2017 GMC Acadia Denali: A Family SUV

The day I picked up the 2017 GMC Acadia Denali we were preparing for the ultimate test drive. Years of begging. Months of planning. Weeks of anticipation. We were finally adding a puppy to our family. The middle of November is usually not the most ideal time to drive over the mountains but I was confident that the Acadia could handle it. We packed up one of our kids, an empty puppy kennel and an overnight bag and hit the road to Prince George, BC from Calgary, AB.

Our road trip would span more than 1500km round trip, climb mountains and change time zones over a short 24 hours. My husband took the first shift driving on highway 1 heading west. Immediately I noticed that the 2017 version of the Acadia is a slimmer, trimmer design from the previous bulkier design. It’s still a beautiful SUV but I did miss the wider back end and the extra seat in the 3rd row. There is an optional configuration for 7 seats but it sacrifices the bucket seats in the second row for a bench. GM previously had 3 SUV’s with the exact same format and body with the Chevrolet Traverse, GMC Acadia and Buick Enclave so with a size adjustment, the Acadia moves into a slightly different market and adds more to the menu of entrees for buyers.

The Denali trim level is the ultimate in comfort for the Acadia and we all agreed that it was beautiful on the inside which balances out the understated exterior. Heated seats in the first and second row, loads of leg room, heated steering wheel, lane departure warning, keyless push start, navigation, massive storage with the 3rd row folded down and beautiful overhead sun/moon roof make for amazing views out every window on a mountain road.

Without a doubt, my favourite new feature in the GM family is the adaptive cruise. Simply set the cruising speed and forget about it. Literally. As you cruise up behind someone who is driving at a lower speed, the adaptive cruise automatically slows you down to match their speed until they either speed up or move out of your way. But I found that if I forgot to check my speedometer, I would unknowingly find myself sitting behind someone going 100km/hour for 10 minutes before seeing that I should be passing them to resume my desired cruising speed of 120km/hour. While the Acadia has a visual green line on the speedometer to show you what your set cruise speed is compared to what your actual speed is, it would be nice if the green line flickered once in a while or if there was a light that came on when the cruise speed is slowed down for a few minutes.

Once we turned off highway 1 onto the road heading to Jasper, AB, the conditions immediately deteriorated. We went from dry roads and sunshine to clouds and fully snow covered roads. We had no issues with stability or traction on snow covered roads and unlike most SUV’s, the Acadia has different drive modes to pick from. 2WD, 4WD, towing, sport and off road options are a simple turn of the knob on the middle console. The ride was quiet and comfortable regardless of the road conditions or type.

16 hours of driving means a lot of time on my hands so when I wasn’t behind the wheel, I was able to get some much needed work done using the 4G LTE WiFi connection in the vehicle. Stella was able to watch Netflix and I was able to connect my laptop and get access to my emails. The only downside was driving over the mountain parkway with zero cell signal also means the car had zero LTE connection as well. Lucky for us the satellite radio was going strong to keep us singing.

I really liked driving the 2017 GMC Acadia Denali and even having it for over a week, it had something new for me to find every time I got in with so many tech features and safety features on board. It’s a great family vehicle for families in a range of sizes from 1 or 2 kids up to 4 kids comfortably. While the Denali trim level is the highest with all the bells and whistles you can outfit an Acadia starting at $37,995.

2017 GMC Acadia Denali starts at $56,495 CDN

Statistics show that we ladies influence 85% of vehicle purchases so why not get a Dirty Girl perspective on what’s new on the roads. As always, I promise to give you an unbiased and honest opinion, based on my personal experience.