CHICAGO — This is a big city. Big buildings. Big avenues. Big sports teams. Big shoulders. Big swagger.
The big, bling-tastic three-row 17 1/2 foot-long 2023 GMC Yukon Denali fits right in.
Well, mostly. I drove GMC’s three-ton flagship to the Windy City for family Thanksgiving with the in-laws, where the big ute was as useful as 335-pound William “Refrigerator” Perry on Soldier Field’s goal line. And as awkward as the Fridge trying to squeeze into a booth at the Eleven City Diner on Wabash. There was never a dull moment.
Tell Mrs. Payne there is a family holiday gathering and she’ll start packing a week in advance. Good thing we had the Denali and its yawning 123 cubic feet of cargo room. We packed it with wrapped Christmas gifts, food, suitcases, computer bags, a cooler, tennis bag and a partridge in a pear tree.
I stepped on the Denali’s throaty 6.2-liter, 420 horsepower V-8 and we were in Chi-town in no time, cruising up State Street in our five-story-tall SUV — waving at people in their apartments — to our hotel on the Near North Side. You might think that we were an anomaly in the packed residential streets of Chicago, but you would be wrong.
Despite $4-a-gallon gas, a gridded street system laid out 100 years ago and parking spots the size of postage stamps, Chicago was bustling with giant SUVs and pickups. In our swanky North Side neighborhood I saw numerous Yukons, Chevy Tahoes, Ram 1500s, Ford F-150s and Expeditions — and just two Chevy Bolt EVs all weekend. As industry production fractures into government-forced electric vehicles — and the gas-guzzling utes to pay for them — it was a telling sight. Indeed, had I been driving an EV, I had few opportunities to charge it — downtown had but two fast-charger stalls.
My Denali Ultimate cost an eye-watering $97K, but its electronic gizmos are fast trickling down into more affordable vehicles — making huge utes more drivable in small places. Typical of GM vehicles, its ergonomics are superb with intuitive steering wheel scroll wheels to adjust cruise control, dials for climate control, buttons for self-parking. Yes, self-parking. On Walton Street west of the Magnificent Mile, I watched a white Yukon Denali Ultimate — the salt-colored opposite of my black-pepper model — parallel park itself. Then its mother hen clambered down from the cockpit, dragged a stroller from the back and hustled three kids into the nearby Lululemon.
She appeared a seasoned pro, and no doubt used GMC’s hands-free, Enhanced Automatic Parking Assist — one of my favorite urban features. GM also has one of the most advanced self-driving systems in the business (more on that later).
I didn’t bother to parallel park in Chicago; I tried something more difficult: parking in a garage.
My relatives live in a building built in 1925. The garage beneath it is a mouse maze designed for cars of that era, not the barges of today. The 6’5” tall Yukon barely cleared the entry door, but then its sensor system went to work to help me squeeze Denali into its designated spot.
So concerned is building management of damage to tenants’ cars that they’ve wrapped the garage’s thick pillars in rubberized bumpers. Denali customers needn’t worry. Thanks to a 360-degree camera view, I could see all four corners all the time. Come too close to a pillar and my seat would buzz. I had to saw back and forth numerous times to make it into my space — but make it I did.
I would ask only that GMC make the ute’s 10-inch infotainment screen bigger — think the massive 17-inch dash screen on the Cadillac Escalade — to better see multiple camera views. The bigger screen would also match the Denali’s fancy interior, which looks like a room in the Mar-a-Lago mansion.
The dash and doors were lined with open-pore Paldeo wood (laser-etched with a topographic map of Mount Denali, natch), panoramic sunroof and Alpine Umber-stitched massaging leather seats (what, no chandelier?). It's gorgeous, though shy of the sumptuous Jeep Grand Wagoneer I recently tested.
My 20-something nephews were suitably impressed when they piled in to go to grandma’s house for turkey dinner. Yukon Denali might have been able to fit all 37 members of my wife’s extended family, but on this night we just needed to transport five, including my 6’5” and 6’3” nephews. They could have fit easily into any of Yukon’s three rows. Yes, even row No. 3, made comfortable thanks to an independent rear suspension for better foot room. Two levers on the second-row seat sides offer third-row access by either sliding the seats — or just flattening them.
After patiently extracting Denali from the garage, we plunged into the thick of holiday traffic on I-94 north for suburban Winnetka. Super Cruise time.
The ‘23 Yukon Denali Ultimate is equipped with the General’s latest, expanded Super Cruise hands-free driving system that maps 400,000 miles of U.S. roads and automatically changes into the fastest-moving lane. Though not as ambitious as Tesla’s Autopilot (it won’t automatically follow navigation direction and exit the highway), it’s always improving.
That includes anticipating slower cars in its path and aggressively moving into the left lane. — too aggressively in some cases, forcing me to take over the steering lest the car behind me have to apply brakes.
The system is ready for prime time — but how about humans? This was the first time my millennial relatives had been in a hands-free chariot, and they were noticeably uneasy. Ultimately, they trusted their motorhead uncle’s judgment but they wouldn’t use the system themselves.
Super Cruise is more natural on long, less-crowded rural stretches of highway like I-94 between Gary, Indiana, and Ann Arbor. I went autonomous for miles, relaxing my hands on my knees as if I were sitting in a leather chair at home.
Don’t get too comfortable, though. The system struggled as rain began to fall south of Lake Michigan. “Super Cruise Unavailable. Sensor Can’t Find Lane Lines,” read the screen as Denali handed control back to me — the green monitor light on the steering wheel changing to red.
Happily, we weren’t challenged by fuel range. Truck-based three-row GM SUVs may guzzle gas like Bears fans guzzle beer after a win — but they have big bellies to store it in, too. With 24 gallons on board and 16 mpg, I only had to make one five-minute stop for fuel on our 600-mile round trip.
2023 GMC Yukon
Vehicle type: Front engine, rear- and four-wheel-drive six-or-seven-passenger SUV
Price: $59,295, including $1,795 destination fee ($97,745 Yukon Denali Ultimate 4WD as tested)
Powerplant: 5.2-liter V-8 engine; 6.2-liter V-8; 3.0-liter inline-6 cylinder turbo-diesel
Power: 355 horsepower, 383 pound-feet torque (5.2-liter V-8); 420 horsepower, 460 pound-feet torque (6.2-liter V-8); 277 horsepower, 468 pound-feet torque (diesel)
Transmission: 10-speed automatic
Performance: 0-60 mph, 6.0 seconds (Car and Driver); towing, 7,500 pounds (as tested)
Weight: 5,827 pounds (as tested)
Fuel economy: EPA est. mpg 14 city/20 highway/16 combined (as tested)
Report card
Highs: Room for lots of family; tech-tastic for city maneuvers
Lows: Small screen relative to competitors; gets pricey
Overall: 4 stars
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