Long-term review: GMC Sierra SLT

It’s time to get back down to earth, literally, and step out of our massive GMC Sierra SLT. The long-termer is being replaced by something that could just about fit in the Sierra’s truck bed; a teeny tiny little BMW M235i.

We managed to put a few thousand kilometres on the truck since it first arrived at wheels to take up two parking spots. It made a couple of enemies on the way — namely our photographer Stefan who thought it was the worst camera car ever — but it made more friends than that anyway. wheels’ ad sales manager Aniruddh took a spin over a couple of days and immediately grew a bush of chest hair. He begged to swap me a GMC Acadia Denali for ‘my’ Sierra but I wasn’t having it.

Of course, I was jealous every time I spotted a Sierra Denali on the road — it’s got an exclusive and impossibly pretentious grille, although I do like the honesty of the base models. The Denali is seriously posh inside, for a truck, but the Sierra SLT comes across more self-assured. It’s just a blue-collar truck. I’m sure nobody gave me a second glance, but I liked to imagine people were checking me out wondering what oil rig I was off to next.

Perhaps the only thing I could’ve used out of the Denali is the Bose sound system, but that didn’t bother me, since the standard sound system is actually fine.

Most of all I’m a bit perplexed by the 6.2-litre V8 engine they share. The 420bhp is standard in the Denali, and we previously had a Yukon too, for a month, which was also a Denali. That one used to spin the rear tyres at will, but my truck’s — even though I thought it would be a smoker since there’s so little weight over the back live-axle — V8 wouldn’t budge.

A neat trick is the cylinder deactivation though, which means this thing is surprisingly economical on the highway cruise. However, low marks for the air-conditioning — under full power the compressor just cuts out and you get hot air coming out of the vents. Then it needs a half-minute or so to get back to freezing. The engine can’t do two things at once, I guess.

To be fair you do get remote start, so you can get the cabin cooled with a push of a button before you get into the car. And then to actually start the truck you stick a proper key in. I always prefer that to a push-button start.

I’ve been convinced; right now the Sierra is the best truck to get, especially in single-cab shorty form, at least until the all-new, aluminium-intensive Ford F-150 arrives. wheels is driving that in Texas this week, so stay tuned for a full verdict soon.

The progress

This story first appeared on wheels in October 2014