2017 GMC Acadia (Two Rows): Car Seat Check

CARS.COM — With its 2017 redesign, the GMC Acadia is now a midsize SUV that can be had with either two or three rows of seats. The three-row Acadia earned straight A’s in our Car Seat Check but how does the two-row version, the Acadia SLT with All Terrain Package, handle car seats? The answer: It does really well.

The five-seat Acadia, which is meant to appeal to Jeep Grand Cherokee shoppers, just managed to fit our three car seats across its rear bench. The Acadia’s bench seat slides forward and back, and the seatbacks recline for easier car-seat installation.

More Car Seat Checks

How many car seats fit in the second row? Three

What We Like

• The Acadia has two sets of lower Latch anchors in the outboard rear seats. They sit just inside the back and bottom seat cushions for easy access. Three top tether anchors are midway down the seatbacks.
• Our rear-facing infant seat installed easily. Thanks to the roomy backseat, there was no need to move the front passenger seat forward to accommodate the car seat behind it.
• Our rear-facing convertible’s base is bulky and often complicates installation. In the Acadia, it fit well after some maneuvering.
• When installing the forward-facing convertible, we raised the head restraint so the car seat would sit flat against the rear seatback. It installed easily thanks to its rigid Latch connectors.
• We also raised the head restraint for a good fit with our high-back booster seat. The seat belt buckles are on stable stalks, making it easy for kids to buckle up independently.

What We Don’t Like

• Nothing

Grading Scale

A: Plenty of room for the car seat and the child; doesn’t impact driver or front-passenger legroom. Easy to find and connect to Latch and tether anchors. No fit issues involving head restraint or seat contouring. Easy access to the third row.  

B: Plenty of room. One fit or connection issue. Some problems accessing third row when available.

C: Marginal room. Two fit or connection issues. Difficult to access third row when available.

D: Insufficient room. Two or more fit or connection issues.

F: Does not fit or is unsafe.

About Cars.com’s Car Seat Checks

Editors Jennifer Geiger, Jennifer Newman and Matt Schmitz are certified child safety seat installation technicians.

For the Car Seat Check, we use a Graco SnugRide Classic Connect 30 infant-safety seat, a Britax Marathon convertible seat and Graco TurboBooster seat. The front seats are adjusted for a 6-foot driver and a shorter passenger. The three child seats are installed in the second row. The booster seat sits behind the driver’s seat, and the infant and convertible seats are installed behind the front passenger seat.

We also install the forward-facing convertible in the second row’s middle seat with the booster and infant seat in the outboard seats to see if three car seats will fit; a child sitting in the booster seat must be able to reach the seat belt buckle. If there’s a third row, we install the booster seat and a forward-facing convertible. To learn more about how we conduct our Car Seat Checks, go here.

Parents should also remember that they can use the Latch system or a seat belt to install a car seat, and that Latch anchors have a weight limit of 65 pounds, including the weight of the child and the weight of the seat itself.