GM shrinks size of Acadia SUV

Price-cutting: The Acadia can still seat as many as seven people, though the third row of seats is now much tighter than the bench in the model it will replace. — AFP

SOUTHFIELD: General Motors Co has decided to shrink its GMC Acadia and cut the price, after the mid-sized sport utility vehicle (SUV) posted record US sales last year but was outgained by rivals like the Honda Pilot.

In an era when cheap gasoline has consumers seeking bigger and roomier trucks, GMC is shrinking the Acadia by three inches (7.6cm) in width and seven inches in length, making it a bit shorter than the Pilot. The crossover SUV also is shedding 318 kg to improve fuel economy.

GMC is reducing the price by an undisclosed amount, with the hope of a big jump in sales for a vehicle that’s in the hottest part of the US auto market. The smaller size may also get more buyers to give it a look because the new model will be easier to park and drive.

“I think we can make big gains with this,” Duncan Aldred, GMC vice-president said in an interview at the Detroit auto show, where the new SUV was unveiled. “I was concerned that we had the formula right, so why change it? But our competition is selling 50% more of them than we are.”

The redesigned 2017 Acadia goes on sale in May.

The current Acadia sells for an average transaction price of about US$39,000, according to the automaker. That compares with about US$37,000 for a Pilot, according to Kevin Tynan, an analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence. Lower pricing should help GMC boost sales, he said.

“They may have found that being bigger and more expensive than competitors was not really helping them,” Tynan said.

The Acadia can still seat as many as seven people, though the third row of seats is now much tighter than the bench in the model it will replace.

The smaller size and weight mean the new Acadia will get 28 miles per gallon (mpg) or 11.9km per litre on the highway, compared with 24 mpg for the current model. Customers also complained that the current vehicle was tough to park and maneuver, said Rick Spina, GM’s executive chief engineer for compact and crossover SUVs.

GMC sold 96,393 Acadias in the United States last year, a 15% increase from 2014. — Bloomberg