The GMC Acadia is an SUV regularly seen all over UAE but is never really given much attention, the reason being that it was somewhat boring. But with the 2013 facelift it has gotten better reception from people. I had the chance to drive the 2013 Acadia SLE (base model) for a weekend and it was honestly better than I expected.
Style
The first thing that anyone would notice about GMC Acadia are the headlights. I have a friend who is interested in Acadia, when he showed up to take a look at the 2013 model he said “Oh! New lights!” This change is excellent. The headlights now have three quarters of an LED border which are bright and they give Acadia a certain modern feel to it. Similar setup is found on the tail lights. With this addition, you can feel that GMC are trying to follow in the footsteps of Audi with their Audi Q5 headlight setup, which is not a bad thing. The Acadia is considered to be a crossover, but boy it is huge for a crossover. It is easily the size of a Ford Explorer or a Toyota Fortuner. The Acadia sits on 19 inch Alloy wheels which are more than sufficient. The wheel arches of the Acadia give a rugged off-roader look which is a good thing given the fact that it is NOT a rugged off-roader. One thing I didn't like about the Acadia’s exterior was the plastic grille; this alone probably ruined the car’s exterior looks.
Interior
From inside, this is a very American SUV. It is huge and spacious. I’m a big guy, and I felt extremely comfortable in the Acadia’s seats as there was sufficient legroom both front and back. Also headroom was very good thanks to the bloated roof. This model of GMC Acadia had very comfortable cloth seats where the driver’s seat was fully automatic and the passenger seat was semi-automatic, meaning the seat back was manually adjusted. The rear seats and third row seats are bench style. Yes you read right this is a crossover with third row seating, that’s how big it is. The gauge cluster is very nice, they are this awesome blend of black and red colors. The cluster was perfectly symmetrical which I personally loved (OCD!). The dashboard is soft touch leather wrapped, which gives the car an extra point on interior, but the same does not go for the interior of the doors where they is hard plastic and hurt the elbow on long drives. The media interface of GMC Acadia is a little bit complicated which makes it seem like it's an after-market system fitted in a shady shop around the corner. The Audio system is average, the volume is not as loud as one would expect, which also means there is no rustle from audio and it was safer for the occupants. There was something missing from this car which was pointed out to me when I watched my 5 year old brother struggle to scale and climb into the car, there was no footstep to help climb into the car.
Features
The Acadia has the ever so useful remote start system. This is a gift sent from GMC to us desert dwellers. This feature means I can turn on the car from the comfort of my air-conditioned living room and simply wait for the car to cool from the inside as the AC is on full blast and then I would walk through the oven-like weather of the UAE to the car and the temperature would be a whole lot better than stepping into a car that has been sitting in the sun for a few hours. Speaking of the AC, the Acadia has a dual zone AC that would have been perfect if it were not for the weird smell of brand new plastic coming through the AC vents at the beginning of starting the car, but this can also be an issue with only this piece. The Acadia had a fairly alright back-up camera, but it was not spectacular during the night as it became extremely hazy which almost rendered it useless. On this specific model of the Acadia, sensors were only existent on the rear bumper of the car which was also good given the size of this so called crossover.
Safety
The Acadia is fitted with a full-fledged air-bag system. There are a total of 7 air bags in this car, 2 in the front, 4 side airbags, also known as curtain airbags, and one leg protection airbag for the driver which would protect the driver’s knees and shins from the impact if such an event would occur. There was another feature about the airbag system in the Acadia, where the Passenger seat had a weight sensor which needed to exceed a certain level before the passenger airbag is turned on. For example, let’s say a child is sitting in the front and an accident occurs, the airbag will not deploy because children cannot withstand airbags. Another application for this system is if there was no one in the front seat and an impact happened, the airbag would not deploy because there is no one there to protect, if it did deploy with no one in the seat that would be a waste of airbag. Intelligent.
Performance
The Acadia has a 3.6L V6 engine for a heart that pumps out 288 horses worth of power which is hooked to a 6 speed automatic transmission. The Acadia’s engine is confusingly powerful. When you hit the pedal to the metal the Acadia’s nose goes up in the air and the engine roars and the car moves but when you look at the speedometer all you can say is “that’s it?” Meaning that the Acadia has a lot of torque and excellent acceleration for a car of this size, but the power does not match the show that the car puts on. As for off-road capabilities, this car would not last 5 minutes in the desert because the model that I tested was the front wheel drive model which is almost useless on soft sand.
Conclusion
The Acadia is a very good car, for a family. It meets every single one of their needs; space for the kids and the groceries, spacious to keep everyone comfortable. The car can handle itself on simple off-road scenarios such as the dirt roads between the houses of some neighborhoods. Nevertheless, at a price of 130K this car has a lot to offer, especially when it comes to size. This car is very practical as it can be used to overcome any every day terrain while maintaining its comfort.
