Wife would like an acadia,traverse,or enclave 09 or 10 ???

Don't know about the earlier ones, but the wife has an '012 Traverse and loves it! Very roomy and good power for a V-6.

My inlaws bought an Enclave a year ago, I believe it is a '14. They really like it coming from a Town and Country mini van. They don't tow with it. I like the exterior looks of the GMC better but the newer Buicks certainly are well done.

We were ready to buy an Enclave and had the opportunity to rent an '09 Enclave for a week, was very new with somewhere around 2k-3k miles. Comfort and inside design was very nice. Took my family of four on a road trip in and around New Mexico.

We wanted to buy an Enclave but what killed the thought of moving forward was the seriously bad delay in downshifting for safe passing. It was so bad that it remains a very vivid thought, that thought being the attempt and dangerous feeling I got when trying to pass on a one lane road. Seemed when applying a heavy foot on the accelerator, there were delays, in seconds, before the Enclave would downshift to accelerate faster. This became a situation where I could not trust passing with it so had to sit behind very slow vehicles that wouldn't pull out for the many cars lined up behind them.

That transmission in the '09 Enclave had A LOT to be desired. Be careful and thoroughly run any '09 Enclave/Traverse through its paces before purchasing. Good luck, hopefully this was a one off we had but after investigation into that model year trans, I don't believe it was a one off situation. I personally would avoid the '09 and look for '10 as I seem to recall that trans issue I am referring to may have been addressed on '10 and later.

We had a new 2010 Acadia for 3.5 years as a family hauler, and it was OK at best. I really hated the headrests. Anywho, we had several issues over the years including:
- Steering wheel has parts come loose inside causing a rub while turning. This was not fixed well IMHO, and the wheel just flew from lock to lock making loud clunking noises afterwards.
- The power lift gate mechanism broke. This also was not fixed quite like new, but it didn't break again.
- TPMS went berserk. This took forever to fix as they ended up having to replace the entire system.
- HVAC stopped responding to temp setting properly. It would take an hour before it figured out that I wanted heat and not cold when it's 17 degrees out. Luckily some diagnostic made them replace the unit and we never had it happen again.
- Radio would sporadically play loud static full blast when you turned on the car. Nothing would get rid of it except cycling the ignition since the radio controls didn't respond.
- The door switches would stick, and not recognize that it had opened or closed leaving the radio and interior lights on for some amount of time. The fix was to slam the doors real hard to unstick it.
- Other random electrical issues that would happen one time and never again.

Once it went out of the B2B warranty I looked for any excuse to dump it, because I knew it was going to eat us alive to keep fixing all these issues that kept popping up. DW loved it, and wants an Acadia Denali someday :( If that happens I will gladly dish out the megabucks for the B2B extended warranties.

sounds like you got a lemon. Maybe built Monday or Friday ?? still not a good experience for you. I hear lots of good about these units, and a very bad one now and then. Weird how that happens

They're a very nice and comfortable AWD people hauler, but it's the last one I'll own as our 2010 has been riddled with problems and zero help from GM. Chrome peeling from the rims in strips, a rack and pinion at 62k and no help from GM, front struts at the same time, horrendous fuel mileage (my F150 Lariat EB does better), trans cooler line leaking, a couple odd electrical gremlins, and now the AC is out and it's a big leak, wouldn't even hold charge for 24 hours. I'll be making an appointment Monday! For a 5 year old luxury vehicle with 75k on it that was a JD power winner, I've been less than impressed! My truck is a year newer with 15k more miles on it and has only had one issue which was a sticky e-brake cable. My recommendation would be to find something else. I cannot imagine thinking of it as a TV, the trans is so soft and shifty, it seems like it has all it needs just hauling itself around!

Signing off,

Less than impressed GM owner!

MARK VANDERBENT wrote:
I really hope GM builds a mini suburban on the new Colorado platform and then I could get the 2.8 duramax in it !! that would really be my ultimate tow vehicle.

That would be amazing

I really hope GM builds a mini suburban on the new Colorado platform and then I could get the 2.8 duramax in it !! that would really be my ultimate tow vehicle.

gmcsmoke wrote:
then I would get as new as possible in the lambda platform to get away from known issues. The '13 and newer enclaves are really nice.

X2

The Buicks are the best of the bunch...by far the most comfortable seats. I've had both the Traverse and the Enclave as a rental. I would own an Enclave..no way to a Traverse. IMHO after a couple hundred miles the seats are very rough on my body in the traverse. The enclave fit like a glove.

Thanks!

Jeremiah

then I would get as new as possible in the lambda platform to get away from known issues. The '13 and newer enclaves are really nice.