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Re-Joining the GMC Ranks: 2015 2500 Denali Purchased


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PDI'd and ready for me to drive it home... on Thursday. Steps and all.

I picked the truck up yesterday and drove it ~360 miles home. It gave me a good opportunity to sort of get to know the truck, but there's still a bunch more to learn. Specifically the Intellilink and IP which, for me, are all new.

 

Mostly massive positives for the truck. A minor nit is the dead spot in the accelerator pedal, about half-way through its travel. It'll just take time to get used to that, but it's something GM could very easily tighten up and tune out.

 

Comfortable. Powerful. Quiet. Smooth. Very much not-truck-like at all. At least, not how I've typically viewed pickups. I like how GM (and to a lesser extent others) is working to make pickups seem less truck-like, but they're doing it safely. No, it doesn't drive like a car, nor does it feel small and spritely like one. But it also doesn't feel like the 3.5 ton behemoth that it is. And that's a good thing, IMHO.

 

More to come. So far I'm very happy and thorougly impressed.

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PDI'd and ready for me to drive it home... on Thursday. Steps and all.

 

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Great Color- Mines the same just Bowtie Brand.....

 

I have to buy Chevy my sister owns the dealership.....

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The trip is completed as of Thursday evening, circa 1930 or so. God, what a lonnnnnng day. Up at 0300, to the airport by 0400, on a plane to Charlotte, NC by 0530 annnnnd: we're parked on the Dulles tarmac for some reason. Thirty minutes passes and we were finally in the air, but I wasn't sure I was going to make my connecting flight from Charlotte to Akron. The plane landed with barely enough time to get me to the right gate. I was literally the last passenger on the plane.

The sales guy (Greg) working this deal picked me up at the Akron airport and drove the ~30 minutes back to the dealership. We did the check-run test drive, took care of all of the financial stuff, temporary registration, etc, and I was off. Or was I?

I had purchased a 15ft length of phone cable (RJ11 ends) to power my Valentine 1 detector. Unfortunately, I didn't test it before leaving home. I found out: no go. It was "cheap" phone cable with only 2 pairs run. The Valentine needs all 6 wires (3 pair) run inside the connector. Doh! Fortunately, the dealership directed me to a nearby Staples, which also had a restaurant right next to it. And since I hadn't eaten a real meal yet, that worked out perfectly. I got the right cable, filled my belly with Applebee's attempt at food, and then hit the road by 1300 or so.

My commentary on the trip itself: the nav system decided to take me south on 77, east on 70, and then south again on 15 into Northern VA. There are portions of 70 through Pennsylvania that just, well, suck. The tolled part (ie, their turnpike) is quite nice and mostly lightly traveled. But the non-tolled sections are very slow and quite frustrating. I did not enjoy that in the least. Once I hit I81, I shut the nav off and headed south to Winchester. To hell with driving all the way to 15. No. Way. Fun in a Corvette, but not so much in a monster truck.

The truck is epic. Comfortable as a Cadillac and as quiet and isolated as one. You literally have zero clue you're driving a diesel unto you kick it in the ass and its torque reverses the spin of the Earth. GM has done one hell of a job of making their big rigs easy to live with on a day to day basis. The tech in the cabin is akin to the tech that folks with the new Corvettes (another love of mine) are getting used to right now. The same *Link system and the same 8" LCD panel in the IP, but orientated for driving a truck versus a GT car. I'm still RTFM so that I can learn what it can do. What I'm finding is that I keep the nav screen on the local map, and in the center section of the IP's screen, I keep the local speed limit front and center. But there's no end to the kinds of info and data that can be displayed there. And you can flick stuff from the Nav screen over to the center display with your finger. It's a nice touch.

Nits? A few, but nothing that are deal-breaking.
1) The DEF tank and refill hole are in bad spots. GM continues to attach the tank to the right frame rail, right under the engine. It's right, smack in the way if I was considering driving the truck in less-than-optimal conditions. I can tell it'll gather up snow and crud during the winter, too. Further, the refill hole is under the hood, right against the windshield. This will require me to stand on a ladder while I'm trying to hold the heavy DEF refill box. Not something I'm looking forward to. GM needs to move that tank to the ass end of the truck like Ford and Dodge have done, and put the refill hole into the same slot the fuel refill.

2) Lights. Why are the big rigs still using halogen projectors? The big Yukon SUV has HID projectors. Can't the trucks? Or are their lights too high up for that to be legal and safe? The halogens in the truck aren't bad by any stretch. But properly aimed HIDs would produce an exceptional amount more light.

3) MSRC. GM's big Yukon has the award-winning MSRC dampers and suspension system. Can't the big trucks? Or is there a mass/payload/towing limit that, once crossed, disqualify those dampers?

4) Push-button start. I'm a fan. Most people are. Again: the truck-based SUVs (Yukon, Tahoe, Suburban) have it. Why don't the rigs?

Again, these are just little nits. So far, I'm completely blown away by this truck and am exceptionally pleased with the purchase.

 

Left to do: finish paying for it. The dealer I worked with wouldn't let me use a cashier's check because of potential fraud. They insisted on one of three ways: cash, wiring the money to them before taking the truck, or financing it through them. This was some cause of consternation for me. There was no way I was going to wire them money before even seeing the truck, and they wouldn't let me leave with the truck until the wire cleared (anywhere from 2 hours to 24). Carrying 58 large in cash on the plane wasn't going to happen. That left financing, which was the ultimate decision. Though it'll be one of the shortest lived car loans in history: as soon as the loan paperwork hits my mail box, I'm closing it out.

 

I also need to wait for said paperwork to hit so that I can register it here in VA. That means paying my 4.05% sales tax pound-of-flesh to VA. I'm trying to prepare myself for that, because I don't think the DMV will use lube...

 

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If you paid sales tax in the state you bought it (other than the state you live in) you should not pay sales tax in your state. \

 

Lights= You can put Xenon bulbs in and they will be better than the factory Halogens. I found the XD5 on Ebay to be the best bulbs for the $. I think you can use 9006 bulbs but check. The 9012 is not available in XD5. Why XD5? most xenon bulbs are tinted so much they diminish the light output. The XD5 seem to use a lighter coating. Just my humble opinion. Silverstars work too but are $. HID's are the way to go on the GMC though. DDM or Morimoto.

 

BTW congrats on the truck. I agree you dont even know your driving a diesel.

 

Avalon

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If you paid sales tax in the state you bought it (other than the state you live in) you should not pay sales tax in your state. \

I didn't pay OH taxes. Only their registration fee.

 

Lights= HID's are the way to go on the GMC though. DDM or Morimoto.

Never. Any of the aftermarket stuff folks are putting in their trucks is likely illegal and also: cheap Chinese junk. Retrofitting HIDs into a lamp that isn't designed properly for them is doing nothing but hurting other folks on the road. Most people don't understand how automotive head lighting actually works, or how to properly rate it. All they know is, "Hey, I can see better!" even if they can't really.

 

The OEM bulbs that came with the truck are the best available from a quality and longevity perspective. I'm not going to put cheap junk in the truck.

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Well the Sylvania Silverstars are OEM quality, if you want use them. They will be brighter than the OEM Halogen and legal.

 

But the choice is yours.

 

Nice Truck BTW. Enjoy.

 

Avalon

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  • 1 month later...

FWIW

 

You could have set up a Bank money trasfer from your bank to the US Treasury then to the Dealers Bank, all prearranged, just check out the truck in person, call you bank agent and OK the pre-arranged transfer. and next the US treasury gets it and sends it to the dealer's bank within 1 hour ...

 

I done this a few times - no fees either

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You could have set up a Bank money trasfer from your bank to the US Treasury then to the Dealers Bank

Thanks for that idea; wish I'd known about it before hand. All is finally said and done, but not without some level of frustration with the bank.

 

As promised, I paid the loan off within a week via a money transfer from my bank to the lender. Brilliant as they are, they decided to then title the truck in OH. I live in VA. My temporary OH plate was running out of time (I had till the beginning of Jan) and no word from VA's DMV or the bank as to A)where my title was, or B)how I'd register this in VA.

 

After spending more time than I cared to on the phone with the bank, they finally owned up to their mistake and told me, "Um. We titled it in OH. We don't have any of the paperwork any more. You'll need to contact the OH DMV."

 

Uhhhhh. Yeah. How am I going to do that? Odds are they'll want me there in person. So you guys are completely incompetent and I'm going to make sure I never do business with you again. Got it.

 

My last resort was to call the dealership that sold the truck to me. The title lady, bless her soul, called the bank and yelled at them. She got my "Lien Release" form faxed to her. She signed it as me and went to the OH DMV. She traded them that for the actual title, and overnight FedEx'd it to me. I had it in my hands on 30 December, and off to the VA DMV I went. Registration and sales tax paid, and voila: I have a titled and registered truck in the state of VA.

 

What a pain in the ass that was!

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