2020 GMC Acadia vs 2021 Ford Explorer

Long story short, as a friend of mine likes to say, GMC screwed up. This is just my opinion, of course, but when GMC redesigned the Acadia for the 2017 model year, the SUV shrank in size and switched to a softer look in order to plug a huge hole in the Buick-GMC SUV lineup.

Fast-forward to 2020, and GMC may have decided this move was a bad idea. As part of a refresh, the new Acadia adopts bolder styling and adds a new AT4 trim level with greater off-roading capability. Additional changes include the availability of a new turbocharged four-cylinder engine, a new nine-speed automatic transmission, and new and updated technology.

These revisions do help the Acadia to better stand out in what is now an ocean of midsize SUVs, from Hyundai to Kia and Honda to Toyota, and everything in between, but it’s up to GMC to make people aware of this fundamentally good, but oh-so-vanilla SUV. And the company must also address the Acadia’s questionable value.

There was a time when everybody in America seemingly drove an Explorer. That may be an exaggeration, but not by much. In its first four years of production, Ford sold over a million examples. In 1998, Ford was selling its second-generation Explorer at a rate of nearly 440,000 per year. Whether your family purchased an Explorer or not, this was the nameplate that invented the midsize SUV segment.

Fast forward to the 2021 model year and the Explorer is in its sixth generation. It's now a three-row SUV that clocks in at a maximum of 4,700 pounds, with a price tag north of $50,000 for the Explorer Platinum trim level. Long gone are the days when it was the only game in town. Almost every automaker has a competitor. So how does the Explorer shake out for 2021?