$80,000, oh my, for lots of monthly payments. We towed with the 2022 GMC Denali Ultimate 8280 lbs trailer close to the 8900 lb. limit. 6.2L and ten speed had no problems on the curvy river road up Poudre Canyon. Original Denali’s had real aluminum interior trim. Now open pore Palao real wood on the doors and dash. Even has topography sketches in the wood depicting Mount Deni in Alaska as it’s name sake. Highway MPG is 20, good for now. Full grain leather, the interior speaks luxury. I tried Super Cruise for about a minute. I’ll try it again next time. 16-way massaging seats are awesome. I’m still not a fan of the new GM T-shifter. Still, GM is King of the Camera’s. The backup-to-your-trailer camera is now one of the best. There is a gap in the lines where you can see the hitch ball clearly heading to the trailer coupler.
Electronics were slow, you have to count to 5 after you push the square start button to shift into go. The mirrors pointed down each time I drove it. So it’ has a bug, with all the electronics on today’s modern trucks. That’s why trucks had a hard time manufacturing during the pandemic, it takes a microchips to do everything. Even the latch to remotely release the tailgate has a microchip. I can’t imagine how many chips a John Deere combine has now. Do the new combines have massaging seats? This Denali has them. It even has Super Cruise. Yes it drives itself, I used it for a minute and took my eyes off the road for 3 seconds and the big brother camera saw me not looking ahead and shut off the Super Cruise. Oh well I’m sure I’ll get another chance in a 2023. Cross stitching on the full grain leather seats is unusual. I’m fond of the Heads Up Display in the windshield like a jet fighter so you know things without taking your eyes off the road. Paddle shifters on the steering wheel, so you can manually shift the tranny when racing the neighbors to town. Carbon pro bed is tough, no need for a bedliner.
When Denali first came out, it had standard Quadrasteer, in 2001. For about 3 years is was standard on the Denali and offered on some Chevy trucks the second year. But Delphi and GM couldn’t get along and GM dropped it . Quadrasteer was awesome for towing, parking, passing. Very unique, glad to see it’s coming back as “4-wheel steer” in the new GMC Hummer and Chevy Silverado EV. Quadrasteer was best handling trucks. Nissan was going to offer in in the Titan and Armada, I saw the prototypes. Engineers from Delphi sent me a Denali Quadrasteer and I shot many video’s, climbing Pikes Peak, barrel racing and demonstrating to GMC dealers in Colorado.
When Denali first came out, it was the most luxurious truck you could buy. Then like always, competition woke up and Ford had the King Ranch, then Limited and then Platinum. Ram jumped in with both feet with Laramie Longhorn, Limited Longhorn and Limited. And Denali didn’t change much. Chevy wanted part of the action, so in 2014 they introduced the High Country. This year GMC got back in the luxury truck business with the Denali Ultimate. And it is a very nice truck.
