all vehicles · every Acadia year · method

GMC Acadia 2008

Safety complaints filed by owners in the first three years, per 1,000 sold.

1.14 per 1,000

2.4 times this nameplate’s own median · from 76 complaints filed in the first three years, of 854 ever. 95% lower bound 0.89.

Against its own model years

The model year carries far more information than the badge, so this is the comparison that matters.

Model year	Per 1,000	Complaints
2008	1.14	76
2009	0.45	27
2010	0.51	31
2011	0.34	25
2012	0.46	36
2013	0.14	12
2014	0.86	75
2015	0.26	23
2016	0.17	16
2017	2.29	229
2018	1.54	154
2019	0.54	51
2020	0.33	28
2021	0.79	52
2022	0.37	21
2023	0.47	28

What owners describe

Phrases over-represented in these complaints compared with the same component on every other vehicle. Counts are complaints containing the phrase.

Power Train 279 complaints

plate	76	27%
wave	73	26%
wave plate	69	25%
family	31	11%
children	22	8%
transmission out	20	7%

Electrical System 153 complaints

water	65	42%
sunroof	33	22%
roof	17	11%
water leaking	12	8%
mold	12	8%
leaks	12	8%

Air Bags 150 complaints

service air	26	18%
water	23	16%
service airbag	19	13%
message	15	10%
presence	10	7%
rain	10	7%

When it breaks

11% of reported failures happened before 30,000 miles (median 82,000 miles, from 707 complaints that recorded one).

Failures arrive late and spread out, which looks like wear. Service history matters more than model year here.

What NHTSA did

2 investigations covering this model year, 1 of which list a recall campaign. Owners had filed 24 complaints about this component over roughly 13 months before an investigation opened.

Loss of Headlamp Illumination

What owners and forums say

Not built yet. This panel is meant to carry community sentiment beside the filed-complaint data, so the two can be compared. Showing something weaker here would defeat its purpose.

Check this yourself

Example records behind this page:

10206899 · 10212394 · 10212682 · 10214007 · 10217051 · 10223233

Limits of this figure. It counts safety complaints filed with the federal government, which is a floor on failures and not a census: problems that only cost money are under-reported. Complaint rates also reflect how likely a brand’s owners are to file, which cannot be separated from how often the car fails. Sales are calendar-year and the denominator for this nameplate is automated checks only, not verified against an external source.