There’s an all-new ride in town: GMC’s 2024 Acadia. That’s good news for busy soccer moms and dads, and families destined for summer road trips or fall tailgating. But in the white-hot, mid-sized SUV segment where Acadia plays, the competition can’t be happy that it’s larger, more spacious, more powerful, more luxurious, better-looking and offers in all trims General Motors highly regarded Super Cruise hands-free driving system.

GMC marketers used the term “a cut above” for Acadia’s debut because, on paper and on the road, it now elevates the class beyond, say, some of its plainer-but-popular Asian rivals in horsepower (i.e., 328 vs. 291), length, width, cargo capacities, luxuries and other categories, such as Super Cruise. Yet it matches them in estimated gas mileage (19 city/24 highway/21 combined) and 5,000-lb. towing capacity.

Powering the seven-passenger Acadia in three trims – Elevation, AT4 and Denali – at pricing from $43,995 to $55,695 is a new turbocharged, 2.5-liter four-cylinder engine with plenty of oomph from 328 horses and a hefty 326 lb.-ft. of torque. Among five drive modes, “Normal” offers the best combination of firmness, quiet and Escalade-like smoothness you’d expect.

Our $59,925 Denali tester in shimmering Sterling Metallic with 22-inch pearl machined aluminum wheels caused heads to turn. It was so loaded with standard, “power-everything” features that the only options were the special wheels, performance suspension and metallic paint (the panoramic sunroof is another popular choice). The “wow” factor spreads inside in tasteful shades of chocolate brown and taupe/gray, with perforated and diamond-stitched leather-trimmed seats, laser-etched wood accents and scads of contrasting “Galvano” brightwork.

The cockpit’s rectangular driver’s screen alternates between digital gauges and the navigation map. The center stack’s cool 15-inch diagonal tablet,