2018 GMC Acadia
This year drew an ordinary 390 complaints for a GMC Acadia — the model's median is 302. What they were about is the unusual part: 59.2% of them mention shift park, against 1% across the other years of this generation.
Generation 2 of the GMC Acadia, which began in 2017 and ran to 2023. 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 | 390 |
|---|---|
| Median for this model | 302 |
| Involving a crash | 8 |
| Involving a fire | 1 |
| Recalls | 2 |
| NHTSA crash rating | 4/5 |
| EPA combined | 22 mpg |
What the complaints were about
- shift park — 59.2% of this year's complaints, against 1% across the other years of this generation (57.5×).
- shifter — 24.4% of this year's complaints, against 1.4% across the other years of this generation (17.7×). Owners wrote it as: shifter, gear shifter, shifter park, recognized.
- turn off — 32.1% of this year's complaints, against 6.9% across the other years of this generation (4.7×). Owners wrote it as: turn off, off vehicle, park turn, park displayed.
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
GEAR SHIFTER MOVES TO PARK POSITION BUT INDICATORS AND ENGINE OFF SWITCH WILL NOT SWITCH TO PARK STATE WITHOUT JIGGLING SHIFTER HANDLE TIP.
WHEN I TRY TO TURN OFF MY VEHICLE, MY DASH DISPLAYS THE MESSAGE 'SHIFT TO PARK' EVEN THOUGH I'M ALREADY IN PARK. I HAVE TO JIGGLE THE SHIFTER NOB BACK AND FORTH TO GET IT TO RECOGNIZE IT IS IN PARK. IT'S HAPPENED ABOUT 80% OF THE TIME I TRY TO TURN MY CAR OFF…
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.
Recalls for this year
- 18V358000 FUEL SYSTEM, GASOLINE Fixed free of charge.
- 17V516000 POWER TRAIN Fixed free of charge.
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 2018 GMC Acadia? What happened to yours?
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