2010 GMC Terrain SUV Review

2010 GMC Terrain SUV Review As the new GM emerges from its corporate nightmare, you have to ask, "What do you got?" Here's one answer, the all-new 2010 GMC Terrain. Let's see if it makes us forget the old GM and check the tech while we're at it. Now, in here we've got a new-looking General Motors head unit that's impressing us in a lot of ways, if not every way. First of all, this is top of the line, by the way. The other two audio package levels are just that, audio. They don't have a navigation head unit. The display looks really good. I mean that's a nice looking way to lay out a map. You can see very clear icons of course, for the various sorts of services you've got exposed. You can enter your destination in a number of ways. First of all, there's a destination button right here that gets things going. Address entry is your first choice. This is a touchscreen, though it's odd. It's kind of set back, and it's in this little cave. And this thing's right in the way, banging your hand every time you go for it. This is so hard to get in there and stick your finger in. I'm actually tempted to use voice command, which I normally don't use. [Demonstration] So fairly usable voice command system, you don't get any prompts on the screen. That's kind of annoying. That, by the way, was the first time in five tries that it actually recognized the street name, including that street name, so I find it's kind of stupid on that front. And when it re-pronounces the confirmation to you, what a bungled mess, Sana Fran Cisco? Other thing you'll do with this interface is get to your media settings. Hard disk drive, which you can fill up with things that you rip from your CDs that are down here in this very strangely hidden CD slot. You've got 40-gigabytes of hard drive space in here, so there's plenty of space in there to store your media. Up here is our USB toggle and that gets us to the USB jack that is down here in the console which by the way, will read a thumb drive like we have in here now, or you can connect an iPod or iPhone using your own white cable. Bluetooth hands-free is standard on all but the most stripped of these GMC Terrains, and again, your controls here on the wheel will handle that for you. Now, if this car had the optional rear-seat entertainment system, we would have dual LCDs for the rear, and this would also become a DVD audio and video optical deck here in the console. One thing all Terrains do come with that is kind of up level is a rearview camera. Every single one of these vehicles, no matter how you got it equipped, does have a camera to see out the back. It's a little mushy. You've got the ability to go through and change configurations on it, however. So you can have the guidelines with distance and trajectory or not. Have a totally clear screen if you like. Now, interestingly, in classic American car company fashion, you've got engine choices here that are not tied to some trim level. You can just pick an engine, a 2.4-liter direct injection inline four. Numbers are okay on it, 182 horsepower, 174-foot pounds of torque, and the MPG can be as good as 22/32 in front wheel drive configuration. But we've got the engine that will interest more people, this 3.6-liter V6 with direct injection. This is basically GM's hot motor right now and it's a good engine. Horsepower is 264-foot pounds of torque, 2/22, so significantly better numbers, although a big drop from torque to horsepower. I like those to be a little closer. Mileage, of course, drops quite a bit, 17/25 is the rating on this guy. The Terrain is a unibody vehicle at the entry level of GMC's SUV line. It shares underpinnings with the Chevy Equinox. Nothing very interesting here while under way, even with the direct injection V6. This is classic, rubbery motoring with an engine that is in love with sixth gear and a transmission that reminds you why they call them slush boxes. Moving to the "M" mode on the gearshift does help a little, but not enough to make this thing fun to drive. Buy it for other reasons. Let's price out this SLE Trim GMC Terrain which is fairly high trim. It's about $26,000.00 and some odd, but that does include the V6. If you want the four-cylinder, take off $1500.00. If you want all-wheel drive through, add in $1750.00. Now, the two major options, for $1295.00, rear seat entertainment with two screens in the back, and for $2145.00, you get that upgraded navigation and DVD playback head unit with all the different inputs and such. You definitely want to do that to make this guy CNET style.