GMC has long combined ruggedness and elegance to good effect — consider the Sierra pickup and Acadia crossover, for example. But the Terrain is one odd duck. GM says it shares just a few body panels with the Equinox; I wish it shared more. The Equinox has similar lines to Chevy's larger Traverse, but the Terrain looks little like the Traverse's GMC sibling — and arguably GM's best-looking crossover — the Acadia. The Terrain's styling feels ham-handed and forced. When I heard GMC would build an Equinox twin, I hoped to see a scaled-down Acadia. Color me disappointed.

Perhaps I'm being too harsh. A friend said he didn't find the Terrain nearly as overdone as I did. Senior editor David Thomas, who lives in the Chicago suburbs, took the Terrain home over a weekend and noted that in such environs it looked much more at home. "Besides the huge gaps under the square wheel wells," Thomas said, "I thought it was one good-looking truck when it was in my driveway. The huge grille looks much better in person, and in dark colors the Terrain can be quite striking. I can see it definitely turning on the truck crowd."

Contrast that to multimedia editor Eric Rossi, who likened the Terrain to a modern-day Pontiac Aztek. Now that's harsh.