Eight people can squeeze into the GMC Acadia, but we’d recommend limiting capacity to six. Six adults riding in all three rows of seats will be much happier. Taller people assigned to the third-row bench will have to contend with tight leg space, but for shorter trips the Acadia works just fine when fully loaded. If moving cargo rather than people is of paramount importance, the Acadia will swallow up to 116.9 cubic feet of cargo with all three rows of seats folded down. With all seating positions occupied, there’s 19.7 cubic feet of cargo space behind the third-row seat.

One of GMC’s goals with the Acadia was to construct a cabin filled with low gloss, finely detailed materials, and based on our examination of pre-production models the company takes a step in that direction, but you won’t confuse the plastics, switches, and materials for what you might find in a Lexus, let alone a Toyota. The leather in the Acadia SLT is soft and supple and the headliner is a classy mesh fabric, but the dashboard is all hard plastic. Like many recent GM products, much of the Acadia’s switchgear is small buttons with unclear symbolic markings that are all crammed together, making them hard to use. Storage areas include a very deep center console, a huge glove box, and handy card clips on the visors.

Selected features for the GMC Acadia include several items designed to battle the elements like heated outside mirrors, triple-zone climate control, remote starting, and heated washer fluid. Other goodies are ultrasonic parking assist, a power liftgate, an oversized dual SkyScape sunroof, and a head-up display that projects vehicle information directly in front of the driver on the lower part of the windshield. With the GMC Acadia’s DVD entertainment system, DVD navigation system, and Bose 5.1 Surround Sound system, the driver and passengers should have no trouble passing the time, or getting to their destination on time.

Six airbags protect the Acadia’s occupants, including side curtains for all three rows that are equipped with rollover sensors. The Acadia also includes a Generation 7 OnStar telematics system with a free one-year subscription to GM’s Safe and Sound plan, which includes Advanced Automatic Crash Notification. OnStar’s new Turn-By-Turn Navigation feature is also available on the Acadia.