Compare the2018 GMC AcadiaVS 2017 Volkswagen Touareg

The Acadia Denali’s optional pre-crash front seatbelts will tighten automatically in the event the vehicle detects an impending crash, improving protection against injury significantly. The Touareg doesn’t offer pre-crash pretensioners.

For enhanced safety, the GMC Acadia’s middle seat shoulder belts have child comfort guides to move the belt to properly fit children. A better fit can prevent injuries and the increased comfort also encourages children to buckle up. The Volkswagen Touareg doesn’t offer comfort guides on its middle seat belts.

In the past twenty years hundreds of infants and young children have died after being left in vehicles, usually by accident. When turning the vehicle off, drivers of the Acadia are reminded to check the back seat if they opened the rear door before starting out. The Touareg doesn’t offer a back seat reminder.

The Acadia has a standard front seat center airbag, which deploys between the driver and front passenger, protecting them from injuries caused by striking each other in serious side impacts. The Touareg doesn’t offer front seat center airbags.

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety tests front crash prevention systems. With a score of 6 points, IIHS rates the Forward Automatic Braking optional in the Acadia as “Superior.” The Touareg scores only 3 points and is rated only “Advanced.”

To help make backing safer, the Acadia (except SL)’s optional cross-path warning system uses wide-angle radar in the rear bumper to alert the driver to vehicles approaching from the side, helping the driver avoid collisions. The Touareg doesn’t offer a cross-path warning system.

The Acadia has standard OnStar®, which uses a global positioning satellite (GPS) receiver and a cellular system to get turn-by-turn driving directions, remotely unlock your doors if you lock your keys in, help track down your vehicle if it’s stolen or send emergency personnel to the scene if any airbags deploy. The Touareg doesn’t offer a GPS response system, only a navigation computer with no live response for emergencies, so if you’re involved in an accident and you’re incapacitated help may not come as quickly.

Both the Acadia and the Touareg have standard driver and passenger frontal airbags, front side-impact airbags, side-impact head airbags, front seatbelt pretensioners, plastic fuel tanks, four-wheel antilock brakes, traction control, electronic stability systems to prevent skidding, daytime running lights, rearview cameras, available all wheel drive, lane departure warning systems, blind spot warning systems and around view monitors.

For its top level performance in all IIHS frontal, side, rear impact and roof-crush tests, and with its optional front crash prevention system, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety grants the Acadia the rating of “Top Pick” for 2017, a rating granted to only 110 vehicles tested by the IIHS. The Touareg has not been fully tested, yet.

GMC pays for scheduled maintenance on the Acadia for 2 years and 24,000 miles. GMC will pay for oil changes, lubrication and any other required maintenance (up to 2 oil changes). Volkswagen doesn’t pay scheduled maintenance for the Touareg.

There are almost 3 times as many GMC dealers as there are Volkswagen dealers, which makes it much easier should you ever need service under the Acadia’s warranty.

To reliably start during all conditions and help handle large electrical loads, the Acadia has a standard 660-amp battery. The Touareg’s 420-amp battery isn’t as powerful.

J.D. Power and Associates’ 2016 survey of the owners of three-year-old vehicles provides the long-term dependability statistics that show that GMC vehicles are more reliable than Volkswagen vehicles. J.D. Power ranks GMC fifth in reliability, above the industry average. With 49 more problems per 100 vehicles, Volkswagen is ranked 25th.

The Acadia’s optional 3.6 DOHC V6 produces 30 more horsepower (310 vs. 280) and 5 lbs.-ft. more torque (271 vs. 266) than the Touareg’s 3.6 DOHC V6.

As tested in Car and Driver the GMC Acadia V6 is faster than the Volkswagen Touareg:

On the EPA test cycle the Acadia AWD V6 gets better fuel mileage than the Touareg (17 city/25 hwy vs. 17 city/23 hwy).

In heavy traffic or at stoplights the Acadia 4 cyl.’s engine automatically turns off when the vehicle is stopped, saving fuel and reducing pollution. The engine is automatically restarted when the driver gets ready to move again. (Start/Stop isn’t accounted in present EPA fuel mileage tests.) The Touareg doesn’t offer an automatic engine start/stop system.

To lower fuel costs and make buying fuel easier, the GMC Acadia uses regular unleaded gasoline. The Touareg requires premium for maximum efficiency, which can cost 20 to 55 cents more per gallon.

The Acadia has a standard cap-less fueling system. The fuel filler is automatically opened when the fuel nozzle is inserted and automatically closed when it’s removed. This eliminates the need to unscrew and replace the cap and it reduces fuel evaporation, which causes pollution. The Touareg doesn’t offer a cap-less fueling system.

The Acadia stops much shorter than the Touareg:

The GMC Acadia’s wheels have 6 lugs for longer wheel bearing life, less chance of rotor warping and greater strength. The Volkswagen Touareg only has 5 wheel lugs per wheel.

The Acadia has a standard easy tire fill system. When inflating the tires, the vehicle’s integrated tire pressure sensors keep track of the pressure as the tires fill and tell the driver when the tires are inflated to the proper pressure. The Touareg doesn’t offer vehicle monitored tire inflation.

The Acadia has standard front and rear stabilizer bars, which help keep the Acadia flat and controlled during cornering. The Touareg’s suspension doesn’t offer a rear stabilizer bar.

The Acadia offers an available driver-adjustable suspension system. It allows the driver to choose between an extra-supple ride, reducing fatigue on long trips, or a sport setting, which allows maximum control for tricky roads or off-road. The Touareg’s suspension doesn’t offer adjustable shock absorbers.

The Acadia Denali AWD handles at .85 G’s, while the Touareg pulls only .80 G’s of cornering force in a Car and Driver skidpad test.

The Acadia SLT AWD executes Motor Trend’s “Figure Eight” maneuver quicker than the Touareg Sport (26.9 seconds @ .67 average G’s vs. 27.6 seconds @ .64 average G’s).

The GMC Acadia may be more efficient, handle and accelerate better because it weighs about 300 to 750 pounds less than the Volkswagen Touareg.

The front grille of the Acadia FWD 4 cyl. uses electronically controlled shutters to close off airflow and reduce drag when less engine cooling is needed. This helps improve highway fuel economy. The Touareg doesn’t offer active grille shutters.

The Acadia uses computer-generated active noise cancellation to help remove annoying noise and vibration from the passenger compartment, especially at low frequencies. The Touareg doesn’t offer active noise cancellation.

As tested by Car and Driver while at idle, the interior of the Acadia Denali AWD is quieter than the Touareg (41 vs. 42 dB).

The Acadia has standard seating for 7 passengers; the Touareg can only carry 5.

The Acadia has 40.2 cubic feet more passenger volume than the Touareg (143.8 vs. 103.6).

The Acadia has .7 inches more front headroom, .7 inches more rear headroom, 3 inches more rear legroom and 2 inches more rear shoulder room than the Touareg.

The Acadia’s cargo area provides more volume than the Touareg.

The Acadia’s cargo area is larger than the Touareg’s in almost every dimension:

A maintenance reminder system is standard on the Acadia to save the owner time and money by calculating maintenance intervals for oil changes based on actual driving conditions. This takes the guesswork out of keeping your vehicle in top condition and helps it last longer. Volkswagen doesn’t offer a maintenance reminder on the Touareg.

The Acadia offers a remote vehicle starting system, so the vehicle can be started from inside the driver's house. This allows the driver to comfortably warm up the engine before going out to the vehicle. The climate system will also automatically heat or cool the interior. The Touareg doesn’t offer a remote starting system.

The Acadia (except SL/SLE)’s optional easy entry system glides the driver’s seat back when the door is unlocked or the ignition is switched off, making it easier for the driver to get in and out. The Touareg doesn’t offer an easy entry system.

The Acadia’s optional front and rear power windows all lower with one touch of the switches. The Touareg’s rear power window switches have to be held the entire time to lower them fully.

To improve rear visibility by keeping the rear window clear, the Acadia has a standard rear fixed intermittent wiper with a full on position. The rear wiper standard on the Touareg only has an intermittent setting, so in a hard rain visibility isn’t as good.

While driving with high beams on, sensitive light sensors available for the Acadia (except SL/SLE) detect other vehicles which could be blinded and automatically switch to low beams. The Touareg doesn’t offer automatic dimming high beams.

To shield the driver and front passenger’s vision over a larger portion of the windshield and side windows, the Acadia has standard extendable sun visors. The Touareg doesn’t offer extendable visors.

When the Acadia with available tilt-down mirrors is put in reverse, both rearview mirrors tilt from their original position. This gives the driver a better view of the curb during parallel parking maneuvers. Shifting out of reverse puts the mirrors into their original positions. The Touareg’s mirrors don’t automatically adjust for backing.

The Acadia SLT/Denali has standard automatic dimming rear and side view mirrors which automatically darken quickly when headlights shine on them, keeping following vehicles from blinding or distracting the driver. The Touareg has an automatic rear view mirror, but its side mirrors don’t dim.

Standard IntelliLink for the Acadia allows the driver and passengers access to select programs on their smartphones, including reading text messages aloud, playing internet radio stations and other connected activities without taking their eyes off the road or their hands from the wheel. The Touareg doesn’t offer factory integrated smartphone program access.

The Acadia is available in both front-wheel drive and four-wheel drive configurations. The Touareg doesn’t offer a two-wheel drive configuration.

Insurance will cost less for the Acadia owner. The Complete Car Cost Guide estimates that insurance for the Acadia will cost $1360 less than the Touareg over a five-year period.

The Acadia will cost the buyer less in the long run because of its superior resale value. The IntelliChoice estimates that the Acadia will retain 46.28% to 52.71% of its original price after five years, while the Touareg only retains 43.54% to 43.91%.

According to The Car Book by Jack Gillis, the Acadia is less expensive to operate than the Touareg because typical repairs cost less on the Acadia than the Touareg, including $115 less for a power steering pump.

IntelliChoice estimates that five-year ownership costs (depreciation, financing, insurance, fuel, fees, repairs and maintenance) for the GMC Acadia will be $13543 to $15933 less than for the Volkswagen Touareg.

The GMC Acadia outsold the Volkswagen Touareg by over 9 to one during the 2016 model year.