(Words by Brian Lohnes Photos by Dave Nutting) – As the resident lover of all things truck related here at BangShift, I was more than happy to get my grubby mitts on this 2013 GMC Sierra Denali 2500HD pickup for a few days. Admittedly, I have always been a little on the snooty side with my truck preferences and specifically toward what I would call a luxury truck like the Sierra Denali. After all, who needs a full leather interior, all the bells and whistles, simulated wood grain, heated and air conditioned seats, sexy wheels, backup camera, and on and on and one? To me, trucks have always been about two doors, a bench seat, a rubber floor mat, the most stout engine, transmission, and axles you could get, and a radio.
It took about 14-seconds inside the Denali to realize that my opinion needed revising…kind of. This truck, as you see it before you, stickers for $64,095. It is fully and I mean absolutely, 100%, fully loaded. From four wheel drive to the mighty Duramax engine backed with an Allison six speed transmission, to the navigation system, sunroof, and everything in between, this truck had it. Who needs a $65k truck? No one needs one but clearly people want them because manufacturers have been as much in a horsepower war as they have been in an amenities and luxury war with their pickup trucks over the last several years.
The beneficiary of any type of escalation like that is the end customer because the result is a truck like this one. It is a truck that can literally pull down buildings, get decent mileage and still carry you and that special someone…along with three more people to a high class event and not look out of place. The evening Dave Nutting and I shot the photos you see here, we passed through a busy section of Boston where a concert was about to start. The big GMC got as many looks from the ladies as some of the more traditional luxury/sports cars we saw on the street. As the kids would say, this thing is baller.
My wife expressed almost immediately upon the truck’s arrival at our abode that it was the best looking thing we have tested yet and a few minutes into her first ride inside the GMC, she proclaimed that it was her favorite vehicle that she’d ridden in as well. Long story short, the chicks dig it and truthfully, we dug it too, although there were some foibles and things to nit pick because that’s how we operate. Is this monster worth $64,000? Is the Duramax and Allison as good as everyone reports? Will it do burnouts? The answers to all of these questions are below as we’ll tell you the rest of the story through photos and captions!
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SCROLL DOWN TO READ OUR FULL REVIEW OF THE 2013 GMC SIERRA DENALI 2500HD CREW CAB!
When trying to figure out a photo location to shoot the truck, I thought it would be fitting to set it against the water or the backdrop of Boston. This isn’t a truck like the Raptor that would be happy in the dirt. This is a truck meant to haul people in luxury and heavy loads with ease. Picture the Incredible Hulk in a well tailored suit.
One of the first observations we made of the truck was how large it is. Sounds dumb, right? Because GMC and Chevrolet trucks do not share the exaggerated front end styling of Ford and Dodge, outwardly they have a smaller “feel” to them. The front end is more aero than the Ford and Dodge “big rig” look and lacking the huge grill, especially of the Ford, there is a subtle nature to the pickup that is unique to this line. Once inside the truck you quickly get the full sense of how significant the thing really is.
Speaking of the interior, this truck is amazingly comfortable inside. The front buckets just kind of swallow you up and since they are both heated and air conditioned, fine tuning comfort is very easy. The seats are power adjustable and the driver’s seat had an inflatable lumbar support as well. This would be the ultimate highway cruiser, especially as it is equipped with the Duramax engine. I could see cruising this truck across country without so much as a cramp. It is that comfortable. The interior color combo had me scratching my head though. The “light cashmere” colored seats, carpet, and pillars were fine, but the “cocoa” colored steering wheel, top of dash, and upper door panels were odd. The color itself is strange and doesn’t look exactly like a dark red or a deep brown. Additionally, there is plenty of simulated wood grain on the dash and a “wood rimmed” wheel that was comfortable enough, but gawdy as all get out. A simple leather wrapped wheel would look far less awkward and better in my opinion.
Here’s the wheel. I just don’t get the fake “wooden rim” and what purpose it serves in the design of the interior.
The cab is absolutely cavernous. It is a four door crew cab style unit that has room the likes of which are mind blowing. Three very large adults could sit side by side by side across the back seat, have plenty of leg room, and not bug the passengers up front. In many ways, this truck felt like a loaded Suburban with a bed.
GM’s touch screen system is one of the best in the business. Firing up the truck gets you this cool screen reminding you that you are a Denali owner and then from this one screen you can run the radio, navigation, your phone, etc. It is very user friendly and operates like all of the other GM cars we have tested with the same system thus far. There’s little guesswork and the people who designed this did a good job to make it intuitive.
We were disappointed that the dash did not include a boost gauge because that would have been interesting to watch while driving. The layout is simple enough and the same as you’d find in the GM truck line elsewhere.
Here’s another illustration of just how large the cab is. Even with our kids loaded in their bulky car seats, there was tons of room to spare. Major league comfort here.
This badge was the thing that got me most excited about the truck. As nice as all this luxury stuff is, a truck is a truck and functionality is king. Packing a 6.6L LML Duramax and an Allison 6-speed automatic transmission, the machine is built to work. Having driven diesel trucks from other makes in the past, this would be my first dedicated experience with the Duramax/Allison tag team.
With 400hp and 765 lb/ft of torque on tap, you knew this was coming. The truck has immense power. With the traction and stability control off, launches from a standing start were fun because the torque management of the Allison transmission is so finely tuned you can literally feel and hear the tires on the very edge of grip while pulling to highway speeds. There are times you can feel the rear end trying to tramp a little, but it quickly passes. If the torque management were able to be completely disabled, this thing would be one of the more epic burnout machines of all time. We did not have the opportunity to do any towing during our time with the truck due to some scheduling constraints. With massive four wheel disc brakes, an integrated trailer brake controller, trailer sway control, and a cool towing hill start feature that holds the truck on hills for little over one second so the driver can swap from the brake to the gas. With the factory hitch, this truck can tow 13,000lbs and with a fifth wheel, the 2500HD model can tow 17,800lbs. Yowza!
Duramax powered trucks are easy to spot because of their odd looking tailpipe. This piece is designed to essentially act as a cooler that allows super hot exhaust gasses to blend with fresh air, producing tailpipe emissions that are not cold but are far cooler than they were just a few inches up the pipe.
The 6.6L Duramax engine is a $7,195 option on this truck. Spending that $7,195 then requires the $1,200 upgrade to the Allison transmission. When driving like a normal human being around town we returned about 15mpg and nearly 18mpg over the span of about 100 miles of highway driving. That was at the speed limit (55) for the roads we were traveling. The engine is very quiet, even when cold. It was actually shockingly quiet, especially when compared to a Powerstroke truck we have access to that is just a couple years old. The cab is very well insulated to boot because engine noise is nothing but a little turbo whistle and a very faint sound of compression ignition when you’re hammer down.
We admire the guys that wrench on and hot rod these trucks. That mill is some kind of jammed in there. Let’s not mention the absolute tangle of wires, lines, hoses, and belts that keep it all working right.
The great looking 5-spoke, eight lug wheels are shod in 275/55/20 truck tires. The tires were good in all weather, including some very intense rain that had us puddle slogging and even doing some fording of flooded roads. no hydroplaning or lack of grip was experienced. On dry pavement they are sure footed. This is not a handling machine, it is a 3/4 ton truck, so we didn’t attempt an autocross or any slalom action. The wheels also house the massive four wheel disc brakes.
Like all GMC and Chevy four wheel drive trucks have been for 20 years, the front uses an independent front suspension setup. The benefits are nicer road manners, a better ride, and better handling. The downsides for hard core off roading are a sacrifice of strength, limited articulation, and added complexity over a solid axle. This truck was not designed or intended to be used as a rock crawler or bayou bomber. We’re thinking most owners of a GMC 2500 HD Denali would be using the 4WD function to romp through snow or at a job site.
The drive shaft in the truck is a monster. It looked to us like a 5″ diameter tube and yes, it is aluminum. American Axle manufacturing was the supplier for both the drive shaft and the big rear end that sports a 10+ inch ring gear to harness all of that torque in a reliable manner.
Also impressive on the construction side is the fact that the frame rails are boxed steel. The stiffness and strength afforded by those two huge beams is clear in the driving characteristics and ride characteristics of the truck. It does not wander, flex, make weird noises, or convey anything but confidence as you roll down the road in it.
The power station is a fitting background for the Duramax powered GMC. Under normal driving circumstances, the huge torque of the Duramax is evident only by the fact that the truck accelerates without breaking a sweat or working hard at all. Under hard acceleration, it feels as though a massive and unrelenting hand is pushing you along. The Allison is so seamless and the engine stays planted right in its prime torque band. We made a couple of pulls from 30-90mph and the acceleration was more linear than anything we have felt powered by a traditional gas engine. It was still wanting to run when we backed off the throttle, too.
The base price on the GMC 2500HD before adding the Duramax, Allison, and Denali package is $50,010. Adding the engine, transmission, navigation, sunroof, 20″ forged wheels, and 6″ chrome steps brought the sticker to $64,050.
- So would I buy a $65,000 truck? The very honest answer to that question, after spending many miles and a few days in one, is pretty easy. Hell yes I would buy this truck given the funding to do so and the need to use it for something. If I had a situation where it was necessary to tow my toys around, especially over long distances, there wouldn’t be an ounce of hesitation to score a road master like this truck is. The irony about a truck like this is that actually working it on a job site or other arena would be shameful because the thing is so nice, it would be impossible to really use in the trenches without ruining it.
GALLERY:
