2008 GMC Yukon Denali AWD Review Oakland CA

2008 GMC Yukon Denali

THE AUTO PAGE
by
John Heilig
The Auto Channel

SPECIFICATIONS

The Bottom Line – This surprisingly agile, large SUVoffers safety, luxury, power and utility. It’s large, but eminentlypractical.

During the week I had the GMC Yukon Denali to test, myson-in-law had an accident in his GMC Yukon Denali when someone cut infront of him at a construction site. The car was totaled, but neither henor my grandson, who was sitting in the back seat, suffered any majorinjuries, other than a stiff neck. All the safety systems worked on thevehicle and, despite the fact that the “other car” was afront-end loader, there were no serious injuries.

I was impressed, as you should be. Here is a vehicle that proveditself to me during my test that it was a safe as advertised.

When I drove the Yukon Denali, I had no such incidents, thankGod. I didn’t even come close, but of course, Michael’sexperience was fresh in my mind and I didn’t want to duplicate it.

The Yukon Denali is a large vehicle, no doubt, but it issurprisingly agile for its size. Handling wasn’t sports car great,but it was perfectly adequate for the type of vehicle it is. I’m suresome yoyo will try to use the Yukon Denali as a sports car and complainabout the handling, but for the type of vehicle it is with a tall aspectratio, the handing is fine.

The 6.2-liter V8 engine offers excellent power at 380horsepower. It is connected to a 6-speed automatic transmission with amanual mode. However, the “manual;” shifter is a rocker switchlocated on the shifter stalk, which is steering column-mounted. Even havinga manual mode in a car with this much power is a waste, unless you’replanning on some serious off-roading, in which case you probablywouldn’t want the Yukon Denali anyway.

Many manufacturers are going to “light show”instrument panels. The Yukon’s is excellent – no light show– with light green numbers and tick marks on a black background.Besides the speedometer and tachometer, there are four accessory gaugesthat give all the information necessary for observing your vehicle.

The navigation system screen converts to a rear televisionscreen when you shift into reverse. There’s aback-up camera and awarning beep before you hit the garage door (or any other obstacle). Inaddition, both side mirrors dip to give you an idea of where the curb is toalign your parking.

Front seats offer decent side support. They are firm. Betterside support isn’t really necessary because it isn’t a sportscar. In addition, the backs and seats are heated.

Second-row seating consists of captains chairs with excellentleg room. The third row is a bench that folds for extra cargo capacity. Mydaughter and son-in-law use the back seat for two child seats, while theolder grandson sits in a booster seat in the second row. With captainschairs in the second row, they can also get to the back row fairly easily.

To gain access to the rear compartment, the rear hatch glassopens independently of the hatch for loading smaller objects. There’sa remote on the key fob to open the hatch as well as a button on theoverhead console.

For interior storage, there’s a huge center console with anice tray on top, a covered cubby at the base of the center stalk, and asmall cell phone-sized cubby by the driver’s left knee. Cupholdersabound. I stopped counting.

I’ve always been impressed by the practicality of theYukon Denali. Yes, it’s luxurious and probably over-optioned, but ithas a lot to offer. As an old full size van owner, the Denali is actuallysmaller than I was used to, so the size didn’t bother me. Sadly, thefuel economy was about the same as in my big van of 20years ago.

© 2008 The Auto Page Syndicate

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