Pet lovers rejoice! GM Media is saving you months of potential shopping for the best possible vehicle for the significant canine in your life by announcing that the GMC Acadia has won the Pet Safe Choice Award 2009! What led to the choice? “Emergency services and hands-free navigation; standard third-row bench seating for restraining pets and ample room behind the seats for pet crates; tinted windows, tri-zone climate controls and a large, power-operated sunshade for comfort; and top federal and insurance industry scores for crashworthiness.” You might not need these features as much as, say, good mileage or a high-quality interior, but dammit Fido does!
“Many of our customers treat their pets like members of the family, and Acadia provides the pet-friendly safety and comfort features they are looking for,” says Cheryl Catton, executive director of advertising and promotion for Buick, Pontiac & GMC. “Not only does the Acadia provide first-class transport for our customers’ pets, it is filled with safety and security features that enhance pet safety—including technology such as OnStar, which can direct owners to the nearest veterinary clinic in the event of an on-road emergency. In addition, GM has been a leader in urging that pets be restrained in vehicles and not be left unattended in parked vehicles.”
Great! GM is well on its way to recovery as soon as everyone let’s their dog decide which vehicle to buy.
Now it may be safe for your pet dog, but is it the car you want to get into when there’s a lion?
That’s on top of: $5K off MSRP, 2 years scheduled maintenance, 2 years OnStar, 2 years XM Satellite Radio, and 0% for 60 months.
That was actually the Chevy full-page ad for the Traverse that presumably bailout money is helping to pay for. What more could you want?
My dog is very important to me, but somehow I don’t think she gives a shit about climate control or hands-free navigation….
Sounds like OnStar is the reason it was voted over anything else.
Because most NAV systems don’t offer any sort of directory assistance…right?
If I hauled my dog around in a $45,000 car, she’d end up taking a dump in it.
I’m sure there’s a chimp joke here, or is it still too soon?
It’s about time the American automakers built cars that pets want to buy! Wait, this wasn’t part of the loan conditions?
My dog has no use for a GM vehicle. You see, she’s a female so she can’t even piss on it.
Trumpeting this award is like trumpeting your selection as “Best Automotive Website” by the Toledo Ladies Sewing Circle.
This is enough to make a real marketing person cry.
This is the full analysis:
http://www.barkbuckleup.com/News2.asp
It’s kind of funny that they only mention the GMC when it also comes with Chevy, Buick and Saturn badges.
Least Pet Safe:
Wagon Queen Family Truckster
I’m not sure if the pets REALLY chose this–it’s not very cool looking even when you’re driving with your head stuck out the open side window.
Poor Saturn can’t catch a bark – I mean break.
This choice may represent the safety-conscious canine, but my dog seems to prefer the back of a pickup to anything enclosed.
As a Pet owner and I also show Dogs in confirmation, its too bad this vehicle is a General Motors product, I now have an older GMC Van that I have used on many trips to various USA shows, even with the full Air conditioning on I could not use my crates to keep the dogs in, it was just too hot for them ie Black coats etc in Sporting Dogs etc etc, I now use a RAV4 for Dog shows and Vet trips, it works just fine and gets good gasoline use too, where as the GMC Van used too much Gasoline ie a V8, a lot of doggy people who show use both Honda and Toyota Mini Vans for there Show dogs too, I think GMC just like to advertise there product, probably not Dog tested either imho.
If these features were deliberately designed from day one with dog owners in mind,{which we know they werent} thats one thing. We would know if it was, as GM would have been hyping it in ads in cat fancy and othet pet mags years ago. If it is typical GM dumb luck, which strikes even them every couple of years, then I call B.S. Serendipity does’nt count! No chest thumping allowed this time, sorry.
When I first saw the GMC in the Oshawa truck plant, it was a kind of adhoc introduction. My first comment to the marketing people there was, “when did GMC start making Pacificas”. Wow did they look pissed.
But will it make Acadia drivers go faster than the 2 minute glacial transition from stop to 40 mph with fido’s head sticking out the window?
Pssh, my dogs love our XC90.
I think it’s entertaining how the B&B are so quick to be apathetic (or in this case mostly arrogant and indignant) towards something that is very important to many car buyers.
Over 35% of American households have a dog – and that percentage shoots up for households that have children.
Considering everyone here seems to know someone who would buy a $20K RWD car, then they probably also know someone who bought a larger car than they originally wanted in order to give their dogs more space when they traveled with their pets.
Sure am glad this was brought to our attention. It’d be such a shame if GM got an award and everyone missed a chance to post smart ass remarks about it. I’ll save my smart ass comments for any negative news regarding an import brand. I’ll be (and have been) waiting….