Gmc Terrain
My first impression of the GMC Terrain was pretty much the same as everybody else’s; it is an SUV with more than enough cargo room in the back, carries up to five passengers, and, of course, it is made by General Motors. However, when I drove to Irvine, California a few months back to look at the Terrain for myself, I looked at the window sticker, and my jaw just dropped, literally. During the test drive with my salesperson, Elizabeth, I have heard that because of the Terrain’s engine consisting of a 2.4-liter 4-cylinder producing 182 horsepower, the car can get up to an average of 32 miles per gallon on the highway depending on how you drive. I thought to myself, “32 mpg? That cannot be.” She nodded her head, “Yes. 32 mpg.” I still cannot believe it. But of course, I am one who never doubts a female car enthusiast.
I do not have any kids, but with a guitar, two big plastic bags of recyclable bottles and cans, and a 15” Dell laptop with three to four textbooks for school, the GMC Terrain provides me with more than enough space to put them in than my previous Honda Civic. The 60/40 split rear seats is very useful in case I have heavy boxes of items from Costco or some computer equipment that I would carry around for work. As far as comfort and convenience features are concerned on the Terrain, I could go on and on because the car is pretty can come pretty much loaded, but Helium.com had limited the word count to 1500, so I will do my best to stop myself. A subscription to GM’s OnStar system is complementary for the first year, which includes a concierge service with turn-by-turn directions, and an automatic notification to emergency services such as the police, fire department or paramedics in case you are in an accident and your car’s front airbag(s) is/are deployed.
Besides OnStar, the GMC Terrain has a lot of other standard safety features such as six standard airbags: two airbags in the front for the driver and passenger, two airbags for the driver and passenger seats for providing thorax protection, and roof-rail mounted head-curtain airbags provide head protection for both the front and rear passengers. The car also comes equipped with standard ABS brakes with ventilated discs on all four corners of the vehicle along with an auto-hold function in case you are parked up a hill. A high-steel unibody structure is used for the Terrain’s subframe for sturdiness and durability for safety reasons and in case of a high-impact collision.
As far as technology is concerned on the GMC Terrain, a USB port inside the center console for your iPod is standard along with voice-activated Bluetooth (for the SLE-2 models and above). Air conditioning with automatic climate controls are also available for SLE-2 models and above. All Terrains come with back-up cameras located inside the rear-view mirror; however, if you get a Terrain with the navigation system, the back-up camera will be mounted right on your navigation screen. Manually adjusted seats are standard on the base Terrain, and all other models come with 8-way power adjustable driver’s seat with lumbar support. The GMC Terrain is the only car in its class (besides the Cadillac SRX) to come with a programmable power lift gate.
I am the type of guy who likes to sometimes drive aggressively, but would also like to conserve gas mileage since gasoline in Southern California right now had spiked above $3.00 a gallon. The base model GMC Terrain has a 2.4-liter four cylinder engine with both VVT and ECOTEC technology; with this being said, the 4-cylinder Terrain can get up to 32 miles per gallon—try that on a Ford Escape or a Honda CR-V. The Terrain also comes with a more powerful 3.0-liter V6 which produces 263 horsepower. I have figured that the 2.4-liter four-cylinder is enough because I have figured that even with 182 horsepower, the Terrain still packs a punch to 60 mph in just 9 ½ seconds. Okay, I have probably exaggerated for a bit there, but for a big heavy car like the Terrain with a four-cylinder, you cannot expect anything better than that; well, it is no Toyota RAV4 in straight-line acceleration.
While on the test drive from Lake Forest to Irvine on the 5 freeway going North (for about ½ a mile), the Terrain drove pretty well. I did not feel any rough “terrains” coming from the cracks and potholes; therefore, this would be the perfect car for me if I were to purchase anything American-made. The steering is very responsive, and the braking was not too soft. The suspension did not make me feel any body roll coming into the hard corners, and the sound of the 2.4-liter 4-cylinder while punching the throttle up to 5000 rpm was just marvelous.
