- Unique Exterior Design Elements
- The Ultimate Denali Interior
- Super Cruise Comes to Sierra
- Towing With Super Cruise
- Final Thoughts
gmc sierra-1500 Full Overview
Have you ever wondered what would happen if you went through and just checked all the boxes? Well, when it comes to GMC’s 2022 Sierra 1500 pickup, this is it. The new Sierra 1500 Denali Ultimate is the best of the best. With a starting price of $82,795, this truck only has two important factory options to choose from: engine—either the 6.2-liter V-8 or 3.0-liter Duramax I-6 diesel—and color. That’s it. Everything else comes standard.
Unique Exterior Design Elements
Walking up to the truck, the most immediate way to know you’re dealing with a 2022 Sierra 1500 Denali Ultimate is the unique grille clad in dark Vader chrome accents. While most of the 2022 Sierra lineup will benefit from an updated grille and fascia, these dark chrome accents will only be found on the Denali Ultimate. The truck’s side badging will also bear the name Denali Ultimate, and feature a topographical map element of Mt. Denali. These trucks will feature unique 22-inch low-gloss black aluminum wheels with machined accents.
Standard on Denali Ultimate is GMC’s CarbonPro carbon fiber composite bed, and the Kicker audio system embedded in the MultiPro tailgate step. Overall, we’re quite impressed with the exterior styling of the Denali Ultimate, and love how all the pieces work well and complement each other. We especially love the combination when paired with GMC’s Onyx Black or Titanium Rush paint colors, even though we’re not typically fans of dark trucks.
The Ultimate Denali Interior
This is the interior that GMC should have had, ever since the new Sierra body style was introduced for 2019. The 2022 GMC Sierra 1500 Denali Ultimate features a single interior style. The Alpine Umber interior features full-grain leather seating surfaces with 16-way adjustability and massaging front seats. Authentic open-pore Paldao wood trim and leather accents are found throughout the new interior, along with topographical map patterns and the GPS coordinates of Mt. Denali. The truck has more than 40 inches of combined digital displays, which include a 15-inch head-up display, 12.3-inch driver instrument cluster, and 13.4-inch infotainment screen. The Denali Ultimate is also fitted with a 12-speaker Bose Premium Series audio system with Centerpoint surround sound, among other niceties.
Though our time in the Denali Ultimate was brief, we were thoroughly impressed. The truck is as quiet as it is comfortable, with the new massaging seats really stealing the show. While we typically haven’t been overwhelmed by Bose audio systems in the past, the new 12-speaker Premium Series system in the Denali Ultimate sounded fantastic at all volume levels and genuinely impressed us. We also appreciated the new console-mounted transmission shifter and, of all things, the placement of the wireless phone charging pad.
We really only have two relatively minor quibbles in regard to the interior, both of which come down to personal preference. The first involves the number of interior colors. GM in general has had a knack for combining many different color tones in their interiors. This Alpine Umber interior mates brown leather with dark brown wood, piano black, stainless steel, and two different contrast-stitching colors. While it’s a bit much for our eyes, it’s certainly not as bad as previous generations. Our second issue is with the use of Google maps and the company’s operating system for infotainment. Because we’re so deep in the Apple ecosystem, transitioning to Google is not something that can happen easily in a couple of hours. Typically, we could ignore this. However, attempting to use Apple CarPlay proved challenging, as the Google operating system didn’t seem to want to play nice. Again, these are minor and personal gripes—your mileage may vary.
Super Cruise Comes to Sierra
While we’re still getting used to the idea of Super Cruise, we can certainly appreciate that it is standard on the 2022 GMC Sierra 1500 Denali Ultimate. Super Cruise is available on the 2022 Sierra 1500 Denali, but it’s lumped in with the $6,500 Denali Reserve Super Cruise Package; at that point, you may as well opt for the Denali Ultimate.
Driving with Super Cruise is an easy task. Once you’re on one of the Super-Cruise-enabled roads (there are currently 200,000 miles of them, with more coming) and see the steering wheel icon appear on the driver information screen, a quick press of the steering-wheel-mounted button activates the system. When the LED lights on the steering wheel turn green, you’re free to take your hands off the wheel and let the truck do the driving. Of course, as with any Level 3 autonomous drive system, you still need to pay attention to the road and be ready to take over at any point. The system uses a steering-column-mounted camera to track eye and head movement to ensure that the driver is paying attention.
While we’ve been able to sample this latest generation of GM’s Super Cruise on a closed course, this marked our first time using it on the open road. Since we’ve been fans of the previous generation of Super Cruise for a while, it didn’t take long to win us over. Once we settled into the flow of traffic on California’s busy I-5, we activated Super Cruise and let the Sierra take over. This new generation of Super Cruise has the ability for the vehicle to not only change lanes on demand, but to also do so automatically, to overtake slower traffic. We’re happy to report that the system functioned as intended. As we sat in the driver seat, hands in our lap, the truck made easy work of maintaining our desired speed, passing slower traffic before returning to our selected lane of travel, sometimes even completing two lane changes to finish the task.
If you’re not used to this type of hands-free driving, using Super Cruise will take a bit of time to get used to. However, once you do, there’s no going back. We only wish there were more roads available to use the feature on.
Towing With Super Cruise
Another new feature for the 2022 GMC Sierra 1500 Denali Ultimate and its new version of Super Cruise is the ability to tow while driving hands-free. This one is going to take us a bit more time to adapt to. We tow thousands of miles each year and can completely see the benefit of Super Cruise while on straight, empty roads in the middle of nowhere. However, towing in heavy traffic is an entirely different beast. GMC provided us with a new Sierra 1500 Denali Ultimate hitched to a large box trailer, and said to have fun on the same crowded I-5 freeway we had just driven unladen. Once on the freeway and settled into traffic, we activated Super Cruise. In its defense, the system worked as advertised. However, what the system doesn’t account for is semi-trucks and trailers that like to hug the line or even creep over. We found that Super Cruise did an OK job of staying centered in a lane (if not a touch toward the left lane line). It doesn’t adjust for vehicles that creep a bit too close for comfort, though. While we were never in any particular danger, the distance between trailers often made for a more nerve-racking experience than if we had been in control of the steering.
Aside from our discomfort with how close the trailer would get to other vehicles, we found that Super Cruise did a good job of leaving enough room to properly stop the truck and trailer when traffic slowed, even abruptly, and it would accelerate at a proper speed when traffic began moving again as well. With a trailer in tow, the system can no longer make lane changes on its own due to the rearward sensors being blocked. To change lanes, the driver can take control of the wheel (the indicator lights will turn from green to blue) and complete the maneuver as needed. Once complete, the driver can again let go of the wheel when the indicator lights turn back to green. There’s no need to deactivate the system in order to change lanes despite the fact that it can’t do it for you.
Final Thoughts
We still have a difficult time believing that automakers have yet to find the ceiling on the light-duty pickup market, but if that means we get trucks like the 2022 GMC Sierra 1500 Denali Ultimate then we’re OK with it. The Denali Ultimate is stylish on the outside, classy on the inside, offers plenty of power, and drives fantastically. This truck really is the ultimate Sierra.
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Keyword: 2022 GMC Sierra 1500 Denali Ultimate First Drive