Driven: 2025 GMC Acadia – Rugged Refinement Hits The Trail

The GMC Acadia has been a family favorite for years, and 2024 ushered in its third generation with a full, ground-up redesign—bigger, bolder, and loaded with tech. For 2025, the changes are less dramatic, but this three-row SUV still feels fresh and ready to tackle everything from school drop-offs to weekend adventures. I spent some time with the AT4 trim, the lineup’s off-road star.

The 2025 GMC Acadia is a carryover with subtle polish, sporting a boxy stance, a muscular grille, and a ready for anything attitude. The GMC brand is more upscale than its Chevrolet cousin. It’s not a luxury brand, but it is premium with ample standard features, attractive trims, and a comfortable ride that’s perfect for family road-trips. The AT4 adds a dose of capability should that road trip involve more dirt than pavement.

Exterior Looks: Sharp Styling

The 2025 Acadia AT4 looks like it’s ready for the trail but polished enough for a night out. Its squared-off silhouette and towering grille give it a commanding presence, a far cry from the softer lines of earlier generations. This isn’t a hardcore off-roader like a Wrangler, but it has great capability for weekend adventures, paired with a rugged yet upscale vibe that feels more refined than the Jeep Grand Cherokee L but more aggressive than Toyota Grand Highlander. Standard LED headlights and taillights add sophistication, while the AT4’s skid plates, red tow hooks, and 18-inch all-terrain tires hint at its off-road focus. We love how it looks with its blend of rugged details and upscale refinement.

In terms of size, this is how the Acadia stacks up:

• Length: 203.9 inches
• Width: 79.9 inches
• Height: 72.0 inches
• Wheelbase: 120.9 inches

Interior & On-Board Technology: Roomy, Refined, Ready For Anything

The inside of the Acadia is a tech-savvy haven with a rugged twist. The cabin is a huge upgrade from pre-2024 models, boasting premium materials that look and feel good with soft-touch surfaces, contrast stitching, and textured dash inserts that add comfort and visual appeal. It’s spacious up front, with ample room in the second row. The available captain’s chairs are more comfortable than the bench, and they slide forward and tilt, making it easier to climb back into the third row. Fold those seats down, and you’ve got a solid cargo area with more room behind all three rows than both the Kia Telluride and the Honda Pilot.

Space And Roominess

The Acadia’s third row works for smaller passengers or the kids, but we climbed back there, and at 5 feet 6 inches, found it snug. Tall adults will find it tight on their knees with their heads grazing the roof. It’s likely that’s not how you’ll use the Acadia every day, so don’t worry about it too much. Just put your tall friends up front if you’re heading out with a full crew of adults. The Toyota Grand Highlander offers more third-row legroom, but less in the second-row.

Infotainment: Screen Time Supreme

The Acadia’s cabin is dominated by a standard 15-inch vertical infotainment touchscreen. It looks absolutely massive due to that vertical positioning, with the norm being a horizontal screen, but it works. It’s crisp and responsive, with Google Built-In for effortless voice commands. We consistently found that it heard us right on the first try, which makes it far less likely that you’ll be distracted using physical controls. There’s also wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto to keep you connected throughout the trip. The optional Bose 16-speaker audio system is fabulous and easily fills the whole cabin with rich sound.

Safety: Peace Of Mind

Every Acadia gets GMC’s Pro Safety Plus suite—automatic emergency braking, lane-keep assist, blind-spot monitoring, and more. The adaptive cruise control gently nudged me on the highway, a reassuring touch. The available surround-view camera helps make parking this large SUV in tight spaces a lot easier and reduces the chances of clipping a fender or tapping a high curb or low wall.

Performance: Power Meets Poise

The Acadia AT4’s 2.5-liter turbocharged 4-cylinder delivers 328 horsepower and 326 lb-ft of torque paired to an eight-speed automatic transmission with standard all-wheel drive. It was stable and reassuring on the off-road course we drove during the launch. On-road, it’s still well-mannered despite its off-road focus. It remains quiet and calm in highway driving with the suspension system soaking up most of the potholes, which is quite a feat in New England in the winter.

Performance Impressions

The Acadia accelerates with confidence, making highway merges easy and the transmission shifts smoothly, even under hard acceleration, so snoozing kids stay that way. Super Cruise hands-free driving is a breeze to use and makes road trips less tiresome for the driver. It features a section along the top of the steering wheel that illuminates green when it’s active, so it’s easy to know when it’s engaged. This is hands-free, not attention-free, and it will call you out if you look away. The system mimics human driving in a smooth, natural manner, making it easy for the driver to trust and reducing the chances of passengers getting motion sick due to jerky, unnatural maneuvers.

Ride and Handling

The AT4’s off-road-tuned suspension is firm, but it’s something you’ll only notice on truly bad road surfaces. In highway driving, with smooth pavement, there are no issues. I drove the AT4 off-road at the launch event, and it impressed on gravel and uneven trails, keeping its composure when pavement ends. It’s not as cushy as other trims in the lineup, but those trims aren’t as capable. The Acadia AT4 strikes a good balance between capability and comfort.

EPA-Estimated Fuel Economy

Big and heavy, it’s no surprise that the GMC Acadia fuel economy isn’t the best in the segment. There’s also no option for a hybrid, so this is what you can expect to achieve:

• FWD: 20/27//23 mpg city/highway/combined
• AWD: 19//24/21 mpg city/highway/combined

Verdict & Pricing: A Refined SUV With A Premium Price

The 2025 GMC Acadia is available in just three trims. While the Elevation and Denali are front-wheel or all-wheel drive for an extra $2,000, the AT4 is all-wheel drive only given its off-road focus. Pricing starts at $44,295, excluding $1,395 destination, which is quite competitive given, but there’s a big jump to the AT4 and an even bigger jump to the Denali with all-wheel drive. That premium trim is in a class of its own within the GMC lineup. If you want a true premium experience, it delivers. Less expensive three-row SUVs are out there, including the Chevrolet Traverse and Kia Sorento, but they don’t boast the same level of interior amenities.

The GMC brand aims to deliver an elevated truck and SUV experience that, while not true luxury, is still more than what’s offered by the mainstream. The Acadia achieves this goal with a responsive engine, smooth ride, and beautiful interior. The AT4 caters to the more adventurous set with more rugged styling and capability without looking bare bones or stripped down in the process. If your focus is luxury, then skip the AT4 and go right for the Denali, assuming your wallet can handle the price.