- It seems like every new pickup truck you hear
about these days is an electric pickup truck
but for a large segment of the buying public,
electric pickup trucks just don't work quite well just yet.
These are people who tow significant amounts of weight
and tow it decent distances as well and electric pickups,
while they're good for some things like going
off road in silence or quick jaunts around town
if you're just maybe towing your boat into the lake,
they're pretty good for that.
But if you really do need to do serious trucky things,
I'm talking big weight, big trailers,
really going offroad in some difficult conditions,
you really do need a heavy duty pickup truck
and there are no electric versions
of those just yet, but that's okay.
GMC has just updated the new 2024 Sierra HD
for the people who really do need to use their trucks
for trucky things.
Now, what have they changed?
Well, come with us, we'll take you
through the new '24 Sierra HD
and see where GMC has made some improvements.
One area that they really didn't need to change much
because quite frankly,
we think it's an area that they got right
on the last big redesign
of the full size trucks is the styling.
You've got some new headlights, you've got new grills,
you've got new bumpers,
but the truck overall still looks pretty much like it did
and that's okay.
One area that you do have something new is,
there's a new trim level.
This is the new GMC Sierra HD Denali Ultimate.
Now, there is an ultimate package that you can add
onto the Denali for the 2023 model year, but for '24,
the Denali Ultimate becomes its own trim level,
topping the range of the pantheon of Sierra HD trucks
which consists of the basic pro grade, the SLE,
then the SLT.
You have a new AT4 which is the offroad truck,
but you have the very new AT4X
which is the luxurious version of the offroad truck.
You have the super popular Denali
and now you have at the top, the Denali Ultimate.
How do you recognize the Denali Ultimate?
Well upfront,
you've got what they call Vader dark chrome trim.
Now, it's kind of hard to see on this truck
in which the body color is actually very similar
to that dark chrome, but when you compare it
with a normal Denali like this one,
you could see the parts that are actually bright chrome
and the parts that are dark chrome
on the Denali Ultimate.
You've got 20 inch machined wheels with gloss black accents
and the badging has now changed for the '24 model year,
you've got Ultimate up here, you've got 2,500 or 3,500
now down in the front bumper.
One area that they didn't need to change much
because quite frankly, not a lot was wrong
with it was under the hood.
The standard engine is still a 6.6 liter gasoline VA,
making 401 horsepower and 464 pounds feet of torque.
That's unchanged from the '23 model year,
but for '24, the six feet automatic transmission is gone,
replaced now by the standard
Allison 10 speed automatic transmission.
Four more forward gears to play with means
that it should really improve your towing performance,
given that it has shorter spaces between the gears.
The optional engine
is a turbocharge 6.6 liter Duramax diesel V8 engine
and it now makes 470 horsepower and 975 pounds feet
of torque, both of which are a bit
of a bump from the '23 numbers.
The new power trains also come with some improvements
to towing capacity.
This is a 2,500 single rear wheel model
and it is the most popular version of the CRHD
and now it can tow 4,000 pounds more than it could before.
The tow rating for this particular model is 21,900 pounds.
Now, if you want a maximum towing capacity,
super ultimate incredible towing rig,
you're going to need a 3,500
in a very specific configuration
but you can actually tow 36,000 pounds using a gooseneck
or fifth wheel trailer
which is probably more than you're ever going to need.
Maybe, I mean, buyers
of these trucks actually do tow those kinds of numbers.
Now, there's no new bed technology,
there's still no carbon bed available on the HD,
but one area that GMC has definitely
brought some new technology
to the party is in the towing technology.
They've added a couple of features
to the GMC Pro grade trailering system.
You can now add accessory cameras to the trailer
and have as many as 14 different camera views all
from the dash of your truck.
They've added the transparent trailer system
for gooseneck and fifth wheel trailers
so that you can actually put an accessory camera
on the back of your trailer, tie it into the truck system,
and you push a button on the dash and you get a view
behind you as if the trailer wasn't actually there.
That is an extraordinary technology
and it works really well in other versions that I've driven.
You're driving along
and suddenly you push a button, no trailer behind you.
You can see vehicles coming up on you.
You can see vehicles to the side of you.
It helps immensely in creating an ease of towing.
The blind spot system now actually extends down the side
of the truck and the side of the trailer as well
so you actually get a better idea
of what's going on around you.
All of it is meant to help you tow
with more ease and more confidence.
Now, the one thing it doesn't do that Ford just announced
on the Super Duty is that it's not going
to actually detect a hitch ball and back the truck up
automatically with you operating just the brake.
So in terms of that whole best
in class trailering technology,
I'm gonna have to call this a tie
with the new Ford Super Duty,
at least until we've tested both.
So the exterior styling has been updated
but hasn't changed much
and the power trains have been updated
but haven't changed much and the capabilities
of the truck have been updated but haven't changed much.
So really what has changed much for '24?
This has, the interior.
It is all new for 2024
and it rectifies a problem
that we have really dinged General Motors for pretty hard
since they did the redesign of the pickup trucks a couple
of years ago and that they updated the interior
but it didn't feel all that updated.
It felt still pretty much like the old vehicle did
in terms of its material quality
and its design and some of the questionable layout choices.
All of that is wiped away with this,
the '24 interior because this interior is identical
to the light duty versions of the GMC Sierra, the 1500
and that's a very good thing.
In here in the Denali Ultimate version,
it gets all of the luxury treatments.
There's leather pretty much everywhere, grab handles,
steering wheel, full seats, front and rear, center console,
even the lower half
of the instrument panel is now wrapped in leather.
That wood is real wood and it's actually etched
with the topography of Mount Denali,
just in case you need to reference a map
while you're, I guess, traversing the mountain.
The headliner is microsuede, as are the pillars,
both the A pillars and the B pillars.
So it's a really, really nice interior.
It's comfortable, it's well designed,
it's well thought out, it looks great.
And there's also a lot
of technology that's been brought into here as well.
You have a lot of digital screens in here.
You have a 12.3 inch digital instrument cluster
that's available on some trims,
you also have an optional 13.4 inch landscape format
touchscreen as well.
Now the whole thing is running
the new Google built-in operating system
which the jury is still a little bit out on.
We've had some issues
in getting this to actually work
in pretty much any automaker's vehicles
that we've tried it in,
so I think that may be still ironing out some
of the glitches in Google's operating system,
but it looks fantastic.
It does work rather quickly.
It is big and clear and easy to use
but they haven't gone completely touchscreen,
there are still hard buttons on a number
of components and the climate control
also has great big easy to use controls as well.
The difference between the heavy duty
and the light duty is right here,
column shifter for the heavy duties, not a console shifter
and that's enabled them to open this area up a little bit
and actually offer an accessory panel for Upfitters.
So if you've got things like a snow plow
that you wanna operate?
That can snap in pretty much right here.
There's also a 15 inch heads up display that's available
on some models.
So you've got a lot of different digital screens to look at
but they're reconfigurable, they're easy to use,
they're bright, they're high up enough
that you're not taking your eyes off the road too much.
All in all, this is such a dramatic improvement
for General Motors interiors that it kinda wipes away
all the bad memories of what they did
during the last go round.
If you want one of these Denali Ultimate trim levels
which GMC says are probably going to make
up a significant portion of the number of CR HDs
that it sells, well, you can have an interior
in any color you want as long as it's brown.
Technically it's called Alpine Umber
and it really does look good,
especially with all of the custom stitching
and the embossed topography that we're seeing here.
And the one thing that you're gonna have plenty of
in any HD truck is room.
The thing is just cavernous, plenty of room for five
or I bet you, you know what?
You could probably even fit four people back here
for a total of six,
even though there's really only five seat belts.
But the one thing about the Denali Ultimate is
that sometimes you'll see luxurious appointments drop off
from the front seat to the back seat, not so in here.
From the laser etched grills
of the 12 speaker Bose sound system
to the leathered coverings on all the seats
and all of the stitching,
it's just as nice in the back seat as it is
in the front seat and that's rare.
If you're just looking
for a regular Denali instead of the Denali Ultimate,
they've made some changes to that too for 2024.
The biggest changes obviously come in the styling up front
where you've got the same kind of design changes.
You've got a new grill, you've got new headlights,
you've got new bumpers, but for the regular Denali,
you get the bright chrome work instead
of the dark Vader chrome
that you have on the Denali Ultimate.
You also have some new 18 inch machine aluminum wheels
which definitely give it that super chunky look
on this dual rear wheel model.
They certainly do look the business, don't they?
We don't have pricing yet
for the new '24 Sierra HD, that's actually going
to come closer to the trucks on sale date
which GMC says is going to be the first quarter of 2023.
Not all versions
of the Sierra HD will be arriving
in the first quarter, however,
the AT4X which is the new more luxurious version
of the AT4 off road trim is not going
to come until later in the year.
Now when we have pricing and when we've had our test drive
and when we have more information to bring you
about the new 2024 GMC Sierra HD,
you'll find everything at cars.com.