GMC Terrain

I know a lot of you weren’t thrilled about the auto bailout, but if GM spends all of it as well as they did on the new GMC Terrain, it will be money well spent.

The Terrain is one of three vehicles all built on the same platform. I know, that sounds like the bad old days when Buicks and Oldsmobiles looked pretty much alike, but the Terrain, Chevy Equinox and Cadillac SRX look so different, I defy any non-car-nut to figure out that they are largely the same truck.

And that truck is a very nice one. Like it’s siblings, it’s basically a crossover and a nicely screwed together one at that. Where the Equinox and SRX are curvy, this one is a meat cleaver. The blunt, squared-off wheel openings, and large mouth bass of a grill actually work for me.

But then I’m one of those people who think an SUV should look more like a tackle box than a Corvette.

The Terrain doesn’t make any pretense of trying to be a 3-row trucklet.
It’s for 5 people tops and the detailing of the gorgeous interior is worthy of its Cadillac sibling, right down to the real, red stitching on the seats and trim. The dash is shared with the Equinox and is full of storage cubbies galore.

Our test car had the 264-horsepower, 3-liter V6 and a 6-speed automatic.
Together they averaged 23 miles per gallon around town. Frankly, that’s phenomenal. The base 2.4-liter four cylinder with 182 ponies gets nearly 30, and having driven an Equinox with that engine, I can promise you don’t lose much being stingy on gas.

On the road, the Terrain in front wheel drive, is very comfy, and driving it to see relatives in Mississippi for the holidays was a pure pleasure…well, except that I drove it to see relatives in Mississippi.

Within the limits of a medium-sized, tallish vehicle, it handles pretty well. But this is really a glorified kid carrier, and as such, it’s a thing of beauty.

Base price is $25,000 and our loaded model was just over 32K.

That’s the GMC Terrain. It’s good looking, well screwed together and economical. And it’s the future of SUV’s.