Denali Won't Do: GMC Crafts a Fancier Yukon

Matthew Guy
by Matthew Guy

Yesterday, GMC unveiled the 2018 Yukon Denali Ultimate Black Edition, billed as an “exciting new package” featuring the very best in premium GMC styling and attributes.

That’s excellent marketing-speak, but we all know why there is suddenly an uber-Denali: the regular one just isn’t good enough for the school drop-off line anymore.

Jack has alluded to this phenomenon in the past. Coach purses were once held behind glass cases in the finest of department stores. After awhile, they were the de rigeur standard equipment for undergrads on college campuses. Once the brand was picked up by the masses, those looking for exclusivity moved on to something else. In a similar way, now that the Denali has enjoyed several years of popularity, it is almost too popular for those who just gotta have something better than their neighbor.

Enter the Ultimate Black Edition. It offers all the options available on the Yukon Denali, plus unique black-painted 22-inch wheels with chrome inserts, shiny exhaust tip and mirror caps, and is only available on Yukons painted Onyx Black. It has just enough visual differentiation, then, for the guy across the street with a Denali to know you have something just a little bit better.

This, naturally, will lead to that guy across the street either putting his Yukon into a wood chipper or heading down to the dealer to trade his now-useless Denali on the same one you have. Actually, both those options would be equally painful, given the trade-in value he’ll probably get for his six-month old SUV.

Available on 2WD or 4WD models (that this package is available on rear-drive Yukons is telling in and of itself), Ultimate Black Edition includes the Open Road Package, consisting of a power sunroof for the parents and rear-seat entertainment system to placate the kiddos. Power-Retractable Assist Steps are standard, as are Adaptive Cruise Control and Forward Automatic Braking.

The Denali sub-brand sells like proverbial hotcakes, with 2017 being strongest year ever for Denali sales. Yukon and Yukon XL lead the portfolio with Denali sales of 50.7 percent and 61.2 percent, respectively, so far this year. These achievements were led earlier in 2017 with the one millionth Denali sold since the premium-lux trim launched with the GMC Yukon in 1999.

Under the hood is the excellent 6.2-liter V8 engine, making 420 horsepower and 460 lb-ft of torque while sounding like Chewbacca on a bad fur day. It is wonderful. Starting this year, GMC started plugging the new 10-speed automatic into the Yukon. It makes for a compelling power team.

Anyway, GM is far from stupid. They’ll sell approximately as many of these high-profit machines they can possibly make and will probably create a Hyper Ultimate Black Edition for 2019, starting the cycle of self one-upmanship all over again.

[Image: General Motors]

Matthew Guy
Matthew Guy

Matthew buys, sells, fixes, & races cars. As a human index of auto & auction knowledge, he is fond of making money and offering loud opinions.

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  • Dukeisduke Dukeisduke on Nov 30, 2017

    Where's the whale penis leather? Oh, never mind - not eco-friendly enough.

  • Carlson Fan Carlson Fan on Nov 30, 2017

    "under the hood is the excellent 6.2-liter V8 engine, making 420 horsepower and 460 lb-ft of torque while sounding like Chewbacca on a bad fur day." Looking at used 1/2 ton GMC crew cab PU's & the only reason I am considering one in Denali trim is for the 6.2 V8. It's main purpose will be to tow & that motor is a frapp'in beast. Too bad a 1/2 ton GMC Sierra in SLT trim w/6.2 is like searching for a needle in a haystack.

  • Wolfwagen Is it me or have auto shows just turned to meh? To me, there isn't much excitement anymore. it's like we have hit a second malaise era. Every new vehicle is some cookie-cutter CUV. No cutting-edge designs. No talk of any great powertrains, or technological achievements. It's sort of expected with the push to EVs but there is no news on that front either. No new battery tech, no new charging tech. Nothing.
  • CanadaCraig You can just imagine how quickly the tires are going to wear out on a 5,800 lbs AWD 2024 Dodge Charger.
  • Luke42 I tried FSD for a month in December 2022 on my Model Y and wasn’t impressed.The building-blocks were amazing but sum of the all of those amazing parts was about as useful as Honda Sensing in terms of reducing the driver’s workload.I have a list of fixes I need to see in Autopilot before I blow another $200 renting FSD. But I will try it for free for a month.I would love it if FSD v12 lived up to the hype and my mind were changed. But I have no reason to believe I might be wrong at this point, based on the reviews I’ve read so far. [shrug]. I’m sure I’ll have more to say about it once I get to test it.
  • FormerFF We bought three new and one used car last year, so we won't be visiting any showrooms this year unless a meteor hits one of them. Sorry to hear that Mini has terminated the manual transmission, a Mini could be a fun car to drive with a stick.It appears that 2025 is going to see a significant decrease in the number of models that can be had with a stick. The used car we bought is a Mk 7 GTI with a six speed manual, and my younger daughter and I are enjoying it quite a lot. We'll be hanging on to it for many years.
  • Oberkanone Where is the value here? Magna is assembling the vehicles. The IP is not novel. Just buy the IP at bankruptcy stage for next to nothing.
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