2017 GMC Terrain
This year drew an ordinary 133 complaints for a GMC Terrain — the model's median is 178. What they were about is the unusual part: 6.8% of them mention won, against 1.9% across the other years of this generation.
Last year of its generation. This GMC Terrain ran from 2010 to 2017, so it had the whole run for its faults to be found and fixed. Last years are usually the most sorted of a generation.
NHTSA opened a defect investigation into this model year.
| Complaints filed | 133 |
|---|---|
| Median for this model | 178 |
| Involving a crash | 11 |
| Involving a fire | 2 |
| Recalls | 1 |
| NHTSA crash rating | 4/5 |
| EPA combined | 23 mpg |
What the complaints were about
- won — 6.8% of this year's complaints, against 1.9% across the other years of this generation (3.6×). Owners wrote it as: won, vehicle engine.
- blew — 6.8% of this year's complaints, against 2% across the other years of this generation (3.4×).
- end — 6.8% of this year's complaints, against 2.3% across the other years of this generation (2.9×). Owners wrote it as: end, front end, bags deploy.
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
I WAS MAKING A LEFT TURN DURING A GREEN LIGHT MY CAR WAS IN MOTION. A WHITE VAN WAS SPEEDING TOWARDS ME FROM THE DRIVERS SIDE GOING STRAIGHT AT ME AT HIGH SPEED WITH A RED LIGHT. THEY HIT THE FRONT DRIVERS END OF MY CAR WHICH MADE MY CAR SPIN OUT. THE AIRBAGS…
AT AROUND 20 MILES PER HOUR, WHILE ACCELERATING, ALL TORQUE IS LOST AND THE VEHICLE ENGINE REVS HIGH. IT TAKES A FEW SECONDS, THEN THE TRANSMISSION FINALLY SHIFTS INTO THE NEXT GEAR. THIS CAUSES A BIG JOLT. IT IS DANGEROUS, ALL POWER IS LOST, THEN SUDDENLY TOO…
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.
Recalls for this year
- 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 2017 GMC Terrain? What happened to yours?
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