quality. We particularly like the center stack and the dash-top vents that have something of an industrial look suitable for GMC “professional grade.”
Which brings us back to the original question: how does the GMC Acadia mesh with the rest of the GMC line? Well, for GM’s workhorse division, the Acadia’s mission is people and more civilized inanimate cargo, and from that standpoint, it differs little in raw numerical performance from its siblings. It lacks the “Quiet Tuning” aspects of the Buick Enclave, however, each GM division given significant freedom in changing basic elements. For “badge engineering”—models that differ only by the name badge on the grille—look elsewhere.
So does GMC Acadia have that unique persona that marks a GMC product? Professionally, speaking, we say yes, as much as other GMC product, it makes the grade.
| SLE | SLT-1 | SLT-2 | |
| FWD | $31,685 | $36,045 | $38,335 |
| AWD | $33,685 | $38,045 | $40,335 |
| SLT-2 AWD (including del.) | $40,335 |
| Remote start, remote entry | Incl. |
| Ultrasonic rear park assist | Incl. |
| Rear camera | Incl. |
| Heated outside mirrors, driver-side autodimming | Incl. |
| Power outlet, 115v (household current) | Incl. |
| Power seats: driver 8-way, passenger 4-way, lumbar | Incl. |
| Heated windhshield wiper nozzle | Incl. |
| Trailer equipment, incl. heavy duty cooling and hitch | $425 |
| Headlights, HID projector beam | $500 |
| Audio system w/ navigation, Bose 10-speaker | $2,340 |
| TOTAL | $43,600 |
Illustrations, top to bottom: 2009 GMC Acadia: 2009 GMC Acadia interior; 2009 GMC Acadia cargo area loaded with materials for a very unusual project; 2009 GMC Acadia.
For more information, visit the offical GMC website.
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