Larger than ever, 2024 GMC Acadia ditches V-6, adds Super Cruise
When GMC gave the press its first look at the third-gen Acadia SUV at the Detroit auto show, it parked two of the most expensive configurations on stage: The off-road-oriented AT4, and the extra posh Denali. Usually, automakers choose upper-shelf trims to “represent” models, knowing full well that those trims aren’t the versions most can afford to buy—but in the case of GMC, it had good reason: Over half of the vehicles it sold over the last year, whether SUVs or trucks, were either either Denalis or AT4s.
A cousin of the Chevrolet Traverse, the Acadia enters its third generation as of the 2024 model year. Like the Chevy, also redesigned for 2024, the GMC SUV wears new sheet metal styled to hew more closely to that worn by its larger brother—in this case, the body-on-frame Yukon. The headlights are now roughly C-shaped, with the main illumination bulb tucked underneath the top curve of each C. Additional lighting elements are positioned at the front lower corners of the vehicle, emphasizing its newfound width.
The Acadia is bigger than the SUV it replaces in almost every way, in fact. It sits 10.6 inches longer and 3.6 inches higher than the 2023 vehicle, with an interior offering 80 percent more cargo space behind the third row and 36 percent more behind the second.
The 2024 model is also more powerful. The new Acadia only offers one powertrain: a 2.5-liter turbocharged four-cylinder (related to the 2.7-liter engine in GMC’s trucks) making 328 hp and 326 lb-ft of torque. That’s 18 more hp and a hefty 55 lb-ft of torque more than the 3.6-liter V-6, which is dropped in the Acadia as of this model year. Towing capacity increases by 1000 pounds compared to the V-6 model, for a total of 5000 pounds.
The SUV is more posh, too, in all the digital, techy ways that matter most in 2023. Super Cruise, GM’s highway-focused hands-free driving system, is now available for the first time on the Acadia (Elevation Premium, AT4, and Denali, though for how much extra, we don’t yet know). The semi-autonomous system can handle a trailer and lane changes, too.
The AT4, the all-wheel-drive, off-road model, now sits a full inch higher, translating directly to more respect given to you by your neighbors. Its default wheels are an inch larger in diameter, as well: 18, rather than 17 inches. The Denali offers the largest wheel ever on an Acadia: a 22-incher (the default remains a 20-inch rim).
In each of the Acadias, the dashboard is dominated by a large, portrait-oriented touchscreen display now measuring 15 inches corner to corner (versus 8). It does much to differentiate the interior of the GMC from its Chevy relative, whose 17.7-inch screen is mounted long ways, or horizontally (hence the “larger” corner-to-corner measurement.) The instrument panel is now digital, too. You’ll have access, through the center screen, to native Google apps thanks to a GM-Google tie-up. Some analog switch gear remains, but until you memorize the order of the toggle switches underneath the screen, you’ll have to glance at the digital readout to know what exactly you’re doing.
The 2024 Acadia will be built in Lansing, Michigan, where GMC relocated production of the 2023 model to make room for the Cadillac Lyriq in Spring Hill, Tennessee. Pricing will be announced at a later date.
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We love our 21 But may not go back if it is much larger. It was just the right size for us as it was and have no care for the third row I folded when be bought it and have not opened since.
I would rather have the V6 here but the Turbo will do well. It is a very strong and powerful engine based on my personal drives of it in the trucks.
When are we going to come into the now-obvious realization that driving these vehicles should require a “Large Vehicle” or Commercial-type of license, ALONG with an appropriate Road Test?
Many lives would be saved, as drivers who are inexperienced and unfamiliar with operating oversized vehicles would have to prove their awareness and skills.
Yes, please oh please, regulate me harder, Daddy Government, I need you to tell me whether or not I’m capable of driving a minivan-sized station wagon!
Licenses ARE required to prove maturity, knowledge and actual driving ability, across a variety of vehicle types. You seem to believe otherwise.
The vehicles in question are certainly not of minivan/station wagon stature — have you ever seen those? They’re Lilliputian by comparison.
“Daddy Government” ordered seatbelts, emissions reductions, crash-survivability and MUCH more, in automotive progress as well as everyday “small stuff” like air and water qualities.
You must not have any children, or you’d know better.
I’ve also left you some stuff to look up.
Might be time to turn off Fox News and start engaging “think for yourself mode.”
You seem to be forgetting that a lot of these regulations are driven by idiots who had no business climbing behind the wheel in the first place.
Seatbelts? Are you kidding me? As opposed to what? Emergency room visits from having your chest crushed by a steering wheel in a collision?
Maybe if drivers engaged their common sense instead of this foolishness you’ve been spoonfed by conservative talkinf
Hey man, I’m a card-carrying Liberal, from the 1960’s.
You obviously have NO experience or knowledge about ANYTHING under discussion here.
Especially being some politically-motivated ///// without a clue about either automobile or traffic safety.
There’s NOTHING political about Safety.
Why do you make it so?
I was a Medical/Forensic PHOTOGRAPHER in the Suffolk County, NY Medical Examiner’s office.
NOBODY tells me about automobile “accident” fatalities.
You wouldn’t want to know about anything I experienced.
Many senseless deaths. I still have PTSD…
Is GM going back to the original size of the Acadia which was downsized in 2017 of 18, I think. When you are 6’2″ you appreciate the extra space, one reason I enjoy my pick ups. I don’t think of any car as being over-sized these days. I still have a 2000 model Buick La Sabre that I love to drive, 30mgh or better on the road and it seems pretty massive and it is downsized from previous years. I admit I do like the safety features on the new cars FCC, BCC, lane following, advance cruise contol, etc. When the country boy goes to the city they are pretty handy.