Faster, lighter, more sophisticated, and more efficient, the 2018 GMC Terrain adheres to a successful formula when it comes to modern vehicle redesigns.
Yet, somehow, this new 2018 Terrain has lost what made it so appealing when it first arrived way back at the start of the decade: a definitive sense of style. And in a landscape saturated with excellent vehicles, you’ve gotta offer crossover SUV shoppers something more than ‘it’s better than the last one’ sloganeering.
GMC’s best shot is reflected in the all-new Terrain, which is mechanically identical to the Chevrolet Equinox but with a more rough-and-tumble personality. Notably, the 2018 Terrain is significantly smaller than the previous version, shaving its wheelbase by 5.2 inches, its overall length by 3 inches, and losing more than 300 pounds in the process. This puts it definitively into the compact crossover SUV category.
In addition to its more rugged visual character, the upscale Denali trim level seeks to further differentiate the Terrain by supplying a fuller list of amenities to tempt the sybarite, although there are still lots of available features waiting to inflate the price tag. My Terrain Denali test vehicle included the optional all-wheel-drive system, upgraded paint, and a host of packages offering additional comforts, conveniences, and technologies. The price came to a jaw-dropping $44,540.
The danger for GMC in entering this pricing range is that it goes well beyond that of its mainstream competitors, most of which top out in the high $30,000 range, and enters the land of the well-dressed larger midsize crossover (such as the Mazda CX-9 Signature) and luxury compact SUVs (such as the Mercedes-Benz GLC300 4Matic).
Was GMC successful in convincing me that a kitted out 2018 Terrain Denali is worth the price? Read on to find out.
Design: 6.3 rating
Generally speaking, the 2018 GMC Terrain is appealing, but in a generic way. The previous version was far more distinctive.
(Speedy Daddy Media, Inc.)Last year’s Terrain had a certain appeal, with chunky wheel wells and a Lego-inspired design aesthetic that made it stand out in a sea of lookalike crossovers.
That changes for 2018. This new Terrain is governed more by curves than right angles, with soft sculpturing along its flanks and an ovoid grille full of glinting metallic plastic. The C-shaped lighting elements defining the headlights and taillights are distinctive, as are the pinched rear quarter windows. I also liked the Denali’s unique 19-inch aluminum wheels, which gave the Terrain a hefty bearing.
Still, there’s no denying that the Terrain’s new look is a more conservative one.
GMC also goes the conservative route when it comes to interior design. My test vehicle’s drab black-on-black interior featured just a few real aluminum trim pieces to provide contrast and a little bit of visual jazz, along with a gray headliner to make the cabin seem a little more airy. You can also get a 2-tone interior in shades of washed-out gray, but GMC strangely reserves its high-contrast black over caramel cabin treatment for the standard Terrain.
At more than $44,000, the test vehicle’s interior materials were disappointing. The leather was high in quality, the aluminum trim was real, and the dashboard and upper door panels were softly padded, but otherwise many of the plastics clearly reflected a standard Terrain’s mid-$20,000 starting price.
Comfort: 7.0 rating
Wrapped in quality leather, and offering both heating and ventilation, the Terrain Denali’s firmly cushioned front seats are comfortable enough.
(Speedy Daddy Media, Inc.)Smaller exterior dimensions translate to a smaller interior than before, but the new Terrain still seats four people in comfort and five when absolutely necessary.
Up front, you don’t so much sit in the Terrain’s seats as you do on them. Convex seat bottoms, firm cushioning and meek bolstering make the front seats feel more like dining room chairs than plush Barcaloungers, and in my opinion, this lowers comfort levels.
However, thanks to a front passenger’s seat height adjuster, with both heating and ventilation, and a heated steering wheel, the comfort picture improves. And there’s no denying that they offer hours of support.
In the back, decent leg room and reclining seatbacks help to make passengers comfortable, though the Terrain’s sliding rear seat is gone for 2018.
Additional niceties like air conditioning vents, heated outboard seats, USB charging ports, a household-style 110-volt power outlet, and a nice view overhead thanks to the optional panoramic sunroof make the Terrain Denali even more accommodating.
Controls: 7.0 rating
The only unusual thing about the 2018 GMC Terrain’s controls is the row of transmission buttons located on the dashboard.
(Speedy Daddy Media, Inc.)Like most modern vehicles from General Motors, the Terrain’s interior is laid out in logical fashion using a mixture of familiar knobs, buttons, switches, and stalks. Even the IntelliLink infotainment system is easy to understand, if not always to use.
What’s noteworthy here is the Terrain’s transmission controls. Instead of supplying a traditional lever on the center console, the Terrain instead has a row of push and pull buttons lined up on the dashboard, under the climate controls.
Drivers must push the Park, Neutral and Low buttons, while pulling the Reverse and Drive buttons. In my opinion, this is not the most intuitive setup, and can be rife with possibilities for mishaps. GMC wards off such criticism by saying that you can’t engage Park while the Terrain is going 3 mpg or faster, and accidentally pressing the Reverse button while you’re cruising along will put the transmission into Neutral instead. Wisely, the transmission automatically switches to Park when you open the driver’s door in order to prevent the vehicle from rolling forward or back and causing an accident.
While I suppose Terrain owners will get used to this approach, it also makes me nostalgic for the simplicity of a traditional gear shifter.
Utility: 8.0 rating
Though traditional cargo area measurements are on the small side, the 2018 Terrain makes up for shortcomings with lots of nooks, crannies, and even a fold-flat front passenger’s seat.
(Speedy Daddy Media, Inc.)Compact exterior dimensions translate into compact cargo space, and the new Terrain is stingier in this respect than many of its competitors.
Open the hatch, or wave your foot underneath the bumper to activate the Denali’s standard hands-free power liftgate, and you’ll find 29.6 cu.-ft. of volume behind the rear seats, including a useful bin located under the cargo floor panel.
Fold the rear seats down with the remote-release levers and you’ll get 63.3 cu.-ft. of maximum volume. Both figures are on the small side for the compact CUV class.
In seeming acknowledgement of this fact, the Terrain’s front passenger’s seat also folds in half, allowing long items to be carried within the cabin with the liftgate safely closed. And if you stack that area full of stuff, you can carry a total of 81 cu.-ft. of cargo in the Terrain.
Around the Terrain’s cabin, you’ll find lots of little bins to carry your things, along with a good-sized center console bin with storage tray, door panel bins and trays, and a sizable glove box. There’s a useful pass-through storage bin under the center console, too.
Americans like to carry lots of things with them, and the Terrain definitely helps you keep them organized.
Technology: 8.0 rating
The GMC Terrain’s technological features are now up to par with modern standards, and even exceed expectations in key areas.
(Speedy Daddy Media, Inc.)As standard equipment, GMC installs an IntelliLink infotainment system in every 2018 Terrain. A 7-inch touchscreen display is standard, with an 8-inch screen included when navigation is added to the SUV. My test car had this larger version, revealing a new “skin” in terms of graphics and layout.
As you’d expect, Bluetooth hands-free calling and music streaming capabilities are standard, along with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto smartphone integration platforms. OnStar subscription services are offered for limited trial periods before requiring owners to pay monthly or annual fees, and they include a 4G LTE Wi-Fi hotspot. Wireless device charging is an option for Denali models.
Teen Driver technology is standard, and free, helping parents encourage safe driving habits in their children. A standard reversing camera shows the driver what’s behind the Terrain, putting the video feed on the infotainment system screen, and my Denali test vehicle further included both rear park assist sensors and a surround-view camera system. Good thing, because the reversing camera view was awful at night.
If there are complaints about any of these features, it relates to the new IntelliLink graphical layout. While the data displayed on the screen looks modern and grown-up, some of the virtual buttons on the recessed display are awkwardly located, making it hard to use them.
Safety: 6.0 rating
Mediocre crash-test ratings from the federal government mar the debut of the all-new 2018 GMC Terrain.
(Speedy Daddy Media, Inc.)From a safety perspective, GMC significantly upgrades the Terrain’s driver assistance and collision avoidance technologies, yet still doesn’t meet increasingly comprehensive expectations in this regard.
Most of the Terrain’s available safety features are optional, even on Denali trim. My test car did include a standard blind spot monitoring system with rear cross-traffic alert, but features such as forward collision warning and low-speed automatic emergency braking cost extra. Plus, you can’t get adaptive cruise control for any version of the Terrain.
GMC does make a Rear Seat Reminder feature standard, which, depending on whether you opened one of the rear doors before setting off on the current trip, chimes as you’re leaving the car to remind you that you may have left something important in the back seat.
You might not want to put loved ones in the back seat, anyway. In NHTSA crash-test evaluations, the new Terrain gets an overall 4-star rating due to the middling 3-star score it received for rear seat, side impact protection. Yikes.
The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) had not rated the Terrain as this review was written.
Power and Performance: 8.5 rating
Under the Terrain Denali’s hood you’ll find a lively but thirsty turbocharged 4-cylinder engine.
(Speedy Daddy Media, Inc.)GMC offers three different engines for the new Terrain: a turbocharged 1.5-liter gas engine, a turbocharged 1.6-liter diesel engine, and a turbocharged 2.0-liter gas engine. All of them have four cylinders, and the turbo 2-liter is standard for Denali models.
Press the Denali’s accelerator pedal and the cabin is invaded by a loud, raspy, high-pitched noise coming from the engine. Good thing this racket is accompanied by lively propulsion, thanks to 252 horsepower and 260 lb.-ft. or torque. A 9-speed transmission is tasked with delivering the power to the front wheels, and does a good job of adjusting ratios as is required.
An all-wheel-drive system is an option, offering two different driving modes. To maximize fuel economy, you will want to keep the system in 2WD mode, which disconnects the rear axle from the drivetrain. But be careful with acceleration because the front tires tend to squeal and shimmy, and torque steer regularly rears its ugly head.
To ward off these unpleasant annoyances, you can keep the Terrain in 4WD mode, which actively distributes engine power depending on what’s happening with tire grip, but you’ll pay the price at the gas station. During my testing, I noticed an immediate and negative effect on fuel efficiency when running the SUV in 4WD mode, especially in the city.
Overall, I averaged 21.5 mpg during a week of mixed suburban driving, which falls short of the 23 mpg that the EPA says I should’ve expected. GMC equips the Terrain with a 15.9-gallon fuel tank, which should supply more than 340 miles of driving range, but I needed to make a trip to the gas station sooner than that.
Additionally, the Terrain is equipped with an off-road driving mode and a tow-haul mode for specific driving situations
Ride and Handling: 7.8 rating
The 2018 GMC Terrain is a decent handler, but it lacks spirit.
(Speedy Daddy Media, Inc.)Driving around town in the new Terrain Denali is a bit of a bear. There’s an incredibly fat turning circle of 41.6 feet in diameter, courtesy of the 19-inch wheels, and that makes parking and making U-turns that much harder to execute.
Additionally, the suspension fails to filter excessive harshness from the road, delivering a busy ride with a granular feel that varies depending on the texture of the pavement, and punctuated by sharp impact jolts from hitting bumps. All of this is underscored by unwanted engine and road noise; GMC touts the Terrain’s standard active noise cancellation feature, but the company might want to re-tune things.
On the twisty canyon road section of my test loop, the Terrain fared a bit better, exhibiting decent weight management when pitched into a turn. The brakes fared well, and the steering, while heavy, proved reasonably precise.
Nose-heavy but predictable, the Terrain a decent handler but it doesn’t promote any kind of enthusiasm or spirit in its driver. Dynamically, competitors like the Ford Escape, Honda CR-V, Kia Sportage, Mazda CX-5, and Volkswagen Tiguan are much more rewarding to pilot.
Our Recommendation
Numerous compact crossovers await to serve your utility requirements, so look around before choosing the 2018 GMC Terrain.
(Speedy Daddy Media, Inc.)The 2018 GMC Terrain makes the case for its existence by being the burlier-looking twin of the Chevy Equinox, but without much in the way of hardware upgrades to make the argument a convincing one.
Upgrade to Denali trim for an extra dash of style and luxury, but at my test vehicle’s loaded-up price point you can start thinking about more appealing alternatives. You could go up a size to a midsize crossover with similar equipment. Or you could upgrade to an entry-level luxury crossover.
Many are the compelling alternatives to the rather average 2018 GMC Terrain, especially in light of its lackluster safety scores and, for traditional GMC buyers anyway, Made In Mexico credentials. You’ll be well served by researching across various segments before settling on this GMC.
Total Vehicle Score:148/200 points
Overall Vehicle Rating: 7.3
For More GMC Terrain Information:
FIRST DRIVE: 2018 GMC TERRAIN REVIEW
First Pictures: 2018 GMC Terrain and Terrain Denali Photos
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