Looking at 2020 SLT Acadia

Matt Biggs · October 13, 2020

2 hours ago, TNTSilverado said:

So you got the sunroof. Awesome kids love it! Did you get the rear view mirror camera? When I looked it only came with the Denali model?

I'm not a huge sunroof fan but the wife and kids are. We didn't get that mirror, I think it's only a Denali thing like you say.

TNTSierra · October 13, 2020

1 hour ago, Matt Biggs said:

I'm not a huge sunroof fan but the wife and kids are. We didn't get that mirror, I think it's only a Denali thing like you say.

Agreed. It’s not a deal breaker for me. If this one would have had a sunroof. I would have bought it.

BlackRST · October 16, 2020

On 10/12/2020 at 10:41 PM, Matt Biggs said:

We pulled the trigger today on a 2020 SLT, got a great deal. Compared it to the Denali next to it about 4K more, but couldn't find anything in the Denali (minus stitching and the paint all around the wheel wells) that the SLT didn't have. Wife is thrilled to have "her own GMC" now since she liked my Sierra so much. I really like the 9 speed and the punch of the 3.6. Can't wait to take a road trip with it.

That was our thoughts too with the SLT vs Denali trims. The SLT is hooked up!

peterlawl84 · November 18, 2020

On 10/13/2020 at 12:26 PM, TNTSilverado said:

Nice Acadia. Really like the color. I’m starting to like the wheels more and more. My wife loved the wheels. I wanted the black with machined lip but oh well. Yes our Acadia only has 3 things a Denali has and I couldn’t spend the extra $5k here for them. We don’t have sunroof which she doesn’t ever use. Heated steering wheel and rear view mirror camera. They did add the heated steering wheel to 2021 I was told. Typical GM! Idk about the rear view mirror camera. Thats the one I wish we had. Love it in my Silverado HC. Other than that it has the HUD and HD speedometer heated and cooled fronts and heated rears. Picked up GMs weather molded floor mats for all 3 areas and the back cargo liner for the door to lay on when it’s down.
next purchase are the IPad rear seats holders. They are a lot cheaper than the $2k they want for rear entertainment system.
You’ll live the ride of it. They ride amazing. Took a trip on Saturday with it. Babied it and got 29 mpgs going 70 mph. All flat hill driving. Was greatly impressed

You could reach out to Phil (pgamboa on this site) to see if he can make a harness to get the heated steering wheel to work. He makes them for the trucks, did it on both my silverado and sierra after I got used to having them on our daily drivers and it works great, swapped out for an OEM steering wheel.

TNTSierra · November 18, 2020

7 minutes ago, peterlawl84 said:

You could reach out to Phil (pgamboa on this site) to see if he can make a harness to get the heated steering wheel to work. He makes them for the trucks, did it on both my silverado and sierra after I got used to having them on our daily drivers and it works great, swapped out for an OEM steering wheel.

Thanks for the information. Greatly appreciate it. It's going in today to get tinted!

peterlawl84 · November 18, 2020

18 minutes ago, TNTSilverado said:

Thanks for the information. Greatly appreciate it. It's going in today to get tinted!

No problem! otherwise its a good vehicle. I love the facelift of the 2020 way better than my 2017 front end. I also have a bench seat 2nd row (took awhile to find a denali w that spec). I believe other than front / rear fascia and switched transmission (with auto start/stop and push button), everything else is the same. I believe its the same transmission as my wife's enclave and it drives nice.

Consider getting the front Xpel if you plan on keeping it for awhile. We have it on my acadia and wife's black Enclave, definitely worth the cost.

TNTSierra · November 18, 2020

8 minutes ago, peterlawl84 said:

No problem! otherwise its a good vehicle. I love the facelift of the 2020 way better than my 2017 front end. I also have a bench seat 2nd row (took awhile to find a denali w that spec). I believe other than front / rear fascia and switched transmission (with auto start/stop and push button), everything else is the same. I believe its the same transmission as my wife's enclave and it drives nice.

Consider getting the front Xpel if you plan on keeping it for awhile. We have it on my acadia and wife's black Enclave, definitely worth the cost.

Yes I love the look of the new 2020's. I used to have a 2015 and this reminds me on that body style. The 2017-19 never really peaked my interest.

The new 9 speed is very smooth and refined. Yes its the same transmission that is in the Enclave. My mother has a 2018 and she loves it, the wife just likes the looks of the Acadia more. The one thing I am still getting used to is the push button gear selector. Especially when I come from driving my 2019 Silverado. Takes a bit to get used too.

I had my 2015 Clearshielded to help with road debris/rock chips and it made a huge difference. Around here is hard to find someone who knows how to truly put it on the right way. My buddy owns a tint shop (who I am seeing tonight for tint job), he installed my other one, was perfect, but he lost interest in doing it because it takes a ton of time, and he can get 2 or 3 full cars tinted instead of one Clearshield. It just wasn't cost effective for him and he is extremely fickle. Maybe if he has some left lying around I can convince him to put it on?!?

TNTSierra · November 19, 2020

Well just got home from tinting it. Went 30% all the way around with a 5% strip on front windshield. Love to go darker on front 2 doors but Iowa has very strict laws for tint.

peterlawl84 · November 20, 2020

On 11/18/2020 at 3:01 PM, TNTSilverado said:

Yes I love the look of the new 2020's. I used to have a 2015 and this reminds me on that body style. The 2017-19 never really peaked my interest.

The new 9 speed is very smooth and refined. Yes its the same transmission that is in the Enclave. My mother has a 2018 and she loves it, the wife just likes the looks of the Acadia more. The one thing I am still getting used to is the push button gear selector. Especially when I come from driving my 2019 Silverado. Takes a bit to get used too.

I had my 2015 Clearshielded to help with road debris/rock chips and it made a huge difference. Around here is hard to find someone who knows how to truly put it on the right way. My buddy owns a tint shop (who I am seeing tonight for tint job), he installed my other one, was perfect, but he lost interest in doing it because it takes a ton of time, and he can get 2 or 3 full cars tinted instead of one Clearshield. It just wasn't cost effective for him and he is extremely fickle. Maybe if he has some left lying around I can convince him to put it on?!?

I agree, I love the 2020 front end way better, I was going to switch mine out earlier this year, but decided to switch to the new Yukon once the demand goes down and dealerships are willing to negotiate.

I wasn't a fan of the 2017-2019 much either, but I knew we were upgrading my wife's 2013 enclave to the new model once it came out, so didn't want 2 of the same vehicle and just didn't like the traverse or the XT6 that much either and I can find better deals on GMC/Buick than I can with the other 2 gm brands locally. I had a terrain for a year thinking I could live with it for my daily commute but it was too small for our needs, so I switched out of that quickly for the Acadia knowing it was just going to be for a couple of years. Only had that Terrain for 1 year and no front end protection and the bumper was trashed from road rash.

Hopefully you can find someone to do a PPF on the front end of your car. we did the door edges and I also did the rocker panels on my wife's car as she claims she wants to keep it for awhile, so trying to protect that longer.

Enjoy the new vehicles!

peterlawl84 · November 20, 2020

22 hours ago, TNTSilverado said:

Well just got home from tinting it. Went 30% all the way around with a 5% strip on front windshield. Love to go darker on front 2 doors but Iowa has very strict laws for tint.

looks great! Kansas has those dumb tint laws as well, but no one really follows them, I do 20% on all of ours now, I previously did 5% on 1 and couldn't see anything at night!

TNTSierra · November 20, 2020

10 hours ago, peterlawl84 said:

looks great! Kansas has those dumb tint laws as well, but no one really follows them, I do 20% on all of ours now, I previously did 5% on 1 and couldn't see anything at night!

I had 4 previous vehicles that had 5% all around with a strip and 35% on the windshield. It rejected so much heat and my dashes never had any issues. Since moving to Iowa though, I’ve been pulled over 4 or 5 times, so my last 3 vehicles, I have gone more conservative on them. I still get the heat rejection, but it isnt as dark.

my terrain didn’t get that bad of road rash for being 5 years old and 80k miles on it. He didn’t have any clear shield so I am going to hold off on it. Wife’s job has her staying home so she isn’t putting many miles on it anyways. We shall see how bad this front end gets. Hopefully it holds up like our terrain did.

peterlawl84 · November 21, 2020

On 11/20/2020 at 7:20 AM, TNTSilverado said:

I had 4 previous vehicles that had 5% all around with a strip and 35% on the windshield. It rejected so much heat and my dashes never had any issues. Since moving to Iowa though, I’ve been pulled over 4 or 5 times, so my last 3 vehicles, I have gone more conservative on them. I still get the heat rejection, but it isnt as dark.

my terrain didn’t get that bad of road rash for being 5 years old and 80k miles on it. He didn’t have any clear shield so I am going to hold off on it. Wife’s job has her staying home so she isn’t putting many miles on it anyways. We shall see how bad this front end gets. Hopefully it holds up like our terrain did.

Kansas law only applies to front 2 doors, rears can be as dark as you want. So Ive gotten in the habit of rolling both fronts immediately if getting pulled over and instructed the boys to do the same. Doesn't work every time (still gotten 1 ticket), but most cops are lax about the front I feel like. now if I had the windshield as well, that would probably be different, can't tint that here. I have some family in Panama that do 20% on the windshield because of the heat down there and it makes a huge difference but so much different driving at night.

My terrain was a 2016. I do about 100 miles highway driving daily, so I figure that's also why the front end gets beat up (but my 2007 Silverado didn't show that much wear with that driving), so I also figure the newer vehicles have thinner paint.

Also keep any eye on the finish of those wheels, that's the same ones I have on my Acadia and the clear coat starting peeling near the end of year 2 (granted I had like 45k miles, so it wasn't covered by warranty which was frustrating).

TNTSierra · November 21, 2020

2 minutes ago, peterlawl84 said:

Kansas law only applies to front 2 doors, rears can be as dark as you want. So Ive gotten in the habit of rolling both fronts immediately if getting pulled over and instructed the boys to do the same. Doesn't work every time (still gotten 1 ticket), but most cops are lax about the front I feel like. now if I had the windshield as well, that would probably be different, can't tint that here. I have some family in Panama that do 20% on the windshield because of the heat down there and it makes a huge difference but so much different driving at night.

My terrain was a 2016. I do about 100 miles highway driving daily, so I figure that's also why the front end gets beat up (but my 2007 Silverado didn't show that much wear with that driving), so I also figure the newer vehicles have thinner paint.

Also keep any eye on the finish of those wheels, that's the same ones I have on my Acadia and the clear coat starting peeling near the end of year 2 (granted I had like 45k miles, so it wasn't covered by warranty which was frustrating).

Awesome. Thanks for the info on the wheels. I want to trade them in for the black machined ones but Detroit wheels wants $270 core charge and another $600 for wheels. I’d be better off buying them for $195 each and then reselling mine.