2025 GMC Acadia review

GMC designed the Acadia for 2024 with more upright and blocky styling inspired by the GMC Sierra full-size pickup truck. It’s longer, wider, and taller, giving it more space for passengers and their cargo. That makes it quite roomy.

With this generation, GMC replaces a turbocharged 2.0-liter four-cylinder and a 3.6-liter V6 with just one engine, a turbocharged 2.5-liter four-cylinder that makes more power than both. Front-wheel drive and all-wheel drive are offered, and the lone transmission is an eight-speed automatic.

Standard driver-assist technology is generous. It includes automatic emergency braking, blind-spot monitoring, adaptive cruise control, automatic high beams, a rear seat reminder, rear parking sensors, and a surround-view camera system. Also available are a driver-attention monitor, a rear camera mirror, automatic parking, and the Super Cruise® hands-free system that works on 750,000 miles of mapped highways in North America.

GMC downsized the Acadia for its second generation. It was 7.2 inches shorter in overall length, 3.5 inches narrower, and 6.6 inches lower in height. It still kept three rows of seats, but it seated only seven rather than eight due to a two-passenger third-row seat. 

A 2.5-liter four-cylinder engine joined the V6 carried over from the previous model. Both were hooked to a six-speed automatic transmission, though that changed to a nine-speed for 2020. Its lighter and smaller design allowed fuel economy to rise as high as 21 mpg city, 26 mpg highway, and 23 mpg combined, according to the EPA. Front- and all-wheel drive were offered, and the new All Terrain model dropped the third row of seats and added an Off-Road driving mode and a twin-clutch all-wheel-drive system that could transfer torque both front to rear and left to right. The AT4 model joined the lineup in 2020 with greater off-road capability.

Driver-assist features were plentiful but not all standard. They included automatic emergency braking, lane departure warning, lane-keeping assistance, blind-spot monitoring, adaptive cruise control, rear cross-traffic alert, front park assist, and a surround-view camera system.

The GMC Acadia arrived for the 2007 model year as GMC’s first unibody vehicle. A three-row crossover SUV, it offered a more car-like alternative to the larger, heavier, and less efficient GMC Yukon. It had similar stablemates in the Chevrolet Traverse, Saturn Outlook, and Buick Enclave.

The lone engine was a 3.6-liter V6 teamed with a six-speed automatic transmission. Buyers had the choice of front- or all-wheel drive. 

The Acadia had plenty of interior space for up to eight passengers, and it provided a pleasant driving character with a level of handling GM’s big body-on-frame SUVs couldn’t match.