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GRAND CANYON NATIONAL PARK, ARIZ. – I have news for you: This celebrated hole in the ground is one of the most majestic places on Earth.

Oh, you already knew that.

How about this: Buick’s new minivan is quite nice – perhaps not top of class, but certainly competitive.

Bet you didn’t know that.

Most are probably surprised to hear that Buick is selling a minivan. It’s one of four new minivans from General Motors. The Chevrolet Uplander, Saturn Relay and Pontiac Montana SV6 are the others. Prices range from about $21,000 to about $34,000. Our test vehicle, a front-drive Terraza CXL, topped $33,000, including $1,500 in options.

They share platforms and features, including 200-horsepower, 3.5-liter V-6 engines and four-speed automatic transmission. While some equipment and some interior styling differs, all are very similar vehicles. The Terraza, which gets a rear suspension set-up with automatic load-leveling that the other three vans don’t get, is the first one I’ve driven.

And what a drive it was. More than 2,100 miles from the Bay Area to the Grand Canyon and then Phoenix and back. No doubt it was the first Terraza to visit the old Western town of Oatman, Ariz. – famous for its wandering burros – as well as the stunning Montezuma’s Castle, sort of cliff-dwellers’ condos, not far from Sedona.

Unlike that 800-year-old relic, GM’s minivan story hasn’t been one for the history books. Its first efforts 15 years ago were panned as Dustbusters, thanks to their odd shape and plastic bodies. The second try was more mainstream, but seen as just too bland and behind segment leaders Chrysler and Honda.

This time, GM decided to make its minivans less minivan-like.

GM marketers characterize them as “cross-over sport vans” in an effort to cash in on the popularity of crossover utilities (the so-called CUVs) as well as the predominance of the sport-utility vehicles (the SUVs).

From some angles, they’ve succeeded.

From the second-floor balcony of our Phoenix hotel, the shape and size (and especially the roof rails) of the Terraza closely resembled the shape and size (and roof rails) of the Chevy Tahoe parked next to it.

From ground level, however, it was easy to see that this was a minivan and not a sport-utility vehicle. And with my family and all of our gear inside, the Terraza was pure minivan. Its power sliding side doors, three rows of seats and DVD rear-entertainment system gave it away.

As a father of two growing boys, I think minivan isn’t a bad word. It’s a practical, functional, easy-to-drive, easy-to-stuff vehicle that gets pretty decent mileage. I averaged 22.5 miles per gallon on our journey, not far from the vehicle’s 18/24 EPA label.

The 25-gallon fuel tank made for a long (500-plus miles) cruising range. With gas now topping $2.50 a gallon, that provided a few extra miles of peace of mind. A stop at a gas station shattered that peace.

The next new Buick, the Lucerne sedan, brings back the brand’s signature portholes from its storied past. The Terraza has none of that styling. Instead, it’s minivan basic that’s shared by every major player.

Only Buick’s waterfall grille and some nice 17-inch aluminum wheels give the van any elegance.

Inside, there were four captain’s chairs covered in leather, and subtle use of shiny wood that looked pretty plastic. The seats were very comfortable, even on days when miles outlasted our patience.

Here are some good things and some not so good things about the Terraza.

The good:

* Plastic bins in the front seat-backs hold the headphones and clicker for the rear-seat DVD system.

* The third row seats fold forward with the pull of one lever and are split, so this van can seat six and still hold plenty of cargo. (Most times, we kept both rear seats folded down.)

* Rear storage bins with lids were perfect for small and wet objects.

* Fuel economy and cruising range.

The bad.

* The overhead rail system, which allows a buyer to insert bins to hold various objects – sunglasses, cell phones, CDs – proved annoying. Ours quickly developed a rattle and when I went to try to secure one of the bins, it fell off in my hands. I couldn’t put it back up, so I tossed it in the back. And the rattle pretty much disappeared.

* Third seats fold flat forward, but not backward into the floor like those on the Honda Odyssey and Toyota Sienna. That meant much less cargo room when all seven seats were erect (26.9 cubic feet in the Terraza vs. 38.4 in the Odyssey). Also, and most damning, the seats were hard to pull back up once folded down. I ended up leaning into the side door opening and then pushing them back in place.

Terrazas can be had with all-wheel-drive. A planned innovative media storage system called PhatNoise has been delayed. The DVD entertainment system worked flawlessly – a blessing after the umpteenth attempt to get two school-age boys to show appreciation for Joshua trees and Saguaro cactuses.

Less good, and surprising since the Terraza is GM’s premium van, were the things that were not even available such as automatic air conditioning, a power rear hatch and side-curtain air bags.

And the new under-floor storage found in Chrysler vans and the Odyssey isn’t offered.

Buick dealers have sold 5,423 Terrazas in six months on the market. Honda dealers sell about twice that number of Odysseys each month.

The Terraza is a good, not great, first van from the Buick brand.