2010 GMC Terrain
by Jim Prueter -01/2010

Styling and performance miscues disappoint

After a week in the Terrain I still didn’t warm up to it. At first I just couldn’t put my finger on it. Why couldn’t I embrace something about the Terrain? It’s an all-new vehicle, replacing the discontinued Envoy. As buyers mature out of their cretinous SUVs, GMC dealers want something in their showrooms other than big trucks and full-sized utility vehicles.

Terrain is a direct GM sibling of the Chevy Equinox we tested last August. In a departure from recent years, when GM simply changed the tail lamps, grille and badging on a Chevrolet and called it a GMC, the only things Terrain has in common with Equinox are the platform, windshield, the sliding second row of seats and the programmable liftgate with a variable height setting (making it reachable for the vertically challenged or to prevent it from banging an opened garage door).

What’s surprising about the Terrain is its beastly exterior looks. Far from sleek, Terrain is one of the most un-aerodynamic looking vehicles we’ve encountered. The front end reminds us of the discontinued Chevrolet Uplander minivan, side fenders protrude like the Chevy SSR and, when viewed from the rear, it resembles the Honda Odyssey minivan. How could a manufacturer that produced downright attractive crossovers like the new Cadillac SRX, Chevy Equinox and even Saturn Vue malign sheet metal into such a visual eyesore?

Inside, Terrain’s interior is mostly attractive, other than a bit too much silver trim on the center stack. Red dash lights and soft ambient interior lighting is attractive. But materials look cheap and don’t seem as well nailed together as those in the Equinox and SRX. There are too many panel gaps and unrefined seams where interior pieces come together.

Front seats are roomy and generally comfortable. Second row seats are roomy with seatbacks that fold flat for more cargo room. Terrain does not offer three-row seating.

We tested a well-equipped SLT all-wheel drive Terrain with a 3.0-liter 264-horsepower V-6 with a six-speed automatic transmission. A 2.4-liter 182-horsepower inline four-cylinder is standard. The V-6 is the same engine and transmission that powers the Cadillac SRX and Chevy Equinox; it disappointed us when we tested those vehicles. There’s excessive engine noise, fussy transmission logic — continually wanting to shift to the higher fuel-saving gear — and overall lackluster engine performance. We have not driven a four-cylinder Terrain at this time.

But not all is bad. The Terrain actually rode and handled pretty well without the jarring ride we’ve experienced from others in this class. GMC is pretty generous with standard equipment such as rearview camera mounted into the inside rearview mirror, deep-tinted glass, USB port, floor mats, fog lights, heated mirrors and projector beam headlamps, a nifty programmable liftgate, remote start, Bluetooth connectivity and excellent audio system.

Standard safety features include four-wheel disc antilock brakes, stability and traction control, front, side and head-curtain side airbags with rollover protection for both front and rear rows. Terrain earned the highest possible 5 stars in government crash tests and the highest rating, Good, from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.

Terrain is available in two models — SLE ($24,250) and SLT ($31,000) — and a choice of standard front-wheel drive or optional all-wheel drive.

Overall Terrain falls well short of competition including the excellent Chevrolet Equinox in this very competitive compact crossover market segment.