16 Yukon Review

[2TrakR]

Review of 2016 GMC Yukon SLT.

Grew up all GM, family worked/works for GM, always had GM vehicles. Bought 2012 GMC Sierra 2500HD new, have 111K on it, love it. Great truck. Some issues, no show stoppers.

Have this Yukon because my 2016 Sierra Denali HD is in the shop again, this is the loaner vehicle the dealer provided. Important to note that my Denali has been in the dealership for over 42 days (so far) out of 170 days of ownership. Have had 6 other loaners, all 2015 or 2016 GMC Sierra SLE trucks. Spoiler: I’ve gotten rid of the Denali since I started this review.

We’ve had an 02 and an 03 Yukon that was my wife’s vehicle (which I drove some and did all of the repairs on).

This Yukon had 150 miles on it, I’ve put 500 miles on it. There are a number of items that I “had no idea” how they acted. Read the press releases, seen the advertisements. It’s stuff that now that I have seat time with, I know that I have no interest in a vehicle with these specific features, or at least how they act on this one. It’s a good bet that other brands have similar, but different acting, features.

Vehicle in Blind Spot

The mirrors on this Yukon have indicators that light up when there is a vehicle in your blind spot. Seems to work good. Didn’t light up for a semi one time, but otherwise, seem to be generally reliable and functional. No complaints. Color of the indicator and the turn signal in the mirror are amber and not too bright.

Entertainment system

Good sound, plenty of volume. XM works great, Apple Car Play functions fine. Didn’t try out the rear entertainment system. Looked OK. My kids have their own phones to play and watch stuff with.

Rain Sense wipers

There’s an Auto setting on the wipers, you can put it in intermittent mode and then hit a button to engage automatic wiping. Not certain of the sensors, but the gist is that it will determine when the windshield has stuff on it and perform a wipe. I suspect it involves the camera that’s part of the rearview mirror assembly that’s also used to “see” the road lane markers. Seemed to work OK in varying conditions and would adjust as necessary. Didn’t seem to pick up dirt amount, but did seem fine with snow and rain. I used the feature and thought it did a decent job of helping me not have to fiddle with the wipers as outside conditions varied.

Handling

Dances in the wind more than my trucks, but nothing horrible. Generally rides pretty nice. Steers fine, no real difference at speed or in the parking lot. City, rural highway, expressway, up to 80MPH. Sun, snow, rain, wind but no hot conditions (all under 70F, down to 18F).

Did not encounter any of the buffeting/other noise issues that some have experienced. Did about 80 miles on the expressway with ACC set to 79MPH with a varying, but substantial, crosswind.

Engine

Has a serious dead spot ~ 1700-2K RPM, makes second gear feel like we slow down unless you really step into it.

I’ve driven 6 other Sierras with V8s and they didn’t have this behavior. Not sure if gearing, shift management or what. Didn’t pop the hood, but fairly sure this was the 5.3L.

The active engine management, not sure the official term for it, where the engine will switch from V8 to V4, is annoying. Found that to be true in the other Sierras. The exhaust note changes, there’s a drone/vibration in the vehicle and then a shift/surge when changing modes. Watching the fuel economy gauge, I think that not going into that mode would result in overall better economy for my driving.

Fuel Economy

Vehicle was just breaking in, generally they get better with miles. The DIC showed 18 at best, closer to 16 most of the time.

Rear Seats

One of my kids loves the rear seats, the other not so much. This one has two captains in the second row and a third row of seats. The back rows can be flipped down using a couple controls at the rear hatch. Makes it easier to flip the 3rd row down for cargo. The rear hatch is also power open/close (and on the remote too). Works fine. The power fold down of the 2nd row of seats didn’t work on the one seat as one child had tilted theirs back a little bit, just required a little manual intervention.

HVAC

Let’s say not impressed. Best to try it in varying conditions and see how it works for you. Manually setting the blower output and fan speed is pointless as the vehicle will change the amount of heat coming out of them (example 92F at head height when set for 69F). Using AUTO mode gives the best results, just expect to adjust the temp 1-3 times per trip if there is any variation in the outside temp/sun/conditions. Give it 10 minutes between adjustments. If you are coming from a vehicle where you could set a given temp as well as control the output and fan speed (like only defrost and floor) then you will no longer have that ability.

Here’s a graph showing 4 temp locations in the vehicle. HVAC is set to 70F, AUTO/Sync. It’s mid 40s outside and bright, but cloudy. The increase on the floor around 9 minutes is related to changing travel direction from east to north (sun hitting sensor when eastbound and then shaded when northbound). The drop at the 32 minute mark is changing from 70 to 69 on the dial (too hot for driver comfort).

Heated/Cooled Seats.

Everyone is different, many I’m sure will say “I don’t have these issues” and I totally agree. If you are thinking of getting these seats, I strongly suggest taking a vehicle with them for a long test ride.

My Sierra Denali and this Yukon both have the heated/cooled perforated leather seats. There are two inset seams that run from side to side, breaking the seat base into 3 cushion/segments. That “crease” works to pinch my thighs and butt. Doesn’t matter how I adjust the tilt/position of the seat, still happens to varying degrees and it’s worse depending on the type of material my pants are. Haven’t tried shorts yet.

There is also an outer seam, where the stitching is, which has piping that makes for a pressure point, on the top and towards the outside edge of the seat base. Longer trips finds my legs over those spots which quickly becomes a pressure point and painful.

The haptic motors are in the outer edges, towards the middle/outside of the seat base. On my Denali, I don’t notice these. On this Yukon, the right side digs into my hip pocket area - best to describe it as putting a golf ball in your back pocket and sitting on it. GM has a tech bulletin on this and apparently they can reposition those motors based on that bulletin to make things a little more comfortable.

Have also learned the “heat” only works if you are in the seat. Remote starting will not warm them up, have to be in them so pressure is applied to the seat.

The seats in this Yukon seem to be a bit smaller/narrower than my Denali, but the tape measure says they are the same. I think there may be less room between the console and the seat, which may prevent the seat from stretching out, making it feel a little smaller.

Safety Alert Seat

Drivers seat has two haptic motors in it, that buzz or vibrate to get your attention. They are on the left and right side of the seat base. When park assist sensors indicate an object in close proximity they will engage. Sometimes it will buzz the left or right side to indicate which side you need to pay attention to. Neat.

When combined with LKA (below) they will buzz towards the side you are turning.

Lane Keep Assist

When active and when the road lane markers are visible, the vehicle will actively try to keep the vehicle in your lane. If the blinker is on, it won’t do so. No blinker and it will actively steer “against” you, if you are trying to change lanes.

I hate this feature. Obviously I change lanes without first engaging the turn signal.

Multiple times it put me in an unsafe condition where I had to make last second additional input changes due to it’s attempt to prevent me from completing a lane change action (because I was not using the turn signal for whatever reason and needed to change lanes).

I switched it off but have tried it a couple more times to see if I could find a “reason to have it on”. In those “lets try it again, can’t be that bad” tests it only took a minute or two before I would encounter another situation where the vehicle actively fought against my inputs. Ugh.

On the expressway, I did a test to see how it would react if I “let go” (just presume this was in a controlled and totally safe circumstance). When the vehicle came to the right edge, it did correct, but it over corrected and sent us to the left side fairly aggressively. When we came to the left edge, it tried to correct, but “gave up” and was not able to keep from going over the line.

Think of it as a gentle tug on the wheel trying to keep the vehicle from crossing the lane marker.

My Sierra Denali has Lane Departure Warning, it will vibrate the seat when you are crossing the lane marker, but won’t try to steer for you. I also turn this off (annoying).

Adaptive Cruise Control

I use cruise a lot, about 60 out of 80 miles of my daily commute. Always on when towing unless the terrain does not allow for it (like in the mountains).

Through the use of sensors (radar from what I read), the vehicle will “sense” when the vehicle is within a certain distance of a another vehicle in front of it. It will use this information to slow the vehicle to match the speed of the vehicle in front of it. The distance that it will follow can be adjusted to three different settings. I’ve found the middle setting to be about 3 seconds behind the leading vehicle.

It will start to slow down when you are about 5 seconds behind the leading vehicle. If you were going to pass, you will already be slowed down to matching speeds long before you are close enough to pass, meaning you will be making up a lot more speed to make a pass.

You can NOT disable the “adaptive” portion, from what I have found. It’s either adaptive cruise control or no cruise.

The manual indicates cruise should not be used on curves, hills or when towing. I can’t imagine trying to use this cruise system with a trailer connected, just seems like an accident waiting to happen.

The vehicle will catch and pace the leading vehicle and stay with them (example when stopping) down to ~10 MPH.

I’ve had the vehicle aggressively slow while going through curves because there were slower vehicles in the outside of the turn. I feel this is unsafe (more than just erratic) if road conditions were not optimal or if there were vehicles following in my lane or expecting a clear spot to be where I was based on my previous speed.

I’ve read where some folks love this feature. I do not drive in areas that, perhaps, this is a useful feature. To say I hated ACC would be an understatement. It made my driving erratic, put me in unsafe conditions, caused me to burn more fuel and generally irritated me. Cruise Control is supposed to hold the vehicle at a given speed. ACC does not.

Collision Avoidance

The vehicle, using the same system for the adaptive cruise, will sense objects (like cars) in your path and will actively brake the vehicle if it feels a collision is possible.

I’ve had the vehicle actively brake multiple times, when I was confident there was no concern. For example, vehicle ahead of me was turning left and I accelerated once they started the turn, but before they completely exited my lane. Obviously if the turning vehicle suddenly stopped before completing the turn and I continued on my course, an impact would be possible. Or I could turn slightly to the right where there was plenty of room and avoid any far-fetched issue. The system was working as designed, I suspect, but not in a way that was helpful to me, it only hindered and potentially negatively impacted me.

I’ve shut that feature off after the first day.

My Sierra Denali has Collision Warning, it will vibrate and flash the red light on the windshield. I’ve only had it give false positives and it never went off when it was close to being an actual situation. The false positives were when other upscale GMC vehicles were approaching (oncoming, pulling up at the light from the left) and I mention this as it seemed that they would have been also equipped with similar sensors but maybe it was purely coincidental.

So, overall, I really dislike this vehicle and would be looking to get rid of it, had I been unlucky enough to buy it without first testing all of these “features”.

[The Zip]

Although some of your comments are not completely accurate since driving my truck for over 2 years, overall this is a very good personal assessment of features for perspective buyers.

[2TrakR]

Although some of your comments are not completely accurate since driving my truck for over 2 years

 

 

Curious which features your vehicle has and is it a 14/15? Was under the impression that some of the features this 16 had were all-new for 16.

I've not done my homework on the 14 and up Yukons, so certainly could be mistaken. The 2500HD line is more where I studied a little since that's what I was buying most recently.

[The Zip]

Curious which features your vehicle has and is it a 14/15? Was under the impression that some of the features this 16 had were all-new for 16.

I've not done my homework on the 14 and up Yukons, so certainly could be mistaken.

 

Probably threw you off when I said I've been driving my truck for over 2 yrs, but I have a '15. For the SUVs, '15 and '16 are 4th generation trucks as opposed to the '14 which is 3rd generation, so a lot of the tech will be the same. Out of the list you put up, LKA wasn't offered in my '15.

[redwngr]

Aren't 'Lane Keep Assist' (the one that nudges the wheel) and 'Adaptive Cruise' (slows down/speeds back up to track vehicle ahead, up to the max speed you've set) both new features for 2016 model?