What’s in a Black Edition? In the case of the GMC Acadia, a lot. The decade-old, mid-sized SUV is getting the special edition treatment in time for the 2018 New York Auto Show. Together with the equally blacked out Terrain Black Edition, the limited-run Acadia gets its name from the prevalent use of black throughout its body, giving potential customers a personalized interpretation of an SUV that’s already teeming with its own personality.

2019 GMC Acadia Black Edition

Specifications
  • Make: Array
  • Model: 2019 GMC Acadia Black Edition
  • [do not use] Vehicle Model: Array

What makes the GMC Acadia Black Edition special

The GMC Acadia probably doesn’t get as much love as it should. It routinely sits outside of discussions on the top 10 SUVs in the U.S. Part of it is because the Acadia isn’t as popular as some of its rivals, though a case can be made that after 10 years on the market, the Acadia is on the ascendancy after just finishing off the best-selling year in company history with a sales volume of 111,276 units in 2017. That total also happens to be the first time the Acadia broke 100,000 units sold in a calendar year. Clearly, there’s a lot to look forward to as far as this SUV is concerned.

In many ways, we can consider the Acadia Black Edition as GMC’s way of re-introducing the SUV into the market. Its arrival in New York opens the door for more mainstream attention, and if you look at what GMC is offering, it deserves as much of it as it can get. As special edition treatments go, the Acadia Black Edition features a host of exclusive finishes. Does Ebony Twilight Metallic sound black enough for you? If that’s not your thing, you can opt for Summit White, White Frost Tricot, or two color options that are new for the 2019 model: Dark Sky Metallic and Smokey Quartz Metallic.

No matter the body color, the special edition Acadia also gets a wide range of black trim that does justice to its billing. The grille insert, for example, has been darkened. It also gets a black surround, something that’s stylistically consistent with the black mirror caps and trim badging. Even the roof rails have been blacked out, as have the set of 20-inch aluminum wheels.

There are no interior upgrades to speak of, which, admittedly, is a bit of a disappointment. The good news is that the interior still adopts the redesigned layout that we saw in the 2016 version of the Acadia. It’s still relatively up-to-date so even without any black trim or accents, it still looks fresh and inviting to the eyes.

On the side of power, the Acadia Black Edition is available only on SLT trims of the SUV. That’s still good enough, though, to get some power variety because the SLT-1 trim makes use of a 2.5-liter four-cylinder engine that produces 193 horsepower and 188 pound-feet of torque. If that’s not to your liking, you can opt to get the SLT-2 trim, which comes with a bigger 3.6-liter V-6 unit that produces 310 horsepower and 271 pound-feet of torque.

Regardless of the version you get, it doesn’t look like you’re going to feel too bad about it. “The new Terrain and Acadia Black Editions perfectly capture the identity of the GMC brand by offering a bold and confident exterior appearance,” Duncan Aldred, vice president of Global GMC, said. “They give our customers more choices within the premium SUV segment to distinguish their vehicle and themselves.”

The Acadia Black Edition certainly does that. If you’re looking to get your hands on one, you’re going to have to wait for its arrival sometime in the summer months.

References

Read our full review on the 2018 GMC Acadia.

Read more GMC News.

Read more New York Auto Show news.