GM has struggled mightily over the last 30 years (longer really, but who’s counting?). However, they have done at least two things very well and continue to today: designing light duty trucks* and selling premium versions of those trucks. One of the General’s most successful ongoing ventures started small right here with this dusty, but solid looking, black truck.
I’ve been chronicling a few of the early, flagship SUVs in the Give Them What They Want series. I zeroed in on the first generation Cadillac Escalade as one to profile and struggled to find a good one to photograph. In a year and a half of looking, I only found one parked and a couple others in motion.
*current generation full-size pickups excepted?
As we saw in the Escalade CC, that first Caddy SUV was based so heavily on the GMC Denali as to be virtually indistinguishable. So, if you’re looking for first-gen Escalades, you are by definition also looking for Yukon Denalis. In that same time period, this is the only one I ever found, either parked or driven. Could this be the rarest turn-of-the-millenium SUV in America?
GM’s idea started small: build a higher luxury version of the GMC Yukon that could compete with the new 1998 Lincoln Navigator and the other import luxury SUVs that were starting to proliferate in the late 90’s. The Denali went on sale in early 1998 as a 1999 model. Standard mechanical features included automatic four wheel drive, Bilstein shocks and special Firestone tires.
The interior featured unique leather upholstery and real zebrano wood accents on the center console and window switch panels (one of the Escalade’s few distinguishing features was additional wood on the dash, doors and steering wheel). Denali buyers also enjoyed a Bose stereo system that included a subwoofer and in-dash six-disc changer, and an early version of Onstar.
The exterior is probably the most unique part of the package. Denalis got their own grille, headlights. bumper, hood, front fenders, wheels and body cladding. This is a lot more than later Yukon Denalis, which mostly just got a chromier grille and wheels.
I would say perhaps the best part of the new model was the name. Those who are familiar with mountain geography know that Denali is the highest peak in North America, located in Alaska and also known as Mount McKinley (officially, prior to 2015), perhaps coincidentally not too far from the Yukon Territory . What better imagery could you have than America’s tallest mountain, which would surely need the biggest and fanciest SUVs you could buy to travel to? I myself am pretty ignorant about mountains and didn’t know in the past what or where Denali was. To me and other dummies, the name may not have had specific meaning but it sure sounds wild and picturesque, like someplace an adventure is sure to happen.
That imagery and the extra features justified a 1999 base price of $42,945, or about $10,000 more than a base 4×4 Yukon XLE. For 2000, it curiously stayed on the old GMT400 platform with the Escalade and Tahoe Limited even as all other Tahoes and Yukons went to the new GMT800 redesign. 2001 saw the grand re-unification of GM trucks, so Denali moved to the new platform. I haven’t been able to find production figures for early Denalis. The numbers may not have been huge initially, but with a nearly 25% markup it’s easy to see why GMC kept it around.
In fact, the formula was so successful, it spread to the Sierra pickup for 2002, the Acadia SUV for 2011, the Terrain SUV for 2012 and Canyon compact pickup for 2017. In 2017, 29% of GMCs sold were Denalis, with comparable numbers continuing to the present. If it seems like all late model Yukons you see are Denalis, it’s probably not a coincidence because they represent up to 60% of Yukons sold in recent years. GMC has consistently been one of GM’s best sources of profit.
This 2000 Denali is in surprisingly clean condition, even if its black tuxedo suit is a bit dirty. I think with a good wash and detail, it would look real fine. Not bad for seemingly being one of the only surviving first-gen Denalis left in Texas, a place that doesn’t generally suffer from a lack of any truck.
At the time, no one knew how big a trend the initial Yukon Denali would be starting. It just seemed like a comfy and capable, if a bit costly, new option for hauling the family in grand style. Now GMC wants to Denali all things, which seems to be working pretty well for them, but it all started right here.
photographed in Fredericksburg, TX December 27, 2020
related reading:
Curbside Newsstand: Denali and AT4 ‘Subbrands’ Ensure GMC Will Live Long and Prosper
Curbside Classic: 1999 Cadillac Escalade – Expansion Team, GTWTW pt.2
The body kit on the Denali really kind of previewed the GMT800 normal body shape, or at least the colors of it that came with the fender flares as standard (Black and Dark Blue and I think one other). I’m more a fan of the unadorned 400 such as the early Tahoe I used to own.
I know the 400s were built in Janesville and by this time also in Arlington if I’m not mistaken. I wonder if one got the GMT800 assembly line before the other, thus the reason for continuing the older style for the high trim subgenre.
Usually these (as well as the original Escalade) are pretty beaten down by now, often seen in the employ of roofers, painters, and drywallers (or their crews anyway, the head honcho seems to invariably roll around in a 3/4 ton or larger truck). This one does look decent though comparatively. They did come across as a little half-assed though originally, a quick attempt to compete with the surprise Navigator hit. But they did sell, so good on GM for looking out for their shareholders.
The two-plant idea sounds very plausible. Why a behemoth company couldn’t transition all the factories for one of their cash cows at the same time, I don’t know. But with GM, I don’t doubt it.
If I was to see this is Denali in traffic, I would probably think “early Escalade” without examining it too closely. I hadn’t realized before reading this that the Denali did, in fact, predate the Esky.
Current generation full-sized pickups excepted indeed.
My next door neighbor has a “Sierra 3500HD Denali DRW” (even the name is huge) with the dually wheels, crew cab, and long bed. The thing is so frickin’ huge that he can’t actually turn it out of the driveway onto the road without slowing to a crawl (so as to not clip off his mailbox or get the thing wedged diagonally across the street). Everyone once in a while he pulls up behind me at the end of the street and I glimpse it in the rearview mirror. It looks like I’m about to be run down by a locomotive where the last thing I’m going to see before I shuck off this mortal coil is “GMC”.
Oh, and he doesn’t have a trailer.
At all.
Tangentially, I’m reminded of a recent article about a 55 Roadmaster (IIRC) where the writer said “The folks buying these probably took their road test in a Model T”.
All I can wonder is, what did people who have been getting into the latest “half ton” trucks drive to qualify for their license?
Seems like I read at the time that something like 80% of Yukons were selling loaded with every option, hence the decision to raise the top of the line to the Denali spec.
Like you, if I had ever known Denali and Mt. McKinley were the same mountain, I had forgotten it. Denali sounds like it belongs on the continent of Africa somewhere. But I guess Denali makes sense if there was already a Yukon – stick to the same neighborhood.
GM certainly had its troubles in locating and exploiting new markets after maybe 1960 or so, but I have to give them credit in this segment. Although the Navigator was there first, GM (through three different Divisions) managed to blanket the market with a variety of very appealing and very expensive (and thus very profitable) big SUVs. In my limited experience, they remain desired and expensive for about every conceivable permutation and condition.
Me too! I always thought Denali was some sort of African savana reference, with lions, elephants, safaris and such. Shows what a great marketing term it is that even when people are clueless about its meaning, it conjures up positive associations.
I bought a 2000 Yukon Denali in 2004. It had 53,000 miles on it and it was in immaculate condition. It is the rarer Emerald Green. Best vehicle I ever owned. I still own it but unfortunately the frame rotted out so it is an organ donor. I was lucky enough to find not one but two Denalis, both same year of 2000 and in very nice shape with NO RUST.. One from Oregon and one from Colorado. I gave the Oregon one to my son. These are incredible trucks, great in the snow and very comfortable.