2013 GMC Terrain
This year drew an ordinary 368 complaints for a GMC Terrain — the model's median is 151. What they were about is the unusual part: 6.3% of them mention burning, against 2.4% across the other years of this generation.
Generation 1 of the GMC Terrain, which began in 2010 and ran to 2017. 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 | 368 |
|---|---|
| Median for this model | 151 |
| Involving a crash | 14 |
| Involving a fire | 2 |
| Recalls | 3 |
| NHTSA crash rating | 4/5 |
| EPA combined | 21.5 mpg |
What the complaints were about
- burning — 6.3% of this year's complaints, against 2.4% across the other years of this generation (2.6×). Owners wrote it as: burning, burning oil.
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
My 2013 GMC Terrain is currently burning oil and requires an engine replacement. This is a known issue with this engine and needs to be addressed for those not notified of the class action lawsuit, or where GMC CLAIMS it is not impacted.
2.4 ECOTEC ENGINE BURNING OIL. HAD OIL CHANGE DONE WITHIN LESS A MONTH, HAVE 2,000 MILE TO GO BEFORE NEXT OIL CHANGE AND VEHICLE WAS SAYING 51% OIL LIFE LEFT. THE VEHICLE START KNOCKING, TOOK IT TO MECHANIC TO HAVE LOOK AT AND IT WAS 3QUARTS DOWN AND I JUST HA…
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.
Recalls for this year
- 16V582000 VISIBILITY Fixed free of charge.
- 16V502000 ELECTRICAL SYSTEM 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 2013 GMC Terrain? What happened to yours?
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