GMC Acadia Denali Survives San Antonio

To say I love General Motors is an understatement. Throughout 2010 I have been given the chance to test out five different GM vehicles. Four of which were Chevrolets and one I actually bought. The past week I’ve been enjoying cruising around town in GMC’s Acadia Denali. It has made me truly miss driving an SUV. The Acadia is the first SUV I’ve driven since purchasing my 2010 Chevy Malibu in September.

First I must mention how excited I was over the Head Up Display.  I have never seen this before and I swear I think it’s one of the neatest vehicle inventions created.  I’m sure the HUD will receive mixed reviews because some people will find it distracting no matter how small and subtle it is.  There are three modes for the HUD to determine what you see on the windshield.  All the modes display your speed and when the song changes via XM radio the song title is displayed for a few seconds at the bottom.  The options that vary between modes are: tachometer, navigation and outside temperature.  I love the HUD and find it useful to keep my eyes on the road instead of always looking down to check my speed.  You can also aim the display up or down to best meet your viewing needs which works great for taller drivers versus shorter ones, like me.

I took the kids on a road-trip to San Antonio while they were out of school this week to visit the beautiful Christmas lights on the Riverwalk and Sea World.  When we left Fort Worth there was five of us in the Acadia and we had plenty of room.  The kids enjoyed watching a movie on the DVD player that is built in with the pull down screen.  I absolutely loved the fact there was plenty of cup holders, that’s one thing I miss in my Malibu and something that is important to have on a road-trip.  On the way home from San Antonio I gave my niece and nephew a ride home from their grandma’s house which brought the total number of passengers up to seven.  Although there was still plenty of seats and room for all seven of us, I thought it was great that we could move the second row seats up.  Adjusting the seats was super simple and gave everyone plenty of leg room.  Another great feature that was perfect and used on our road-trip was the extra outlets available in the Acadia.  Between all the kids and their portable electronics as well as my mobile phone, we were constantly charging multiple gadgets.  There was a total of four outlets with one being a 110 volt.

One of my good friends owns a GMC Yukon that I ride in regularly and I noticed a few differences between their vehicle and the Acadia Denali.  For starters I was a little surprised that the Acadia does not have auto windshield wipers yet the Yukon does.  However the Acadia has both heated and cooling seats yet the Yukon only has heated seats.  Which by the way both the remote start and the heated seats were very useful over Christmas to warm us up faster.

Hands down the Acadia Denali is my favorite SUV to test drive this year.  I also love the look of it.  In an SUV I prefer the more distinct lines rather than the rounded body style.

Full Disclosure: General Motors gave me the Acadia Denali to test drive for a week.  I was not required to publish this post, nor has this post been edited by anyone.  All opinions are 100% mine.