2024 GMC Yukon Reviews

Hot on the heels of the Ford Ranger Super Duty, is a Super Duty version of the Everest in the pipeline?With the upcoming GMC Yukon Denali the new SUV towing champion in Australia at 3628kg – pipping out the Toyota LandCruiser, Isuzu MU-X, Ineos Grenadier, Toyota Prado and regular Everest amongst others by just 128kg – a new high watermark has been set.In contrast, the newly-announced Ranger Super Duty breaks new ground among medium-sized utes by offering a 4500kg braked towing capacity, suggesting that an Everest Super Duty may have the might to approach that, given its kinship to the Ranger.When asked if a more rugged, go-anywhere workhorse version of the Everest was under consideration, Ford Australia President and CEO Andrew Birkic did not dismiss the notion.“I don't think we've done that yet,” he told the media at Ford Australia’s Centennial anniversary in Melbourne earlier this month.“But you never say never.”Other Ford engineers were less forthcoming, but suggested that the Everest’s transformation from ride/handling/refinement-focused family SUV to a Super Duty-style 4x4 workhorse would be an “extremely challenging” task.While both the Ranger and Everest share the same T6.2 ladder-frame platform, they differ in the mid and rear chassis sections, chiefly to accommodate the latter’s second and third row occupant structures, as well as its coil-sprung rear suspension set-up.With beefier springs and dampers, as well as a solid-axle leaf-sprung rear suspension design out back, the Ranger was already better suited for its transformation to Super Duty compared to the Everest.It’s also worth keeping in mind that a large portion of the Ranger Super Duty’s expected consumer base will be from the emergency services, forestry, mining and agricultural sectors, necessitating the ute’s cab-chassis flexibility.Still, Ford is in the business of making money in Australia, and so if there is demand for an Everest Super Duty, it will investigate that from a business case perspective.Obviously, being the first ex-factory mid-sized ute of its type anywhere in the world to offer a 4500kg braked towing capacity, even the Blue Oval bosses have no real idea how the market will react to it.Finally, at the same Ford Centenary event, Ford Motor Company Chief Executive, William Clay Ford Jr., did extol the Australian-based T6.2 team’s unique capabilities and talents, so who knows what may come next?“We have so much opportunity in front of us, and you know, we've made Australia a Centre of Excellence for Ford,” the brand’s global number one exec said.“They've done a great job. Just look at the sales results of Ranger and Everest… and Ranger is now (sold in) 180 different countries, which is incredible.“So, yeah, this is a great team here, and they will have opportunity in the future.“This is a unique market, as you know, better than I do, in terms of the requirements, and that's why it's interesting. On Super Duty, there was a real hesitance in Dearborn to put the Super Duty name on something other than the F-Series (full-sized truck).“But (Ford Australia) convinced the management team, us, to extend the Super Duty, because they knew the engineering team here, but as importantly, the kind of duty cycles you have here really warranted the Super Duty name.”

Why this big American V8 is copping a last-second price-rise.

Think buying the biggest, baddest ute or SUV will keep you safe in a crash? Think again.New research from the US Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS), which performs a similar role to the Australasian New Car Assessment Program (ANCAP) in Australia, shows a bigger car does not necessarily translate to it being the safest.The research was conducted in the US, which is a country that knows a thing or two about super-sized vehicles. The IIHS examined crashes involving two vehicles that involved either SUVs or pick-up trucks over a roughly 10 year period to examine fatality rates. The vehicles also had to be between one and four years old at the time of the accident to present a proper like-for-like crash comparison.It found if your car was lighter than the fleet average there was an increased risk of a fatal accident, but no matter how much heavier than the average your vehicle was than the average it posed very little benefit, according to the data.The average weight for a  vehicle in the US is about 2270kg, which is about the same as thef the average dual-cab ute such as the Toyota HiLux or Ford Ranger.The research found the heavier vehicle the more danger it posed to others in a crash. For every roughly 225kg above the fleet average the rate of fatalities dropped by only one per million registered vehicles, while increasing the fatality rate of the other vehicle by seven.“For American drivers, the conventional wisdom is that if bigger is safer, even bigger must be safer still,” IIHS President David Harkey said. “These results show that isn’t true today. Not for people in other cars. And — this is important — not for the occupants of the large vehicles themselves.”Australian vehicles are on average smaller than those in America, but that is changing as a new wave of super-sized vehicles are gaining traction Down Under.Aussies now have the choice of four different US-style pick-up trucks: the Ram 1500, Chevrolet Silverado, Ford F-150 and Toyota Tundra.The GMC Yukon, which is bigger than any SUV currently on sale, arrives later this year.Each generation of vehicle generally grows in every direction, slowly bringing up the fleet average.The head of ANCAP Carla Hoorweg told CarsGuide last year it had concerns about the proliferation of giant utes on our roads.“We’ve definitely got concerns. There are a lot of community concerns we are fielding,” said Hoorweg.“We’re looking at vehicles that are being designed for the US market, they’re not necessarily going to have a focus on pedestrian protection or vulnerable road user protection, that’s not a focus in those regulations. So we know there’s going to be a gap there.”“We are considering what our options are around physical testing, so there’s potential for pedestrian impact testing,” she said.This test involves firing adult and child head forms and leg forms at the bonnet, windscreen, front bumper of a vehicle to determine how well it can physically protect pedestrians from serious head, pelvis and leg injury.ANCAP’s new focus comes as its US equivalent, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), plans to crackdown on large pick-ups, SUVs and vans after pedestrian fatalities rose by 57 per cent between 2013 and 2022.

Aussies can now get their hands on one of the biggest rigs on the road — the 2025 GMC Yukon SUV.

GMC has introduced its second-edition GMC Sierra Denali EV pickup in the US ahead of the brand's local launch with the petrol-powered GMC Yukon Denali SUV next year.

It’s no secret Australians love SUVs — and the bigger, the better. Big, off-road capable models including the Toyota LandCruiser and Ford Everest are amongst the best-selling models in the country, but the market is in for a shock with the arrival of an all-new contender.

First we had big American utes, now the jumbo SUVs from the US are headed our way.

General Motors Special Vehicles (GMSV) announced it will import GMC’s facelifted 2025 Yukon large SUV to Australia, where it will be locally converted from left- to right-hand drive. 

People who enjoy the taste and sensation of dust in their teeth no doubt get a lot of joy out of tearing over wild terrain in their ATV or UTV, but nothing quite beats the combination of convenience, capability and toughness that you get from a full-sized off-road 4x4. So far, however, if you want a vehicle like this but are determined to save the planet at the same time by choosing an electric powertrain, your options are somewhat limited, at least in Australia. But that will change.There are certain four-wheel-drive (4WD) snobs who’d liken driving an electric 4WD to piloting a battery-operated, remote-controlled Traxxas car, but the prejudice is uncalled for: Electric Vehicles (EVs) have the grunt and torque to match any internal-combustion-engine (ICE) vehicle, and the technology in them is only getting better. All-Wheel-Drive (AWD) is similar to 4WD in that power can be used for both the front and rear wheels for maximum traction, but 4WD is the only one of the two options that has serious off-road capabilities - in this article, we’ll be focusing solely on the latter. Currently if you want an electric 4WD in Australia, your options are quite limited. First, it’s important to know that currently there are two main contenders when it comes to the 4WD electric car: conversions, which are petrol or diesel vehicles that have been modified to EVs thanks to a conversion kit, and ground-up electric 4WD vehicles that are designed as EVs from the get-go. At the moment conversions are only available for commercial use on large private grounds, and not the consumer market. Ground-up 4WD EVs are only for sale from specialist start-ups rather than established car manufacturers at this stage, but this will likely change in the not-too-distant future. With the popularity of EVs set to increase drastically over the coming years, it will only be a matter of time before mainstream car brands are mass-producing electric 4WD vehicles. And indeed, one of the most famous in this field, Hummer, is not far off doing so.Until that time comes, here’s what’s available, globally, and what’s eventually coming to a showroom near you. GMC are throwing down the gauntlet and giving petrol and diesel-powered V8 4x4s a serious run for their money with a Hummer EV pick-up truck with a driving range of more than 560km from a 200kWh battery and an engine that delivers a whopping 2033Nm of torque. Read that again - two Newton kilometres of torque - it should be able to tow any reasonably sized planet. Excellently, the Hummer EV has a ‘crab mode’ that allows it to drive diagonally, and an off-road 'extract mode' can raise the air suspension approximately 15cm, giving the armoured undercarriage extra clearance. It went on sale in the US in 2022 and is currently offered in both pick up and SUV forms - but currently no plans have been announced to release either model in Australia. ​Yep, we know the BYD ute will launch before the end of 2024 with a plug-in hybrid drivetrain the brand dubs DM-i (for dual-motor intelligence), sporting electric motors on both axles supported by a 1.5-litre turbocharged engine. A similar system employed in BYD’s Fang Cheng Bao 5 SUV delivers a whopping 500kW/750Nm.However, this will just be the beginning for the BYD ute, with a fully electric version said to be roughly 12 months behind the plug-in. It has yet to be seen, even overseas, but if it can deliver on the same value and performance which other BYD models have been able to, expect it to be a hit.Toyota might be slow to the EV game, but expect it to make a statement when it finally arrives. While it may be a while off before we see a fully electric equivalent to the best-selling diesel HiLux, the EPU concept is perhaps a first look at what we can expect.To be clear, the EPU is about half a size down from the HiLux, measuring 5070mm long, and rather than a ladder chassis, it will ride on a battery electric platform more akin to a standard car platform. A production version isn’t expected until 2026, and it is unclear whether the EPU will be only for left-hand drive markets, where smaller pick-ups like the Hyundai Santa Cruz and Ford Maverick sell in higher volumes.It may look like something out of a science fiction film, but the Tesla Cybertruck has serious power and off-road capability: 547km range, 4990kg towing capacity, a tray of nearly two metres and over 400mm ground clearance. It may or may not make it to Australian shores, but expect it to turn some serious heads if it ever does arrive.We were one of the first Aussie outlets to get a chance to review it overseas, check our story out here.US American electric car start-up Rivian has stepped up to the plate to take on Tesla with two off-road EVs with 4WD capability: the R1T ute and the R1S wagon. Both Ford and Amazon have invested hundreds of millions of dollars in the company, which eventually has plans to sell the R1T and the R1S in Australia. The most notable thing is that the R1T will feature Individual Wheel Drive (IWD), essentially assigning a motor to each wheel, which could make it the most capable off-roader to ever hit the market. Canoo is a US-based start up which specialises in light commercial-style vehicles, and plans to launch a ‘lifestyle vehicle’, delivery van, and of course a pick-up truck.While Canoo has been beset with production delays and issues since its inception in 2017 its range of funky but rugged looking vehicles lean fully into the idea of building a van or a ute around a skateboard chassis underneath, making for a particularly cool design formula, which is also very modular.The brand is taking pre-orders in the US at the moment, promising the choice of AWD or RWD, over 370kW of power, at least 320km of driving range and is targeting over 800kg of payload. Time will tell if it can escape its troubled start-up phase, but the brand is already looking to produce right-hand drive versions of its vehicles for use by the USPS.If Bob Dylan going electric back in the ’60s caused controversy, wait till you see what happens now that Ford has created an all-electric version of its iconic F-150 model. Although unlikely to make it to Australia, at least for the time being, the F-150 Lightning arrived in the US in 2022 with two battery options, Standard and Extended Range, with the latter offering 483km of range and the former 370km.In a glimmer of hope for those who would accept nothing else as an electric truck, the F150 Lightning has been spotted in Australia having been converted to right-hand drive by a third-party outfit AusEV.The Silverado EV is an entirely new proposition when compared to the combustion version currently converted to right-hand drive here in Australia.Instead it sits on GM’s new Ultium EV platform which underpins other new fully electric vehicles in its range. Big batteries are matched by long driving ranges (644km+) and powerful electric motors, which combined can produce up to 495kW/1058Nm. It also sports a payload of 505kg and can tow over 3500kg.Unfortunately it seems, despite a renewed push back into Australia with its Cadillac premium arm, General Motors is as yet uninterested in bringing the Silverado EV to Australia as a factory-backed option.With laws making the sale of ICE vehicles illegal in the near-future in some countries as well as Australia’s government finally making moves on emissions, expect everyone from Mitsubishi to Land Rover to have electric 4x4s on the market in the coming years.

Big, bold and nearly ready to transport large Australian families (or visiting heads of state) the GMC Yukon has landed on local soil with local pre-release testing now underway before the eight-seat luxury SUV hits GMSV showrooms in the first half of 2025.