GMC Sierra 1500 Denali Ultimate
This GMC Sierra in Denali Ultimate Trim and it comes in the crew cab and short box configuration.
That’s the only way you can get the Denali Ultimate. And this comes with four wheel drive and all together with delivery It costs $85,540.
And for this specific model, this one comes with a three liter inline, six door max turbo diesel and it has pretty smooth and quiet operation.
I can’t believe that this thing is actually a diesel. It’s very quiet inside and it’s making 305 horsepower and 495 pound feet of torque.
Attached to it is a 10 speed automatic transmission and this thing can tow up to 13,200 pounds. GMC Sierra 1500 Denali Ultimate
So this is pretty much the same GMC Sierra as last year, but what’s new for 2024 is that that same exact three liter inline, six duramax turbo diesel is now standard for the AT4X trim version of this truck.
What’s new for 2024
There’s also new active exhausts, there’s new premium wheel designs and also new for 2024 are two colors, the downpour metallic and the thunderstorm gray.
This one is the downpour metallic and it’s a slightly brighter version compared to last year’s Pacific blue metallic and it sort of reminds me of Toyota’s cavalry blue color.
So does this one look like a proper luxury truck? In my opinion, it totally does. This looks like a more chiseled Silverado with some flashy bits on the outside.
Thanks to the ultimate trim, these GMC trucks just have a more premium look. This has the more complex grill that you could find on the Denali and the Denali ultimate trim.GMC Sierra 1500 Denali Ultimate
Exterior
The headlights have a higher end look with individual LED components and also beautiful daytime running light configuration from the side.
This truck is riding on 22-inch wheels and if you look at the fender, you could see the ultimate Duramax badge on it.
So you could tell others that you paint a lot for this truck. On the side here we have the big side view mirrors with some LED lights in here.
Camera
And also if you look down, we have cameras for the 360 degree camera view. This is a very similar unit that you could find in the Chevy Silverado.
It has the same shape and this comes with a big chrome mirror caps. It looks pretty classy when you open the door. There’s a powered step that will deploy.
There’s chrome on the window surrounds and also the chrome door handles from the rear. GMC Sierra 1500 Denali Ultimate
Back Side Box
There is one short bed, So this is a 70-inch box. The standard bed is 79 and a half inches long while the long bed is 98 inches long. This has the MultiPro tailgate.
So this has a neat trick where you could open it up traditionally and you could also open up the partial section.
So you can treat this as a step to easily get in. There’s also a grab handle that you could just extend, and also the corner steps, which makes getting in and out a little bit easier.
You have the kicker sound system, so these are speakers and also you have this USB output. GMC Sierra 1500 Denali Ultimate
So this is like a nice tailgating tool that you can have here. And I’m pretty sure these things are waterproof, so let’s see how long that will last.
Downside
But the only downside I could tell right now with tailgate is the amount of space that you have between the hitch.
So make sure you remove the attachments before you lower that tailgate. This tailgate is nice because you could have different configurations.
You could just pull this up. So this is the load stop. You could put building materials in here, but can this actually fit a four by eight sheet of plywood? it is just a little over 93 inches. GMC Sierra 1500 Denali Ultimate
Size Of Box
So eight feet is 96 inches, so not quite, you’re gonna have to somewhat lean it, but between the hinges here, what do we have? We have a little over 48 inches, so that’s four feet.
Also like in this configuration, if you need to grab anything deep in the bed, this provides that additional clearance for you to step in.
Interior
So inside this GMC Sierra looks like a proper luxury truck. This interior is called Alpine Umber and this is the only interior option for this new blue color.
The dash has this really cool wood trim on there. That’s the topographical map of Mount Denali Peak. And you can also see it on the back, rest of all the seats in the front and also the back.
Infotainment
As for the infotainment system, this is a 13.4 inch touchscreen unit. This has a physical volume dial and also home button.
And this has Google built in, which means that it has Google assistant the play store. This play store only has the car appropriate apps and this also has Google Maps built in. GMC Sierra 1500 Denali Ultimate
And if you don’t like to use any Google stuff, this also comes with wireless Apple CarPlay and also another Google thing, wireless Android auto.
As for the instrument cluster, this has a 12.3 inch digital driver display and up top there is a 15 inch heads up display.
The physical buttons in this car here you have your parking brake all the way to the left side.
And I like how all of these essential driver controls is on the left hand side of the driver so it’s only accessible to them.
So you have your two high four high, four low and also you could just leave it in auto mode.
You could change your driving modes via this dial. And over to the right here you have your headlight controls and also all of the other lights and the instrument cluster brightness. GMC Sierra 1500 Denali Ultimate
Over on the door card you have this ultimate badge with the Denali GPS coordinates right there, nice physical buttons.
And also beautiful alpine umber finish. Again, this topographical map of Denali Peak. And also on the side here you have the big bow speaker grill.
That looks pretty nice. The only thing I found ridiculous about this interior is how large stitches are.
Steering Wheel
I think this is to remind you that hey, these things were hand stitched. Maybe looking at the steering wheel controls, I really like the nine and three position here and I like how there’s paddle shifters.
This is for your 10 speed automatic transmission. And right below that you have your stereo controls, which is pretty typical of GM cars.
There’s also physical buttons and dials on the steering wheel itself. And this button is very special because this car comes equipped with GM Super Cruise.
Center Console
Back to the center console, we have this comically large engine start stop button. I don’t know why it needs to be that big, but look at all of these controls.
You have your heated steering wheel button, heated seats for both your back rest and this one is just for your back and then also ventilated seats.
And then you have dual zone climate controls here you could set it individually and all of these physical buttons are just nice to have.
And right below that you have a couple of essential controls here. Here you have your lane keeping assist parking assist, your auto start stop.
This is to lower the tailgate and you’ll find that you can’t raise the tailgate automatically via this button and traction control and also downhill assist.
And here is a button to lower all of the windows. And as you could tell here, this is only a down function. GMC Sierra 1500 Denali Ultimate
You can’t raise it back up using this button on the transmission tunnel. You have a nice storage solution here with a couple of USB ports, a weird place for your change I suppose.
And right over here you have your gear shifter for your 10-speed automatic transmission. This is a nice grip to hold and I like the easy parking button over here.
I just sort of wish that this was a steering column mounted kind of shifter so that it opens up the space here so that you could put a laptop perhaps.
But uh, this also works when you’re driving. It’s very comfortable to put your hand here and right below that you have your trailer brake control.
And over here this is a spot for your wireless charger. And when you open up the armrest, you have a removable storage solution here and right below you have a couple of USB ports and your standard one 20 volt outlet.
Pretty big compartment here and they do sell a lockable storage compartment in here so that you could store your various things.
And one more little trick up in the front row here, just like other full-size pickup trucks, there’s gotta be an interesting storage solution for the dash.
2nd Row
Now moving into the second row, again, the steps deploy so that you could get in pretty easily, but the interior looks pretty impressive.
Again, this alpine umber finish is very nice. There’s a couple of storage solutions back here. Of course you could pop that open and you could store some documents here and if you hold this up, of course you could just store other things in here as well.
Also, check out the amount of head space I have in here. There’s plenty of room in the backseat. GMC Sierra 1500 Denali Ultimate
Before we close this up, again, more crazy stitching over here and topographical map on the alpine umber finish. Again, more bows, speaker grills.
And over in the center here we have heated seats and a couple of USB ports and vents to make it a little bit more comfortable here.
Driving Experience
Alright, now let’s talk about the driving experience of this GMC Sierra.
First of all, let’s talk about the ride quality. And man, the ride on this thing is very smooth.
This is a smooth operator and you can’t really tell that there’s a turbo diesel engine in the engine bay right now because it’s very quiet.
I could mistake that for just like a four cylinder. But there is a good bit of wind noise here at highway speeds because this is a fairly large vehicle and there’s a large frontal area. GMC Sierra 1500 Denali Ultimate
In terms of handling, this is a great handling truck. I took this on some back roads and it had some wet roads, but this thing handled really well considering what this is a full-size pickup truck and it felt good.
The steering was fairly responsive, the braking was nice and also that torque engine was nice. 305 horsepower and 495 pound feet of torque.
GM Supercruise
That is a good engine. And this thing can even tow up to 13,200 pounds. That’s really amazing. let’s try what probably is the best feature of this truck and that is GM Super Cruise.
So that is a level two automated driving assistance system and basically it means that if you’re on a road like this where it’s identified by the Super Cruise database and you have certain things turned on like your lane keeping assist, your adaptive cruise control, which I’m going to set right now and let’s try it at 65 miles per hour and I see that there is that white steering wheel logo and let’s turn this on.
Now Super cruise is turned on, which means that this is not only a adaptive cruise control system, but it will also adjust the steering and when it can, it will lane change on its own like what it’s doing right now.
And the system works really well. Like it doesn’t have jittery motion. It feels like an actual human driving this thing. GMC Sierra 1500 Denali Ultimate
And this really takes the effort out of driving, takes the joy out of driving too because you’re not driving and but you know this isn’t completely a hands-off experience or you’re not completely detached from the driving experience because this car does have some sensors here. There’s cameras, infrared cameras that will detect your face.
There’s one here too, so that you’re constantly looking ahead. If I try to look elsewhere, the system will warn you and it will deactivate and you won’t have Super Cruise turned on anymore.
So you really have to behave yourself. But when everything’s turned on, wow, this thing really makes driving so easy because the car is doing it on its own.
Conclusion
So I think this is conclusion time. Is this a good luxury truck and at $85,000, is this worth it considering the market, all of the other luxury trimmed trucks are around this price range.
So if you look at your high country, your F-150 limited, your Tundra capstone, they’re all in this price range and it’s crazy to think that they’re all over $80,000 at this point, but that really reflects the economy, the state of the industry.
That’s how much money you’re going to pay for these trucks. I think these car manufacturers know that these trucks are now jack of all trade solutions.
These are your work trucks, your commuting trucks, and also that truck you take to go out for a special night in the town.
So they’re going to charge a lot for these luxury versions because they’re the do all kind of truck. GMC Sierra 1500 Denali Ultimate
So with that said, is this truck worth the $85,000 price tag in my opinion? Very much so considering all the other trucks and what you will get in those things, I think you get more features in this truck.
You get a nice infotainment system with Google built in a nice digital driver display. And best of all, you get this GM Super Cruise, which you can also get in the cheaper Chevy Silverado truck, but this is supposed to be the luxury trimmed version.
So it’s really nice to have all of those features packed in here. In terms of the ride, the handling, I mean this is a truck and it feels great.
I like the RAM trucks because of the ride quality, but I think this is almost matching that and I wouldn’t mind commuting with this at all.
And considering that this has the bonus of the GM Super Cruise that all the other trucks don’t have, this really takes it a step above.
So would I personally buy this if I had $85,000 and I was looking for a half ton pickup truck? Absolutely I would.