Head to head: Holden Acadia LT vs Ford Endura Trend

How do they compare on price?

Holden plays the value card with the Acadia, which is the cheapest mainstream seven-seat SUV you can buy without considering fledgeling brands from China or India.

Priced from $42,990 drive-away in basic front-wheel-drive LT trim as tested here, the big wagon brings seven cloth-trimmed seats, 18-inch wheels, an 8-inch infotainment screen with Apple CarPlay, sat nav, a reversing camera and rear parking sensors.

A strong safety suite is included as standard (we’ll get back to that in a moment), as is preparation for towing.

Ford’s cheapest Endura is the front-wheel-drive Trend, which will set you back $44,900 plus on-road costs, which is around $6000 more than the Holden by the time it reaches your driveway.

Riding on 18-inch wheels, the Endura Trend brings five cloth seats in a smaller body than the Holden. Like the Acadia, it’s home to an 8-inch touchscreen with navigation and a reversing camera, along with outstanding safety features. But it does bring stuff you won’t find in its cheaper rival, such as a digital dashboard, power seat adjustment, active noise cancellation and LED lights.

Both brands charge an additional $4000 for all-wheel-drive traction and each car is backed by a five-year, unlimited-kilometre warranty. 

What are they like inside?

These models represent budget options within their respective ranges - buyers looking for heated seats, leather trim, panoramic sunroofs and other niceties will need to spend more.

Ford’s cabin looks a little plain but is better-finished than its traditional rival. The Canada-sourced Endura brings sturdy build quality, plenty of storage options and thoughtful touches such as a household power outlet to join conventional 12-volt and USB sockets.

The Endura loses points for having less room in the rear, as well as focusing on the front end with dual-zone climate control as opposed to the Acadia’s three-zone system which allows rear occupants to set their own temperature and fan speed. 

We’re on the record as questioning Ford’s decision to adopt a chunky rotary transmission controller surrounded by useless plastic, and we don’t love the expanse of plain-textured material across the dash.

Holden wins points for having more space than the Endura. The extra couple of seats will be valuable to many shoppers, as will independent air controls for the back and a generally accommodating cabin with surplus head and shoulder room. You get more storage options in the Acadia, as well as a simply enormous boot with 1042 litres of storage when configured as a five-seater, far more than the 602 litres of the blue oval contender. 

Both cars have easily-grasped infotainment systems, though the Holden’s dashboard feels a little cheap and dated next to the high-tech unit found in the Endura.

We also have some concerns about the Tennessee-sourced Holden’s build quality.

Which is the safest car?

Hats off to both manufacturers for including a comprehensive safety suite at every tier of their respective model ranges. Gone are the days when life-saving features such as stability control or side airbags were either optional or restricted to the most expensive models.

Both cars bring active cruise control, seven airbags (including driver’s knee coverage), autonomous emergency braking with pedestrian detection, lane keeping assistance and more. 

ANCAP rates the pair of vehicles as five-star safety picks, though the Holden narrowly outscores the Ford in important categories such as adult and child occupant protection.

How much do they cost to maintain?

Capped price serving is part of the deal for both vehicles.

Holden requires the Acadia to be serviced every 12 months or 12,000km, which will cost you $817 for the first three years.

Ford breaks its maintenance program into annual 15,000-kilometre chunks which cost a little more at $299 per visit ($897 for three years).

Importantly, both capped-price schemes last for the lifetime of each car, but the Endura adds perks including rolling in the first year membership cost to an auto club and roadside assistance every time you service your car at an official dealership, as well as the use of a loan vehicle when available. 

What do they have under the bonnet?

American customers shopping for a family SUV are accustomed to big’ol V6 engines, so that’s what we have in the Acadia. Holden’s 3.6-litre power plant is a muscular unit with a stout 231kW of power and 367Nm of torque. Spinning up freely, the engine never feels underpowered on the road, with enough grunt to instil confidence when overtaking or tackling hilly terrain.

A nine-speed auto paired to the Acadia’s engine offers a broad selection of gear ratios, either left to its devices or manually over-ridden via fiddly switches atop the gearknob. Holden has a range of driving modes for the Acadia, including sports and tow settings which help you extract the maximum from its motor.

As we mentioned earlier, Ford’s Endura is something of an oddity in the blue-oval family, substituting petrol engines for a turbo-diesel four with ties to the brand’s commercial department. Its 140kW peak is nearly 100kW shy of Holden’s grunty alternative, and a torque figure of 400Nm isn’t much to write home about for a two-tonne diesel. 

The Endura feels a little laggy around town and sluggish at speed - and that’s without heavy cargo or a trailer in tow. Its eight-speed auto served up the odd bumpy shift, and the diesel donk unsurprisingly feels a little agricultural compared with Holden’s sweeter six.

Which is the most economical car?

Naturally, the diesel wins back ground at the bowser. Ford’s machine uses a claimed 6.7L/100km of fuel which translates to circa-8L/100km figures in the real world, while Holden’s much thirstier Acadia has an 8.9L/100km sticker that easily exceeds 10L/100km in regular driving.

Which is the best car to drive?

Holden’s Australian engineers put a lot of effort into the Acadia’s local suspension tune, which feels composed and well-sorted on local roads. Capable of retaining mid-corner poise over big bumps, the Acadia’s dynamics exceed what we’ve come to expect from cars in this class - it sits closer to the impressive Mazda CX-9 than Toyota’s pillowy Kluger.

Sharp steering and quality Continental tyres help the Acadia’s cause, particularly when up and moving at 50km/h or more. 

Below that, buyers might be frustrated by a lack of traction from the front wheels. After all, this is a powerful beast, and you’re really asking a lot of the rubber when it rears back on its haunches, unloading the front tyres. We really would recommend the optional four-wheel-drive system.

The same goes for Ford’s torquey Endura, which will happily smoke the front tyres when given a chance. Sometimes that happens in urban centres or at pedestrian crossings, turning heads with an embarrassing chirrup from the treads as you go about your business.

Beyond that, the Ford feels a little tauter than its rival, hitting bumps harder than we’d like to experience.

There was also a touch too much noise from the Endura’s front suspension, leading one staff member to believe there may have been something amiss with the car.

Any problems I should look out for?

No one doubted that there were problems with our Acadia, which was a particularly poor example of quality control. Loose trim elements on the back of the steering wheel buzzed, rattled and flapped at our fingertips, a persistent electronic hum had me considering treatment for tinnitus and poorly-glued headlining was visibly wavy where it met the windscreen.

My first drive of the Acadia culminated in a piece of foam insulation falling out of the dashboard and becoming stuck to my shoe, leaving sticky residue when it was prised away.

Any of the above would be disappointing to customers, but those combined issues (below) pointed to a lack of care on the part of General Motors, the sort of stuff that put the ‘R’ in an unwanted nickname for Holden’s cut-price Captiva SUV.

Which one should I buy?

Here’s the problem.

The Acadia is cheaper to buy and service, better to drive, more spacious and a touch safer than the Ford. Ordinarily, that would result in an easy win.

But just as Holden’s Captiva made a lot of sense on paper before falling down on closer inspection, those quality troubles make it tricky to recommend the Acadia as a new car prospect. 

We’ll give it the win this time, buoyed by positive experiences in other test examples unaffected by those quality issues, and the knowledge that Holden has an industry-first returns policy for dud cars. Even so, you really should examine the Acadia closely before taking one home. 

Or spend more money on the Ford, sacrifice a little space and enjoy a vehicle which may be less likely to give you a headache. If long-term ownership is on the cards, Ford’s Endura might take a more confident approach to the next 10-year challenge.

Holden Acadia LT Price and Specifications

Price: From $42,990 drive-away

Engine: 3.6-litre V6 petrol

Power: 231kW at 6600rpm

Torque: 367Nm at 5000rpm

Transmission: Nine-speed automatic, front-wheel-drive

Fuel use: 8.9L/100km

Ford Endura Trend Price and Specifications

Price: From $44,990 plus on-road costs

Engine: 2.0-litre four-cylinder turbo diesel

Power: 140kW at 3500rpm

Torque: 400Nm at 2000-3000rpm

Transmission: Eight-speed automatic, front-wheel-drive

Fuel use: 6.7L/100km

1/36