Diesel unlikely for Holden Acadia

Holden appears certain to adopt a petrol-only engine policy when it takes on the Toyota Kluger with the new seven-seat Acadia SUV from mid-2018.

Sampled this week in pre-production form by motoring.com.au at Holden’s Lang Lang proving ground, the Acadia is based on a new General Motors architecture that is package protected for both diesel and hybrid powertrains. In the USA, the vehicle is offered with 3.6-litre V6 and 2.5-litre four-cylinder petrol engines.

Holden is the only right-hand drive ‘client’ for the Acadia. Now, despite Acadia’s Captiva7 predecessor coming with a turbo-diesel option, Holden says it doesn’t believe the variant is required.

“Diesel is not off the table but if it comes here is really market dependant,” said Holden director of communications, Sean Poppitt.

“If most of the market is petrol, why would we put all the extra effort in and mount a case for a minority of volume? One of the things we need to make sure we are better at… is giving the market what it wants rather than trying to force what we want on the market,” he said.

Holden made it a condition of motoring.com.au’s drive of the new Acadia that the powertrain fitted to the test car wasn’t discussed. However, if the local operation does go solely with the V6 option then that lines it up directly against the 201kW/337Nm 3.5-litre V6 petrol engine in Kluger. The popular Mazda CX-9 also eschews a diesel option, opting for a turbocharged 170kW/420Nm 2.5-litre four-cylinder engine.

In the US where it is sold as a GMC, Acadia’s V6 makes 231kW/373Nm and features direct injection, cylinder deactivation and start-stop. The V6 is mated to a six-speed auto in that market.

Holden has confirmed some of the equipment that will be available with Acadia, including autonomous emergency braking, forward collision alert with head-up warning, following distance indicator, lane departure warning with lane keep assist, blind spot alert, rear cross traffic alert and even an alert via vibrating seats.

There’s also reverse and 360-degree camera views, park assist, Apple CarPlay and Android Auto compatibility, push-button and remote start, wireless phone charging, hands-free powered tailgate, ventilated and heated front seats, sliding second row seats and folding third row seats, a two-panel panoramic sunroof, five USB ports and tri-zone air-conditioning.

Holden has also indicated front and on-demand all-wheel drive will be available when Acadia goes on-sale here, suggesting a $40,000-$60,000 price range in today’s dollars.

Holden’s engineers are currently going through the localisation tuning of the Acadia’s suspension, steering and powertrain. Acadia marks a new achievement for Holden’s engineering operation, as it is the first import to be tuned with active dampers, which are fitted to the top-spec models.

Holden also has to dial in two settings for passive dampers for FWD and AWD Acadias, as well as match the car to summer tyres (rather than the all-weather rubber fitted in North America).