Having waited a long time to get my hands on the new Holden Acadia seven-seat SUV, I was super excited to give it a good drive and put it through all our BabyDrive testing, so let's see how it went…
Well, the Acadia is a car with a lot of great family-friendly features, and then a couple of real negatives that were disappointing for me. If I start with my negatives and then we can enjoy all the positives to follow! Firstly I found the front seating position incredibly uncomfortable. It is as if the pedals are too high so you have to press them from above so I found my right leg ached. Secondly, I found the door mirrors caused real blind spots making it hard to see when turning at junctions and roundabouts. It's not bad going to have only two real negatives on the new Holden Acadia, but I did get really annoyed by them every time I drove the car.
Now, let's move on to the positives and as seven-seaters go, it has a lot! Let's start with the five top tethers!! WOOO HOOO!!! I could fit five big child seats in the back of the Acadia. Three big forward-facing child seats fit across the second row and a combination of forward and rear-facing also fitted.
And I could fit two big ones in the third-row seats too.
Legroom was good, I could fit a 182cm passenger in the front passenger seat with a rear-facing capsule in the second-row and a 180cm passenger in the third-row seat behind it. There is a consideration with this though, when said passenger has climbed into the third-row seats the second-row seat has to slide all the way back into its furthest position before you can move it forward again so they have enough legroom, and our 180cm passenger found their legs were crushed and didn't have the room to let the seat slide all the way backwards. I am 162cm and I found there was enough room in the third-row seats with the second-row seats in their furthest back position.
Storage is excellent throughout the Acadia, especially in the second row, where there is a large drawer in the back of the central console box and the doors are full of storage wells and cup holders too. There are also USB ports in all three rows which is great for enabling passengers in all rows to charge their gadgets.
When using five seats, boot space is great, with some useful underfloor storage and plastic side wells that were perfect for big sun cream tubs on beach days! It's worth noting the Acadia doesn't come with a roller blind; you have to pay $250 extra for that which is a bit cheeky I think! 😉
When using all seven seats, the boot space is much smaller and would only fit five shopping bags, which. is one less than the Mazda CX-8, two less than the Mazda CX-9 and three less than the Nissan Pathfinder. I could fit the Mountain Buggy Duet twin stroller in the boot without any shopping with one of the wheels removed.
The media system is touch screen and easy to navigate and has Apple CarPlay and Android Auto which is great!
The reversing camera is AMAZING and has really clear images. It has many different camera views and I learnt which were the most useful when parking and maneuvering because visibility is a bit limited in this big car once five child seats are installed.
Also from the media screen, you can control the climate throughout the car and even set and lock the rear aircon so little passengers can't fiddle with it or fight over it!!
There Acadia key fob has a button that if you press for long enough turns the car on and starts cooling or heating the interior, I LOVED this function as I tested this during a hot week!! To get into a cool car with cooled seats going was fantastic!! I did find it sporadic as to when it would work and when it wouldn't. You have to hold the button down for 5 seconds, which I'm pretty sure I did (if not longer) and my husband had the same issue 😉
The Acadia was super smooth and quiet to drive which is always surprising in big seven-seater SUVs. The driver's seat in the Acadia vibrates on the relevant side to alert the driver to a hazard when reversing, which I found great because it is silent and got my attention without disturbing any sleeping passengers or adding to or fighting with the cacophony already going on with the car's occupants! There were still quite a few beeps and warning bells for rear passenger alert, which beeps every time you come to a stop and open your door… I know it's a safety feature but it is baby waking and annoying!!
BabyDrive Indepth - Storage
How big is the boot of the Holden Acadia?
Using only five seats, I could fit 18 shopping bags in the boot, which is the same as the Mazda CX-9 and the Nissan Pathfinder and one more than the Mazda CX-8.
The boot space and its functionality are really important. I like to have a big boot space and little side wells or areas I can divide things into. So something I don’t want to move around while I’m driving such as Tulsi’s lunch bag or her wet swimming gear can be sectioned off in a little well where it’s not going to spill or get squashed by the rest of the things in the boot.
Hooks for securing shopping bags to are also favourites of mine, I like being able to secure the bag containing more fragile things like eggs so they don’t move around on the journey.
I measure the boot space in freezer shopping bags, prams and dogs. Not because I think all there is to a mum’s life is food shopping, prams and dogs. (Although it can feel like it sometimes!!) But because these are visually mesurable items we can all associate with. For me, the car company boot measurement of litres is not an amount I can easily visualise and 400L in one car may differ in usability to that in another due to the configuration or shape of the space.
The Mountain Buggy Duet twin stroller fitted in the boot with seven shopping bags beside it.
The Britax Flexx tandem stroller fitted with eleven shopping bags beside it.
The Mountain Buggy Urban Jungle single stroller fitted with nine shopping bags beside it.
The Mountain Buggy Nano compact stroller fitted with fourteen shopping bags beside it.
Or you could fit a large sized dog in the boot.
When using all seven seats the boot space is considerably smaller, holding only five shopping bags, which is one less than the Mazda CX-8, two less than the Mazda CX-9 and three less than the Nissan Pathfinder.
I could fit the Mountain Buggy Duet twin stroller in the boot without any shopping bags and with one of the wheels removed.
I could fit the Mountain Buggy Urban Jungle single stroller in with one bag and a wheel removed.
The Mountain Buggy Nano compact stroller fitted with three shopping bags.
When only using five seats the boot is a great square shape that I found easy for loading and unloading. The floor is nice and flat and good for an emergency nappy change and there are two fantastic underfloor storage areas as well as a big plastic side well which I found great for putting our big suncream tub in so it didn't spill all over the carpet!!
It's worth mentioning there was no retractable roller blind in the Acadia, you have to pay $250 extra for it which I think is a bit cheeky and surely it is a safety feature if you load up the boot and don't have it covered, then in the event of a crash all the objects will fly around the car?! We took the Acadia on a family weekend away and I definitely worried about that. (excuse the not very neat packing!!!)
Storage in the cabin of the Holden Acadia is excellent! In the front, there are two cup holders in the central console that are a good size to hold a reusable or disposable coffee cup. The central console storage box is a good size too and the lid doubles as your armrest.
There is a wireless phone charging well in front of the gear lever which was a great size for my phone and there are two USB ports and AUX and 12V socket in there too.
The glove box is a good size to get my wallet and iPad in with the manual.
There is a lined glasses case in the ceiling and the front visors both have lit vanity mirrors in them.
The door pockets in the front will hold my large refillable water bottle and a 600ml and have great storage wells in the handles. I did find the door bins quite shallow and over the week if I shut my door hard the bottles would pop out into the footwell!
In the second row of the Holden Acadia, the storage is excellent, there are map pockets in the back of both front seats that will hold an iPad but not conceal it.
In the back of the central console box are two USB ports and a large drawer than my daughter filled up with all her best treasures!! We also found it a good snack storage drawer on our trip too.
The central seatback has a fold-down armrest with two cup holders that would hold a refillable or disposable coffee cup.
The door storage in the back is FANTASTIC!! The Acadia would have to win first prize for Best BabyDrive door storage!! (If I had one!!) They each have a cup holder, two storage wells and I could get my large refillable water bottle and a 600ml into the door bins.
In the third row, there are cup holders on both sides that will hold a large refillable water bottle and a phone or book wedge on the left.
BabyDrive Indepth - Noise
How noisy is the Holden Acadia?
The media system in the Holden Acadia was simple to use with the touch screen and has Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. I found it easy to connect my phone to and calls were clear using Bluetooth.
There is lane keep assist in the Acadia, which gently steered the car to keep it on the right path. You can turn it off with a button down in the central console. The indicators are quiet too and would not disturb a sleeping baby onboard.
The cruise control is simple to use, the controls are on the left on the steering wheel and I found it to be good for flat, straight motorway driving.
The reversing camera has excellent image quality in the Holden Acadia. You can change the camera view with buttons along the bottom of the media screen.
One of my favourite features is instead of beeping parking sensors the Acadia has a vibration in the driver's seat base on the relevant side to the hazard, I love it! Silent and just lets the driver know rather than sending the occupants of the entire car into a panic!! You can turn the sensors off with a button down in the central console.
The Acadia is a big car and I found visibility tricky especially because the side mirrors are enormous and their positioning makes enormous blind spots especially when at roundabouts and junctions. The different camera views definitely help when parking and I did have my favourite views by the end of the week's test!
Becoming a parent I soon realised there are some noises and sounds I feel are unnecessary and I could happily live without if it meant my baby stayed asleep!!
That often the distraction of my screaming, distressed baby is more dangerous when driving than not having a lane departure warning for example.
If it is the lane departure warning beeping that creates distress with my baby then which is safest?
It’s where I think we need to be able to strike a balance and choose when we can mute the warnings or swap them to a vibration in the steering wheel or flashing light perhaps?
A lot of these noises come with the increase in technology and especially linked to safety features and alerts. For me these all have their place.
Another thing I have realised is I spend my time in a lot more places where small children roam, parks, beaches, play gyms, swimming lessons, daycare centre etc. I have become more aware that when I’m reversing or manouvering in the car parks I have to tripple check for small children running around behind me or being in my blind spot when reversing. For this I LOVE reversing cameras, I just don’t like their beeping sounds!!
I have become so much more aware of safety and potential accidents or hazards since having a child and so I love the peace of mind that I get from the cameras and sensors combined with my own vision from windows and mirrors as I don’t trust cameras alone.
The doors and windows were quiet to open and close, so I don't think you'd need to worry about them waking a bub that's asleep in the back. However, there is a rear seat reminder alarm that goes off every time you come to a stop and open your door to get out. I know it is a safety feature but it is incredibly annoying, disturbing for passengers and really stressful for the driver to have alarms going off. I am sure no one will be able to forget their baby with that feature as any baby will be screaming their heads off!
Since becoming a mum I spend A LOT of time parked up somewhere with a nice view while my daughter is asleep in the back! If it's hot I need to leave the engine running and the aircon on but I do like to get out and drink my cuppa tea in the fresh air while enjoying the fact my limbs are free from said dangling child!!
SO this is a very important test as I have found that sometimes I have been held hostage by a cars BEEEEPING alarms when I have taken off my seatbelt or opened the door while the engine is still running!! (I only stand outside the car, I am not a bad mother!!) The Acadia is a held hostage car 🙁
There are seatbelt reminders for all three rows of seats so if seatbelts are undone while driving an alarm sounds and a visual is displayed to alert the driver.
BabyDrive Indepth - Car Seats
How many child seats fit on the Holden Acadia?
There are FIVE top tethers in here!!!! WOOO HOOOO!!!! I found I could fit five child seats in the back of the Holden Acadia.
There are top tethers in the back of all five rear seats, they are within plastic guides and nice and easy to connect to. They were all high enough that I didn't need an extension strap even for rear-facing child seats.
There are ISOFix points in the two outer seats in the second row and all the other seats use the adult seatbelt for child seat installation. The ISOFix are not within plastic guides but were quite easy to connect to.
I could fit three child seats across the second row. I tested a combination of forward-facing and rear-facing child seats.
As well as three big forward-facing child seats across the second-row. Both types fitted really well and there was a good amount of space to fit the three child seats across.
In the third-row seats, there's no ISOFix. I installed two big forward-facing child seats using the adult seat belts and top tethers and they fitted really well too.
Posting bub into their child seat from outside the car is fine, the roofline is nice and high being an SUV so no bumped heads and inside the ceiling height is good too!
Australia being a country of weather extremes; blazing sun and torrential rain, mean you may find it easier to put Bub into their seat from inside the car sometimes. If it’s hot you can get the air-con going, cool the car down and not stand out in the sun while you fasten them in or shelter from the rain and not get soaked yourself whilst you’re doing it. So it is important to test whether Bub can be easily installed from either direction!
The second-row seats are split 60:40, the 40% is on the road side of the car in Australia unfortunately. With three child seats installed across the second-row seats, I found I could not bring the 40% seat forward to access the third-row seats because the child seats collided with the central child seat. If you had just two child seats installed, one in each of the outer seats in the second-row and using ISOFix with the top tethers then there would be enough room to bring the seat forward and access the third-row.
I also found that the second-row seats slide on a 60:40 split to adjust the legroom distribution, however when you climb through to the third row the second-row seat has to slide all the way back into it's furthest back position in order to then be slid forward so any passengers with long legs get crushed! I found when I sat in the third row I had enough head and legroom and I am 162cm. When a 182cm passenger sat in the third row they had enough headroom but their legs got crushed initially by the second-row seats.
We could fit a 182cm passenger in the third-row seats behind a rear facing child seat with a 180cm passenger in the front seat.
There is room to feed bub in the back if you only have one child seat installed.
BabyDrive Indepth - Drive & Comfort
How comfortable is the Holden Acadia?
One of the few negatives about the Acadia was how uncomfortable the front seating position was for me! I am not sure if it is the seats or the pedals but it felt like I had to get my seat uncomfortably far forward and press the pedals from above, which definitely isn't my natural driving position and I did get a sore right leg over the week!
The seats are black leather-like upholstery and the central panels are perforated for heating and cooling, which would make them harder to keep clean.
I could have a ponytail in the front seat, the headrests were not adjustable but the angle I had to sit at allowed for it!
I had spent hours styling my hair this morning to get this ponytail just right too… said no new mum ever!!!
For a mum travelling in the back with bub, the seats are very comfortable, the headroom was good. There is no hump in the footwell in the middle of the second row which made a lot of difference and meant I could walk through and get out either side and made the interior feel more spacious. In the central seat, you can feel the central backrest because of the fold-down armrest and cup holders in the central seat back but I found I could sit there between two child seats and I'm 162cm.
For the first year of our daughters life when we would go out as a family, if I wasn’t driving, I would travel in the back with Tulsi so it’s important to check the back seat comfort as you may be spending a lot of time in them! They were never something I gave any thought to before but I definitely notice a good or bad back seat now!
The steering wheel was fully adjustable in/out and up/down.
There are four air-conditioning vents across the front dashboard; two central ones and one at either end.
There are air vents in the back for both rear rows of seats in the ceiling above their heads. These vents are tricky because they blow down on the rear occupants heads and can be uncomfortable so I find you have to adjust their angle before you set off!
In the central dashboard there are front air con controls and in the back of the central console box are controls for the rear aircon. These are reachable from the front while driving.
One of the things I enjoyed in the Acadia was being able to adjust the climate controls through the media screen, the aircon for the whole car can be controlled from the media screen and I could lock the rear aircon so rear occupants can't fiddle with it or fight over it.
The air conditioning was very smooth and cooled the cabin without a lot of loud huffing and the cooled seats helped with that too. I could start the car remotely with a button on the key fob which automatically got the climate right inside the car ready for when I got in.
There are two rows of interior lights in the rear ceiling, in between the air vents and above each row of seats. I found I couldn't reach them while I was driving.
I have found Tulsi does not like travelling in the dark in the car so if it gets dark whilst travelling then I reach back and turn the interior light on for her. So it’s really important for me that I can reach the rear ceiling light.
Also if I am traveling home and it is getting near to bed time and I DEFINITELY DON’T want her to fall asleep in the car as even a five-minute nap in the car means bed time is all over!!!! I lean back and pop the light on so it’s not dark and try to keep her awake!! Along with screaming/singing at the top of my voice!!!
It is also useful when there are lights situated above the doors where the handles are usually positioned. These are good for when putting baby into their child seats when visibility is poor, so you do not have to reach across them to a light situated in the ceiling centrally etc.
There are handles above both rear doors, which are well positioned to hold a baby toy for rear-facing passengers. When the second-row seat is in it's furthest back position the handle is too far forward for the toy to hang in the right spot.
There are lit vanity mirrors in both front visors and there is a lined glasses case in the ceiling too.
Visibility in the Acadia is effected while driving by the large side mirrors, especially when turning at junctions. When reversing and parking, the Acadia is a big vehicle so I really used the camera views to help me have better visibility down low where little people could be.
One thing I have noticed since being a mum is I hate it when I reach a destination or get home from being out and Tulsi has either done really well in the car or she is screaming her head off and I have done really well to keep it together for the entire journey (usually the latter!!) and it takes 10 minutes to park the car! It can be really stressful. Usually I dread parking new cars as they take longer in our tight apartment block carpark, but the Holden Acadia was okay to park, the visibility was limited due to the size of it and once it had five child seats in the back but the excellent reversing camera angles definately helped make it easier!
The interior of the Acadia felt actually very good, it was quite sturdy and of good quality, everything would be wiped clean easily except for the perforated seats which would make it harder to keep them clean.
The Holden Acadia was very smooth and quiet to drive both around town and out on the faster roads, it is just the seating position that lets it down for me.
The Holden Acadia had a powered tailgate which “bong bonged” when you open and close it. One of my favourite features is the keyless entry buttons on every door of the Acadia! I LOVED this because I could go straight to whichever door I needed to access first rather than having to go to the driver's door and then to the other side of the car to put my daughter in for example.
BabyDrive Indepth - Safety
How safe is the Holden Acadia?
The Holden Acadia scoured a five-star ANCAP safety rating in 2018.
For child occupancy, it scored 87%, for adult occupancy it scored 94% and for pedestrians 74% and for safety assist it scored 86%.
In the adult occupancy testing overall it scored 35.9 out of 38, broken down into- 7.68 out of 8 for the frontal offset test, 7.15 out of 8 for the full-width frontal testing, 8/8 for the side impact and 7.65 out of 8 for the oblique pole tests, 1.15 out of 1.5 for front whiplash protection, 0.25 out of 0.5 for rear whiplash protection and 4/4 for AEB city.
In the child occupancy testing the Acadia scored 15.98 out of 16 for the dynamic front test, the full 8/8 for the dynamic side crash tests, 11.89 out of 12 for child restraint installation and 7 out of 13 for onboard features.
ANCAP reported- In the frontal offset test, protection of the neck of the 10 year dummy was ADEQUATE, while the protection offered to all other critical body regions of both the 10 and 6 year child dummies was GOOD.
Protection of both child dummies in the side impact test was GOOD, with maximum points scored.
The Holden Acadia is fitted with lower ISOFix anchorages on the second row outboard seats and top tether anchorages for all rear seating positions (2nd and 3rd row).
Installation of typical child restraints available in Australia and New Zealand showed that most child restraints could be accommodated in most rear seating positions, though the Type A capsule did not meet ANCAP’s criteria and must be installed with care.
Seven airbags come as standard; there are dual frontal airbags and side chest-protecting airbags for the front passengers and side head-protecting curtain airbags for all three rows of passengers and a drivers knee airbag.
All rows of seats in the Acadia have seatbelt reminders.
As standard, all models of the Acadia come with anti-lock braking system (ABS), autonomous emergency braking (AEB) city, interurban and VRU, automatic headlights, automatic high beam, blind-spot monitoring (BSM), daytime running lights (DRL), electronic brakeforce distribution (EBD), electronic data recorder (EDR), electronic stability control (ESC), emergency brake assist (EBA), emergency stop signal (ESS), forward collision warning (FCW), hill launch assist, lane departure warning LDW, lane keep assist (LKA), rear cross-traffic alert (RCTA), roll stability system, speed assistance manual and auto/intelligent speed limiter, speed sign recognition and warning and trailer stability control.
Adaptive cruise control (ACC) is not available on the base models but is on the higher spec models.
Some of these safety features are also features that drive me crazy as a mum! Like the lane departure and forward collision alert or the parking sensor beeping sound. I want all the safety technology AND to be able to mute the sound when Tulsi’s asleep!
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