2010 GMC Terrain
This year drew an ordinary 295 complaints for a GMC Terrain — the model's median is 151. What they were about is the unusual part: 6.8% of them mention throttle, against 1.7% across the other years of this generation.
First year of a new generation. The GMC Terrain was redesigned for 2010. A first year carries problems nobody has found yet, and they are found by the people who buy it — which is worth knowing before you become one of them.
NHTSA opened a defect investigation into this model year.
| Complaints filed | 295 |
|---|---|
| Median for this model | 151 |
| Involving a crash | 10 |
| Recalls | 3 |
| EPA combined | 21.5 mpg |
What the complaints were about
- throttle — 6.8% of this year's complaints, against 1.7% across the other years of this generation (4.1×). Owners wrote it as: throttle, throttle body, about mph, cam shaft.
- catalytic — 6.1% of this year's complaints, against 1.3% across the other years of this generation (4.6×). Owners wrote it as: catalytic, converter, catalytic converter.
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
WHILE THE VEHICLE WAS STATIONARY OR WHILE DRIVING VARIOUS SPEEDS, THE ENGINE INDICATOR ILLUMINATED. AN INDEPENDENT MECHANIC REPLACED THE CATALYTIC CONVERTER TWICE IN THE VEHICLE, BUT THE FAILURE RECURRED. IT WAS LATER DETERMINED THAT THERE WAS A CRACKED INTAKE…
CATALYTIC CONVERTER WILL HAVE TO BE REPAIRED. FAILED EMMISIONS TESTING. BY THE TIME I FIX THIS ALONG WITH THE OTHER MAJOR PARTS I KNOW IT'S 6 YEARS LATER BUT THIS SHOULD NOT BE HAPPENING. PLEASE STRONGLY CONSIDER A RECALL ON THIS! THERE ARE UNUSUAL AND MAJOR I…
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.
Recalls for this year
- 14V447000 SEATS Fixed free of charge.
- 09V489000 VISIBILITY Fixed free of charge.
- 22V137000 EXTERIOR LIGHTING Fixed free of charge.
How this was worked out
Every year of the GMC Terrain 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 2010 GMC Terrain? What happened to yours?
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