I drove a 2011 GMC Terrain, AMA about it.

"winterlegacy, here 'till the end" (winterlegacy)
10/15/2019 at 15:07 • Filed to: GMC, GMC Terrain

Some backstory: I just finished doing the rear brakes on my Legacy. New England winters really do a number on your mechanical components. I enjoyed the experience of having to break out a sledgehammer to free a rotor stuck to the e-brake drum because the little gear at the bottom was jammed in place and refused to let me free it.

Anyways, now I’m here.

Maybe I’ll make a mini-review on it after I’ve had time to play some video games.

DISCUSSION (9)

citrus > winterlegacy, here 'till the end
10/15/2019 at 15:25

Why is it rusting in the wheel well?

Why are you subjecting yourself to this?

winterlegacy, here 'till the end > citrus
10/15/2019 at 15:30

1. It’s Maine. We put more salt on our roads than there’s salt in the Dead Sea, I’m pretty sure.

2. It took my brakes a full week to ship. I needed a vehicle to drive . This was the first vehicle I could borrow.

Snuze: Needs another Swede > winterlegacy, here 'till the end
10/15/2019 at 15:46

D oes it burn oil? I think there’s a lawsuit against GM regarding that.

I’d like to hear a review of it. My wife and I got the new bodystyle Terrain (2018). We briefly considered a used one in that body style but she hated the way it looks, and I’m admittedly not a huge fan either. But I’m curious on what we potentially missed out on.

winterlegacy, here 'till the end > Snuze: Needs another Swede
10/15/2019 at 16:02

No oil-burning issues. It only needed a new set of head gaskets when it was bought, which drove the price of this Terrain into the floor.

I’ll give you a quick abstract:

Interior’s nice. Not amazing materials, but definitely higher quality. Decent ergonomics. Tons of legroom in the rear. Cargo storage suffers as a result. Seats are very strongly bucketed and can be uncomfortable for certain people, especially in the back.

It drives like a big, unfeeling crossover. Steering is relatively accurate, possibly the most accurate steering large-size GM product I’ve driven.

Gearbox and engine would definitely be better suited in a smaller, lighter vehicle. V6 wants to rev up high. Autobox wants to keep it low. First and second are incredibly long for no apparent reason, so highway on-ramp pulls are 70% 1st 30% 2nd.

I hate trying to park it. It’s got this almost cab-forwards design that keeps making me overestimate where I am. I feel like I’m about to surmount a curb but I’m still 2 feet away from it. I’ve driven full size pickups that I can park more accurately than this.

Snuze: Needs another Swede > winterlegacy, here 'till the end
10/15/2019 at 16:18

You said head gaskets and the plurality confused me, then I remembered you could get a V6 in these. I’ve never driven one so I can’t speak to that, but I always thought they looked a little ungainly, like the proportions were off in such a way that would make it awkward to drive (it looks tall, long, and narrow, with excessive wheelbase).

We generally love our Terrain, though I have a few minor reservations. It’s a smaller chassis, so it’s easy to maneuver and park, and it drives very well - steering, throttle, brakes all feel pretty good and it’s responsive to drive and doesn’t feel top heavy or unstable. We opted for the Denali so the interior is pretty premium, though it’s still cursed with some hard touch plastics in very obvious places. My biggest gripe is I hate the “premium” Bose 9 speaker stereo. It sounds awful. Otherwise t hey made great use of interior space . One thing that’s interesting is I find the seats to be significantly less bolstered and wish they had just a bit more. I wonder if a lot of people complained about that generation and GM listened? Drivetrain wise we got the 2.0L turbo engine and new 9 speed auto. The 2.0 is great, I was worried about the 9 speed but it’s actually really impressed me by consistently being good at picking gears and having firm, sporty, but not too sharp shifts.

Thomas Donohue > winterlegacy, here 'till the end
10/15/2019 at 16:20

What kind of lap time does it do at Le Mans? I mean, with exaggerated fenders like that, at the very least it should be running the ALMS circuits.

winterlegacy, here 'till the end > Thomas Donohue
10/15/2019 at 16:38

I cannot confirm or deny, but probably closer to 6 minutes.

The engine has a dip in power at 3000 RPM which is where the automatic always wants to shift to under power.

If only EssExTee could be so grossly incandescent > winterlegacy, here 'till the end
10/15/2019 at 18:37

Of all the Karen cars, the GMC Terrain is the most Karen.

winterlegacy, here 'till the end > If only EssExTee could be so grossly incandescent
10/15/2019 at 20:41

It’s even rental spec. Inoffensive silver paint outside, composite video inputs in the rear, DVD player up front, and two pop-down video displays in back for the kids to stare at.