GMC driving event showcases new models
GMC held a Ride & Drive event to let the press have a go with the latest GMC offerings. The drive was a road-trip from Dubai to Fujairah and back, involving no offroading. So I sent my support-monkey brother and his buddy on the trip, should anything exciting happen. The event was also supposed to showcase the all-new Terrain compact 4WD.
There were maybe 20 or more GMC vehicles, about half of which were Terrains. However, my people could not get their hands on any of them, so they proceeded the journey in the Yukon Denali.
The Yukon Denali turned out to be exactly the same on the inside as our last Tahoe tester, except with additional chrome and a navigation system. The coolest features in it were the upgraded 380 hp 6.2-litre V8 and side-steps that electrically retract.
Other GMC models were on the drive too, including Acadias, Sierras and Yukon XLs.
The event was concluded with a dinner at an expensive restaurant, which I did go to with Diego, my regular PR guy, since he is a fan of free food. There I found out most of the journalists on this drive were flown in from neighbouring countries by General Motors, and almost none of them were from motoring publications.
Getting back to the star of the show that we didn’t see, the 2008 GMC Terrain comes in two flavours, namely a 141 hp 2.4-litre inline-4 and a 223 hp 3.2-litre V6, both with all-wheel-drive and five-speed automatics. I’ll reserve my comments until I drive one personally.
Comments
Saad Bashar
Hey do american cars have good build quality??
vivek
they do hav good build quality and generally do live for a long time wid minor reliability issues..but yea, the maintenance expenses will b high evn tho maintaining from a good garage outside rather tan the dealership can be a really good alternative!
Ray
The bodies of American cars maybe strong Saad, but when it comes to long term reliability, i.e engine and other mechanicals and general wear & tear etc, the americans suck big time….sorry Vivek I can’t really agree with you completely.
vivek
as Ray said, the bodies are really strong…well, general wear and tear is higher tan the japs and evn some of the european cars..maintenance expenses will be high..Their engines are known for drinking petrol like how we drink water 😆 ..Reliability is not bad tho, as far as i knw; esp wid the newer makes from the american brands..not bad in the sense, if something goes wrong, be ready to get ur pockets drained; but chances of such bad surprises are generally lower..Anyway, personally, I’ve had a bad experience wid my first car, which was an “American”..During my 3 year/80K run wid it, i’ve got several minor and 2 major reliability issues..the 2 major ones were a leaking fuel pump and a clutch failure, both of whch occured evn b4 it covered 45K kms!..and don’t evn ask me abt the maintenance costs!!..
but thn, jus bcoz my car gav me probs, I cannot force myself to judge tat all american cars are bad..i’ve seen several cars which hav been running for soo many years wid no major issues or maintenance probs..
in short, American cars -> are Strong, are on the expensive side whn it comes to running costs and maintenance costs, are jus average when it comes to reliability, are poor in fuel efficiency, are generally very comfortable & smooth and hav running parts that are comparitively less durable.
Tamzed
heres a review of holdan captiva which is the exact same cae .
http://www.drive.com.au/Editorial/ArticleDetail.aspx?ArticleID=22894&vf=1
Tamzed
of course the great editor would know that GMC terrain is basically a smaller version of the Captiva which is turn is a daewoo
lotfi
wats tht gmc called in the forst pic
cb
acadia