2009 GMC Acadia
This year drew an ordinary 333 complaints for a GMC Acadia — the model's median is 302. What they were about is the unusual part: 10.5% of them mention plate, against 1.6% across the other years of this generation.
Generation 1 of the GMC Acadia, which began in 2007 and ran to 2016. Everything below compares this year against the others in that generation, not against a different car wearing the same name.
NHTSA opened a defect investigation into this model year.
| Complaints filed | 333 |
|---|---|
| Median for this model | 302 |
| Involving a crash | 8 |
| Involving a fire | 14 |
| Recalls | 7 |
| EPA combined | 19 mpg |
What the complaints were about
- plate — 10.5% of this year's complaints, against 1.6% across the other years of this generation (6.7×). Owners wrote it as: plate, wave, wave plate, revved.
- reverse — 6.9% of this year's complaints, against 1.1% across the other years of this generation (6×). Owners wrote it as: reverse, rev, back out.
- head — 8.4% of this year's complaints, against 3.1% across the other years of this generation (2.7×). Owners wrote it as: head, liftgate, items.
Words owners used for the same problem are counted together, so a fault written four different ways is measured once. Grouped by which complaints they appear in, not by a list anyone wrote in advance.
What owners wrote
THE TRANSMISSION FAILED WITHOUT WARNING. THE VEHICLE WAS TAKEN TO THE DEALER WHERE IT WAS DIAGNOSED THAT THE WAVE PLATE IN THE TRANSMISSION WAS TOO THIN AND CAUSED THE TRANSMISSION TO FAIL. THE [VIN] WAS MADE AWARE OF THE FAILURE. THE FAILURE MILEAGE WAS 133,0…
9/2014 AT 93,000 MILES TRANSMISSION FAILED. DEALER CONFIRMED GMC AGREED TO PAY 60% OF REPAIR, BUT LATER AFTER TRANSMISSION, WAVE PLATE RECALL I WAS REIMBURSED. 2/2017 133,000 MILES NEW [VIN] TRANSMISSION IS FAILING AGAIN IN 3RD GEAR WITH SAME INTERNAL FAILURE…
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.
Recalls for this year
- 14V266000 SEAT BELTS Fixed free of charge.
- 15V415000 STRUCTURE Fixed free of charge.
- 14V118000 AIR BAGS Fixed free of charge.
- 10V375000 SEAT BELTS Fixed free of charge.
- 10V240000 ELECTRICAL SYSTEM
- 09V073000 POWER TRAIN Fixed free of charge.
- 08V615000 SEAT BELTS
How this was worked out
Every year of the GMC Acadia was compared against its own history rather than against other cars, which removes popularity and age from the answer — a common car draws more complaints at equal reliability, and an older one has had longer to accumulate them. A year is flagged when it drew at least 2.5× this model's median and at least 50 complaints.
This is a fault record, not a review. Nobody files a federal complaint to say the car was fine, so it shows what tends to go wrong — not whether owners liked it, and not whether it is a good car.
Source: NHTSA complaints, recalls and investigations, retrieved . Look this vehicle up directly on NHTSA's site to check anything here.
Own a 2009 GMC Acadia? What happened to yours?
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