2019 GMC Sierra Denali shows us its stuff in Newfoundland

[MUSIC] [BLANK_AUDIO] Over the years the GMC Sierra has earned a reputation for being one of the most practical and dependable trucks on the market. But it hasn't exactly been known for being cutting edge. In 2019, that all changes this truck is New Frontier and loaded with enough new features to make a gadget nerd like myself, get pretty excited, but walled off sounds good on paper, the real question is, how does it actually work in the real world. And that's what we've come here to find out in beautiful Newfoundland to put it to the test. [MUSIC] It all starts up front with this massive new grill, which in the Denali trim is wrapped in enough chrome to blind any woodland creature that has the misfortune of wandering in your path. And if that doesn't do it, the new LED lighting all around surely will. Fender badges now proudly advertise the size of your truck's engine Because there's, of course, no replacement for displacement. However, you won't need any badgering to show just how big the truck itself is. The new Sierra is bigger in every way and about an inch longer. But, crucially, the wheel base has grown by more than three inches, giving the truck an even shorter overhang than before. And despite that growth, it's about 360 pounds lighter than last year. But far and away the coolest design feature of the 2019 Sierra, is actually the tailgate. Because they put a tailgate, within a tailgate. And then there's a tailgate inside of that, even. Now, of course, it opens like a normal thing, as you would expect in a high end truck. Push the button it slides down nice and smooth. But if you need a bed extender, because you wanna do a sheet of drywall, or something like that Push this button, flip up the inner tailgate, and now you've actually got something that'll keep your load from sliding out of your bed. But when you're loading it and you maybe need a little bit more help getting in the bed, push that button and the inner tailgate folds down. Now you've got this nice step stool that makes it really easy to climb up in and load things in the back, as we were doing a little bit earlier. but if you've got something big and heavy that you want to put in here, that maybe doesn't need to go all the way in the back. Flip this up and now you can actually step inside the tailgate here. And this may not look like much, but when we were loading heavy objects, actually makes it easier to get it inside the truck because you can just be that little bit closer to the bed of the truck itself. Fold this up Now I have a nice workspace. You can put your laptop on here or maybe when you're taking a lunch break, put your drink on here as well. And then finally, flip this up again. And you've got a bed extender again but this time it's elevated. So if you've got a load of items on the bottom of your bed, you can then put dry walls or 2 by 4s on top of it and have a nice amount of cargo space. Plus a lot of room too. It is a bit of a gimmick, but it actually works really, really well. [MUSIC] Now if your cargo needs have more to do with trailering than hauling, don't worry. GMC has an app for that, actually a couple of apps for that. Go to the entertainment system here, and there' s a whole trailering section. And in here, you can actually define a new trailer. Basically instead of giving it descriptive names, you remember it like Bob. And then you can say what kind of trailer it is. If it's a fifth wheel or a gooseneck, we're just going with a conventional trailer here. You can define all of the attributes about that so the truck knows what to expect. I went ahead and defined one earlier called boat because that is what we are going to be hauling. And once you start the process, you then have this checklist you can go through. And this checklist is basically specially calibrated based on the type of information you provided before. So as I go through, it'll tell me to check the hinge, but if I was using a gooseneck for example, it would give me different information here. And this is kind of rudimentary stuff, making sure you have your chain connected and everything else. But you know if you do this a lot, it's sometimes pretty easy to forget this stuff, and it's nice to have it all referenced right in place. But the best part is when you put it into reverse, now of course we have 360 cameras on here, and that'll help me to line up my ball hitch with the trailer, which is right behind me here. You see I get this nice line that's telling me where it is and as I get closer. I can actually zoom in, look at this, I've got this nice overhead view of the ball hedge, looks like go in a little bit closer. That's good. So now I put it in park, the car will automatically engage the parking break for me so it won't creep back that extra inch which will **** you up when you're trying to hook up your boat I think that's gonna connect everything, and drive away. Once connected, the truck can wirelessly monitor things like trailer tire pressures and even temperatures. And if you spring for the optional detachable rear-view camera, you can pop it on the back of your Airstream and have a nice view at all the little people Stuck behind you in traffic. The Sierra Denali, an AT4 Crew Cab with the biggest motor, the 6.2 liter V8, will two up to 9300 pounds. But if you opt for the Sierra SLT, in that same configuration you can pull a maximum of 12,100 pounds. We're in a top-shelf Denali, so of course we've got the big 6.2 V8. And on the road It's got plenty of power to move this thing, especially when we're not towing anything as we are not at the moment, it'll accelerate really quickly, and while it's not the most exciting sounding V8, you can option out a sport exhaust, if you want a little bit more throaty noise coming from the thing. But it's really quick to accelerate and also really comfortable to drive, the Sierra has always been known as one of the best on-road trucks on the market. In with the new generation that hasn't changed at all its still very quite compare to other four sides trucks but very comfortable handles the bumps really well and it's [UNKNOWN] suspension [UNKNOWN] whether or not you're toying whether you're [UNKNOWN] it always adjusts itself and still give a really complying confidence aspiring drive [BLANK_AUDIO] So the driving experience may be familiar for Sierra owners from before. But the technology that is all new. It's using the latest generation of GMC's intellilink system which is one of the best infotainment systems on the market right now. You can do both Android auto and Apple car play if you wanna bring your own. But if you don't, the navigation system and it's actually really good, and very snappy and responsive, which is still sadly pretty rare today. Is also connected to a really great Bose sound system and you can really get speakers in the bed. Take that originally. [BLANK_AUDIO] It's all controlled through a dashboard that, yeah, it has a lot of buttons, but they are all nicely laid out. For example all the drive train stuff is up here, high and in my line of sight. And not buried down under the dashboard like in a lot of other trucks. I've also got USB A and USB C ports all over the place, plus a 220 outlet here for getting some work done. But the big story is just how big it is in here, I've got miles of headroom and they've added three inches of leg room in the back. Frankly the old truck was not lacking. They've also got a cubby space everywhere, meaning you can lose stuff. All over the place. [SOUND] At the end of the it's hard not to be impressed by just how far the series have come in 2019. Going from frankly remedial specs last year just about head of the class. But despite all the new toys in here they still has that great brand of comfort and capability. It's made the Sierra so popular, for so long. In other words, this Denali still drives like a Denali, just a whole lot better. [MUSIC] [BLANK_AUDIO]