2013 GMC Yukon

I just got done spending four days with a 2013 GMC Yukon XL.  I was on a chilly winter tour of upstate Minnesota, and every time I started it up the little green-only onboard computer told me “ICE POSSIBLE, DRIVE WITH CAUTION.”  Yes thank you, I am aware that water freezes below 32°F, but I digress.

This car is a dinosaur, in more than one sense of a metaphor.  First off, it is just about the biggest car money can buy, not counting some of the long bed, dually, pickup big boys.  It is truly gargantuan, and you can feel every inch of its 18 and a half foot long overall length whenever you are traveling less than 25mph.  Parking the Yukon XL makes you feel like a cruise ship captain pulling into port, in desperate need of bow thrusters and a harbor master.  It makes every parking spot look too small.  The other dino-like trait of this vehicle is that it is a dying breed headed for extinction.  Truck-based SUVs are quickly going the way of the pager; once popular, now less and less prevalent and replaced with something much more useful.  The pager was replaced with the cellphone and no one bemoaned its departure, and now the truck-based SUV is being replaced with the crossover with the same general sentiment.  Dear GM: why would I buy a Yukon XL/Suburban over an Acadia/Traverse, unless my boat was just a little too big?

In case you are one of the few people who GM believes they are fooling with their brand rebadging, the GMC Yukon XL is identical to the more household Chevy Suburban.  But it doesn’t stop there.  It is truly amazing when you stop to notice how many cars based on this same GMT900 series architecture are surrounding you on the road at any given time:

·         GMC Yukon XL

·         Chevy Suburban

·         GMC Yukon

·         Chevy Tahoe

·         Chevy Avalanche (now cancelled)

·         GMC Sierra (and all its variants)

·         Chevy Silverado (and all its variants)

·         Cadillac Escalade

·         Cadillac Escalade ESV (the long one)

·         Cadillac Escalade EXT (the truck one, also now cancelled)

·         Hummer H2 (extinct)

I envision a dangerous road-trip game involving this list and a punch to the arm.

But the 2013 model reportedly will be the last of this generation; a new set of Yukon/Tahoe/Suburban cousins are due out by the end of the calendar year for the 2014 model year.  These should be based on the all new platform that debuted with the new 2014 Sierra/Silverado trucks a few weeks back.

The Yukon XL/Suburban only makes sense for a person with a specific mission in mind for it.  Please don’t buy the Yukon XL/Suburban over the Yukon/Tahoe unless you have a frequent and pressing need for the extra space.  I am imagining something like moving six teenage boys and their large bags to hockey practice five days a week (actually a somewhat likely situation for an upstate Minnesota family).

On the Road

So what’s it like to drive? Not bad actually, once you are out of the parking lot. 

Around town the Yukon XL with the 5.3L V8 and 6-speed auto are quite good.  It is quite amazing that for a vehicle of this size, it was never lacking oomph.  Power was ready and abundant whenever needed.  I was driving on medium speed road in the middle of nowhere, when I came up behind a large truck carrying precariously strapped down 40 foot light poles.   I waited for the dashed center line and punched it into the other lane.  The gear change kick-down and ensuing surge of power was all together satisfying, controllable, and more than adequate to relieve me of the visions of a light pole crashing through the windshield.  The V8 engine is just burly enough without being unrefined or vulgar; GM can make one fine truck engine, I will give them that.   As you ease into the throttle the engine growls like a wolfhound curled next to a fire as you slowly reach for his chew bone between his front paws.

On the highway you lose nearly all sensation that the Yukon XL is massive.  You sit very high and upright, but once the cruise-control is set, it is a comfortable cruiser.  It weaves between lanes with ease, appropriate heaviness of steering, and with surprisingly little body roll.  Road noise levels are low, but you will notice when bumps are hit at speed that the entire mass of the car is absorbing the blows, sounding much like a large locomotive cha-chugging along.

My biggest beef with the overall driving experience: squeaky brake pedal.  No not that the brakes squeak, but that the pedal itself squeaked when pressed.  For the price of this car, this should not happen.

But all that driving will cost you.  After a drive from the Twin Cities up to Hibbing, and around for a few days, I pulled into the station to top off 3/4s of the 31 gallon tank.  $95.00 later I was on my way, with the receipt securely tucked away waiting for its place on my expense report.  I did manage about 17mpg on my trip, which is not as bad as you might think, but I haven’t had to drop that much coin into a tank since having to do two transactions on a rental truck.

During the on and off snow storm I encountered I mostly left the four wheel drive knob on AUTO, which means the truck operates primarily driven by the rear wheels until the traction control system senses a slip and can send up to 50% of the engines power to the front.  But upon reaching for the knob the first time, I was baffled not to find a low range option.  

It is sad to think that a leviathan such as this does not have a a low range transfer case to be able to pop it into and tow a friend out of mud pit, or whatever it is we do with low range.  It does have four-wheel high lock mode that will set the system to continuously send 50% power to the front axle and 50% to the back axle, but I once had a tiny Suzuki SX4 that could do that too.

Interior

The plastics in the cockpit can really make or break a car.  The Yukon XL is filled with “nice-enough” plastics: a faux-leather grain black with good feel; rich, but fake, wood accents; and some ok-looking plastic metallic bits.

The center armrest storage is so deep and wide I think it could hold a basketball.  The most popular cubby-hole during my road trip was the large one below the radio and HVAC controls; it held wallets, french-fries, power cords, and empty energy drinks.  The aforementioned center armrest has a very nice little grippy notch that held an iPhone perfectly.

Ours was the 1500 SLT (super large truck?) version which came with a set of black leather seats and some neat gadgetry.  Nothing groundbreaking by any means, but a rear view camera in the rearview mirror, adjustable pedals, and back up beeper rounded out the package. 

The middle row of seats has plenty of adult leg and shoulder room.  The third row is much better than most cars but not a place a full-sized human would want to be stuck for much longer than a few hours.  Also getting into the third row cannot be accomplished gracefully by anybody.  Both rows of seats fold down and tip forward, but surprisingly do not fold flat.  To get a truly flat floor for your sheets of plywood you would have to have ample enough garage space and muscles to completely take the seats out of the car.

Summary

The 2013 Yukon XL is a nice evolution of the basic formula GM has been working on since the 1930’s.  Take a big truck chassis, take away the bed, add in a bunch of seats and storage space with a dash of 21^st century niceties and… voila! GMC Yukon XL (and Suburban, and Escalade ESV, and Tahoe really… ahh nevermind).  But for over 50 grand, not great fuel economy, and a new one just around the corner, it’s a hard sell for educated buyers.

Would I buy a new one? No, too much cash for not enough luxury.

Would I buy a used one? Maybe if I wanted to support a friend who just opened a gas station, and I was thinking about a car I could live in when the gas money runs out.  GM motors are notoriously long lived though, so a high mileage example wouldn’t be hard to swallow.

Would I recommend it for my mother? No its too hard to park the thing, it would not fit in the garage, and even though you can fit everyone she knows inside of it, egress into the third row is too difficult.

Would I recommend it for a 16 year old? Maybe only for the fact that you know it is unlikely that they would be hit by a smaller vehicle.  Otherwise there is too much chance of the following: loading all their friends into it and having six other teenagers to distract them while they crush a Smart Fortwo in the mall parking lot at 1am.  

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