- The Yukon Denali is the largest and daring SUV ever released in Australia.
- Despite its immense framework, the GMC Yukon Denali feels smooth enough for the city.
- At the price of $ 174,990, you get a serious blow for your money.
It is longer than a Land Cruiser, wider than Ranger Raptor, and takes more tarmac than your average parking lot of Coffee Strip. But that did not prevent General Motors from sending his largest, daring and cheeky SUV to the Australian coasts.
GMC Yukon Denali arrives in Australia
Meet him GMC Yukon DenaliA rolling statement of American excess which does not apologize. He can accommodate eight years, drinks like a sailor (graciousness of a v8 bioturbo-biofuel-biotch-something of 6.3 liters), and is delivered to each characteristic that opens, firm, bend, cool or connect.
The interior will not look like anything you find on our roads. It is more Aspen Lodge than the Australian SUV. Everything garnished in wood. Apple Carplay. Android Auto. The cup holders large enough for a route 44. It is not so much a vehicle that it is a first class mobile living room with license plates.
But what really surprised me (beyond the pure presence of the thing) is technology. The Yukon Denali flows absolutely in the screens. There is so much glass and digital real estate inside, you almost need a co -pilot just to take everything. A 16.8 -inch central screen, a 15 -inch head high unit, 12.6 -inch twin entertainment screens on the back, it's like someone decided to put wheels on their original cinema … for passengers, of course.
And yet, despite all technology, it does not seem overwhelming. He does not try to be a spacecraft or a dream of fever from Silicon Valley. Unlike many electric vehicles that flood the market, GMC Yukon Denali always feels like an appropriate car; A powerful, permanent and common presence of the road which has not forgotten what driving is. All the gadgets are there, but they are carefully integrated. They support experience rather than distracting them. It's refreshing, really.
Then there are the rims: 24-inch monsters that fill the wheel passages as if they were born there. No clumsy gaps, no strange proportions. Just huge and beautifully balanced wheels that give the Yukon an almost conceptual position. It sounds right, especially when he is parked in front of our office all week.
The air suspension also helps. A tap and he goes up as if he were about to take off. Press again and it backs up in its installation of obstacles and road flow. It is the kind of detail that makes it a shoot even when it is motionless. There is a real presence.
The Yukon Denali: The largest SUV on the market?
Oh, and have we mentioned that it is an eight places? Not one of these “technically eight if the rear row is everything and yoga carpet”. It is a Hollywood SUV suitable for eight places. The genre you get driver on the way to a red carpet.
With complete rows of adult seats, plus a third row that actually corresponds to humans, it is spacious, soft and strangely democratic. Each seat looks like the right seat. If you have already tried to push three adults at the back of a European and stranded SUV, it is your buyout vehicle.
With Fashion Week about to go down on Sydney, the real question is: how many models could you really integrate this thing? I would dare to say, comfortably more than eight. But it would be illegal, so of course, we won't. But we could.
However, the GMC Yukon Denali is not only a car; It is an experience, a declaration and a rolling VIP suite that turns each head on Oxford Street. Too big for Australia? Probably not. Just big enough to remind us that sometimes, more really East more.
I took the Yukon to Bondi, people half expectations to stop and look as if I had drove in a spacecraft. But that's the thing: it's not a corvette. It is not a crazy style machine. Despite its size and presence, Denali behaves with a surprising restraint. Of course, it has a grille the size of a King-size bed and a GMC badge which could double as a gym equipment, the two I absolutely like (yes, I am superficial), but that is not shouting. It gets it.
It is this balance that makes the Yukon so interesting. It is large enough for the country, quite smooth and refined for the city, and daring without being a dairy. No sub-starting neon, no caricatured body, just a well-executed luxury SUV that has its space without trying too hard.
Another thing. When you head for the Yukon Denali and see it head -on, there is this feeling of immediate presence. This before the square, the imposing grille, the pure verticality of all this … It releases a kind of silent intimidation. Not aggressive, but shamelessly confident.
Take this 8 -seater SUV for a road test
If you are the kind of person who wants a large car, easy to enter and go out and who carries a little of this badass atmosphere, it is for you. It is daring without being unpleasant, luxurious without being precious, and makes no effort to hide what it is: an appropriate SUV built for people who want more.
All that is important, the price: $ 174,990 plus road costs. Not exactly the pocket change, but stack it against something like a BMW X7, and suddenly, Denali begins to look like a serious value. You get eight real seats, a monstrous V8, an air suspension, technology for days and a presence on the road to share traffic like the Red Sea.
I dare to say, it's really worth a road test. If you are even vaguely on the market for a full luxury SUV, this thing deserves your attention. Just be warned, once you see these 24 -inch rims in the flesh, it is difficult to move away.
