2007 GMC Acadia in Sioux Falls

Almost as a rule, the logbooks of Automobile Magazine long-term test cars are filled with extremes of opinion. One person can't stand Feature X? Flip forward a few pages - someone else loves it. Styling too dumpy for Staffer Y? Don't worry; Staffer Z thinks those curves are the bee's knees.

Leafing through the logbook for our Four Seasons GMC Acadia, however, we were reminded that there's an exception to every rule. Over the course of its twelve-month stay in Ann Arbor, our Acadia accumulated page after page of driver comments, and nearly all of them showed the folks at 120 East Liberty Street in agreement. Most entries echoed the same thought: the Acadia may not be perfect, but ultimately, it makes a whole lot of sense.

Conveniently, that seems to be how General Motors planned it. GM gave its minivan lineup the axe in late 2006, filling the newly created hole in its showrooms with a family of three (now four, counting the Chevrolet Traverse) crossover vehicles. The thinking - that most people who drive minivans and full-size SUVs want all the utility they can get but none of the big-truck thirst or minivan stigma - is logical, and we were intrigued. As such, we welcomed a gold mist metallic Acadia into our Four Seasons fleet last spring.

Like the Saturn Outlook, the Buick Enclave, and the Traverse, the Acadia is built on GM's Lambda platform. The basic features - front-wheel drive; a transverse-mounted, 275-hp V-6; unibody construction; four-wheel independent suspension; and a six-speed automatic - are the stuff ordinary passenger sedans are made of.... Read full article