GMC Yukon Denali SUV
Manufactured year: 2007
Product Summary
The good: The 2007 GMC Yukon Denali sports a speedy and accurate GPS navigation system, plus all-wheel drive, solid handling, and a gaggle of safety features.
The bad: This pricey SUV suffers from poor mileage, an erratic voice-recognition system, cramped seating, excessive road noise, no Bluetooth option, and a paltry three-month subscription to XM Radio.
The bottom line: This latest child in the Yukon family promises a lot, but fails to fully deliver as a SUV or a family car--especially for $54,000. There are more powerful, plush, and/or affordable SUVs available.
Specs: Body style: SUV; Trim levels: Denali; Available Engine: Gas
Review by CNet:
* Reviewed by: Robert Luhn
* Edited by: Wayne Cunningham
* Reviewed on: 09/28/2006
The 2007 GMC Yukon Denali is aptly named. It's an SUV as big as the great outdoors, with a lust for life--not to mention gas, double-wide parking spaces, and your wallet. This urban tank promises a lot, but doesn't quite deliver. It's a six-seater that really holds only four people. (The third row of seats is for those practicing Lamaze or with extremely short legs.) It's an all-wheel-drive SUV not really suited for off-road, thanks to a piddly 9-inch ground clearance. It also gulps fuel like an F-16, barely managing 14mpg in mixed city and urban-highway driving.
The interior materials aren't designed to attract the luxury-minded. The Denali's first and second row of seats are leather clad, but that's about it. The carpet is rough and basic black, the dashboard and doors plasticky, highlighted with strips of painfully faux wood paneling.
The seating up front is comfy, complete with 12-way adjustment (including lumbar support), seat heaters, and plenty of headroom. The second row of seats likewise has heaters, but legroom vanishes if anyone up front moves their seat back. The third row of seats is useless for adults--there's no leg well, forcing a knees-to-chin sitting posture. Getting out of the Yukon from the back seats is a birth experience.
One plus: the Denali can haul. The third-row seats pop right out; and, in a nice technological feat, the second-row seats can fold flat or tumble up flush against the front seat with the push of a button. That leaves a cargo hold up to 60 inches deep, 49 to 55 inches wide, and up to 42 inches high--enough to transport a dinette set with room to spare.
Most of the mod cons
The Denali sports a sweet suite of technology--GPS navigation, CD/DVD/MP3 player, XM satellite radio, and DVD playback for the kiddies in the backseat. Controlling music and navigation is a cinch via a 5.5-by-3.5-inch color LCD panel that's front and center. (The navigation/stereo unit is the same as found in the 2007 GM Yukon SLT and the 2007 Cadillac Escalade.) The screen is bright and sharp, and easily read even in direct sunlight. The screen is lined with hard buttons--on the left for navigation, on the right for audio. The controls are fairly obvious and, along with some old-fashioned knobs, not too distracting to manipulate while driving.
GMC Yukon Denali SUV full review
