2022 GMC Sierra 1500 Denali Ultimate Tested: Aiming to Restore GMC’s Luster

Working as an automotive journalist is a surefire way to get to know all your neighbors. With a weekly (and sometimes daily) rotation of new metal circulating through your driveway, it's rare not to be asked about the vehicles when you dare poke your head outside. In my neighborhood, pickup trucks have been especially popular lately. The questions are usually the same, but a recent conversation involving the 2022 GMC Sierra 1500 Denali Ultimate threw me for a loop.

"Hey, what do you think of that Chevy?" came the inquiry. "The Chevy? Oh, no, that's a Ram TRX," I replied, pointing to our long-term test truck. "No, not that one. It was the boxy-looking truck," he said. "Oh!" I replied, "You mean the electric F-150? Yeah, it was pretty great!" "Yeah … maybe. I could have sworn it said 'Denali' on it," he said.

After an embarrassingly long pause, it came to me: "The 2022 GMC Sierra 1500 Denali Ultimate! I forgot I recently had that one." "Yes! What'd you think?" I paused for a second before replying, "Well, I forgot about it, didn't I?"

This admittedly unfair personal anecdote is a sign of a larger problem for the new luxe Sierra Denali Ultimate: With a high-horsepower electric Ford and an ascendent, stylish Ram across the way, the GMC (and its Chevrolet Silverado sibling) is a bit lost in the shuffle until the next-gen electric trucks arrive. However, the only ones suffering for this are potential buyers; the new Sierra Denali Ultimate is the most convincing Denali product in years. But is it enough as we enter the electric pickup truck revolution?

It's easy to forget, but back when it first launched, people held GMC's Denali brand in the same esteem as its Cadillac siblings and Lincoln rivals. In fact, MTV's TRL (for the younger crowd, it was a show where you called Carson Daly and asked him to play your favorite music videos) was just as likely to feature a Denali-branded GMC on spinners as it was a Cadillac or Lincoln.

Somewhere along the way, the Denali brand began to lose some luster as rivals stepped up from simply premium to truly luxurious. The new 2022 Sierra Denali Ultimate aims to fix that.

Designed to slot above the already spendy Sierra 1500 Denali, as well as the Sierra 1500 Denali Limited, which is the pre-refresh truck, albeit also a 2022-model-year offering that is confusingly sold alongside the new one, the Ultimate ups the ante by adding double-finished embossed leather, open-pore engineered-wood trim, aluminum accents, and a synthetic suede headliner. GMC finishes off the interior with a smart-looking black and tan color scheme, hand-stitched massaging seats, topographic maps of its namesake mountain etched into the wood, and much less plastic than is typically found in a GMC product.

The 2022 Sierra Denali Ultimate also steps things up on the tech front. Like the new Sierra 1500 AT4X, the Ultimate gets a massive 12.3-inch digital instrument cluster, a Google-capable 13.4-inch infotainment screen, and a 15.0-inch head-up display. Provided it has enough semiconductors handy, GMC also fits the Sierra 1500 Denali Ultimate with its Super Cruise advanced driver assistance system as standard equipment.

Outside, the Denali Ultimate gets the freshened face GMC fit to the Sierra 1500 for 2022, with the addition of black badges and accents, and black-trimmed 22-inch wheels. The Sierra 1500 Denali Ultimate is available exclusively in the ever-popular crew-cab, short-bed (in this case a 5.8-foot carbon-fiber job) configuration. A 3.0-liter turbodiesel I-6 making 277 hp and 460 lb-ft of torque is standard, but our test truck was fitted with the more popular gas-swilling 6.2-liter V-8, which makes 420 hp and 460 lb-ft. All 2022 GMC Sierra 1500 Denali Ultimates come standard with 10-speed automatic transmissions and four-wheel drive.

Pricing for the 2022 Sierra 1500 Denali Ultimate begins at $83,695, and this loaded test truck stickered for $84,190.

Although there's a fair bit of Spinal Tap-esque "but these go to 11!" nonsense in the Sierra 1500 Denali Ultimate's naming and positioning (why not simply make the standard Denali more luxurious, as there's clearly room for improvement there?), there's no denying that by turning up the luxury dial, GMC has finally built a compelling Denali product again. The seats, though a bit hard and short, are swathed in thick, rich-feeling leather, and the aluminum brightwork and convincingly real faux-wood trim do much to make the Sierra's cabin feel special. Some of the materials below the belt feel of lesser quality, but the opulent touches that benefit the front of the cabin thankfully also carry through to the back seats.

The Sierra 1500 Denali Ultimate's new tech touches are a welcome addition, too. Super Cruise continues to be the most confidence-inspiring driver's aid on the market, clearly communicating to the driver when it can take control, when it's going to automatically change lanes for you, and when it needs you to resume control. The integrated Google Maps is also done well. We especially appreciated the fact that when you enter a destination into the system, it tells you how many minutes of your route Super Cruise will be available for. This is a really thoughtful touch.

Whether or not Denali Ultimate buyers will ever put the Sierra 1500's bed to good use, the carbon-fiber cargo hold is impressively deep and wide. It features three tie-downs in every corner—an incredibly useful feature.

If the interior is so great, why had I forgotten about the Sierra 1500 Denali Ultimate when my neighbor queried me? Probably because it's a bit unremarkable to drive.

Surprisingly, the 6.2-liter V-8-powered pickup truck feels a bit poky compared to its crosstown rivals. The Sierra's V-8 feels big and lazy, and the 10-speed auto feels as if it's tuned for smooth, purposeful shifts, not quick up or down blats like you get in conventionally powered Ram 1500s, even if the GMC is ultimately quicker than all Rams without a dinosaur graphic under the hood. With a 0-60-mph run of 5.7 seconds and a quarter-mile time of 14.2 seconds at 98.5 mph, the Sierra 1500 Denali Ultimate isn't exactly slow. However, the performance of the rival F-150 Lightning Platinum, which will hit 60 mph in 4.0 seconds and can run through the quarter mile in 12.7 seconds at 105.9 mph, makes the GMC feel stately in comparison.

Despite the Sierra's standard magnetic dampers, there's room for improvements to ride quality, too. You pay for how good the Denali Ultimate's 22-inch wheels look with a firm, almost flinty ride. The GMC would likely be a far more luxe truck with a smaller wheel package.

Lastly, those big new screens could use a bit more work, too. The graphics are clear and crisp, and the layout is generally intuitive, but the screen responds slowly at times. There were also a handful of instances when menus and features—such as the fancy 16-way massaging front seats, activated by a physical control on your seat but adjusted via the screen—wouldn't load.

Although the fancy new interior does much to finally drag the Sierra Denali brand forward, it does so at a time when all of its competitors are redefining what a luxury truck is.