Instrumented Test
From the August 2014 Issue of Car and Driver
Not so long ago, heavy-duty pickups were agricultural workhorses with all the amenities of a covered wagon. While the segment’s continual one-upmanship ensures that each new iteration is larger, tougher, and more sophisticated than the heavy-duty truck that came before, GMC’s latest Sierra 2500HD Denali incorporates levels of refinement heretofore unheard of around the job site.
The 2015 GMC Sierra HD and Chevrolet Silverado HD share their light-duty brethren’s improvements, and GMC says one out of every four HD trucks it sells is a crew-cab-only Denali model. The Denali amplifies the lesser Sierra’s industrial-chic styling with additional touches inside and out, and you can’t miss its reflective, rearview-mirror-clogging grille.
Bottom left: The Denali's grille is engineered to grate professional-grade wheels of spicy Monterey Jack.
From behind the wheel, the view is commanding, despite a cabin that envelops you even more, is easier to climb into, and is more capacious in back. GM’s independent torsion-bar front suspension is still exclusive to the segment and delivers surprisingly accurate steering. This is handy both around town and if you’re towing. Our 2500-series 4x4 test truck had a 14,500-pound tow rating with the conventional hitch (a 3500-series Sierra tops out at 23,200 pounds with a fifth-wheel hitch).
The HD’s most significant update is its vastly improved ride, a big achievement considering that the truck’s rear tires are filled to 75 psi and its leaf springs can support up to 4306 pounds of payload.
A new interior addresses the aged design and dated electronics of the previous model and is mostly the same as that in the redesigned 1500-series trucks, with supportive seats and smartly arranged controls. The top-tier Denali features brushed-aluminum accents and additional soft-touch materials, as well as a long list of standard equipment, including a 360-hp, 6.0-liter gasoline V-8, heated and cooled seats, and eight-inch displays in both the cluster and center stack.
While the example on these pages started at $54,835—nearly five grand more than a similar SLT model—it quickly ballooned to $64,630 with options. Accounting for the bulk of that is the $8845 Duramax Plus package, which includes the must-have 765-lb-ft, 6.6-liter turbo-diesel V-8 paired with the mandatory Allison six-speed automatic transmission, as well as GM’s vibrating safety seat and some e-nannies.
The Duramax V-8’s 397 horsepower helped propel our 7660-pound truck through the quarter-mile in 15.9 seconds at 87 mph, quicker than comparable Ford and Ram pickups. Both of those competitors also offer upscale versions of their heavy haulers and are sure to respond to the Sierra HD’s improvements. Chevrolet, too, has even added a range-topping Silverado HD High Country to its lineup.
But until a rival offers an optional lap pool in its bed, the new Sierra HD Denali is the benchmark for heavy-duty pickup-truck sophistication.
