New 2022 GMC Sierra Denali Ultimate & AT4X - Exclusive Walk Around

This week, GM Trucks was invited to preview the highly revised 2022 Sierra AT4X and Denali

Ultimate. While most of the sheet metal carries over, interiors on these premium trucks is new

and not just new, but a significant step up in the brand's message of premium, work, luxury

We think they'll easily find homes. Let's start out here. The Denali Ultimate has everything you could possibly add to a GMC truck

or probably almost any truck for that matter. A 6.2 liter engine is standard, the 3 liter diesel

is an option, the carbon fiber bed is standard, as is the kicker system, the multi-use tailgate

so let's keep working on our walk around and just talk about the things that we've seen and been

told about this new truck. Let's start right at the back of the truck and continue looking down

its length. New 22 inch exclusive wheels, all new 2022 sheet metal. Let's take a quick look

into the interior where you're going to see a lot of new textures, fabrics, the use of real

leather and real wood. Let's start with a look at a feature that comes with the truck standard

self-cleaning pop-out step-in. We'll get a close-up next, but note that this handle, this grab handle, is wrapped in real leather and it's stitched

Obviously we're looking at the back end of the truck, but take a look at how beautiful these rear seats are

They're going to be the same fold-up stow-and-go and all that kind of stuff as before

but again you've got this beautiful leather and very nice chrome trim. We're going to back out here

and take a look right over here on the doors. There's a premium Bose system here

and look at the leather and the stitching on this, even the door handle. So where they needed

to go for that premium look, they're gone. Let's next take a look at the most important

part of the truck, passenger seat, driver's seat. If you look down here, there's new

passenger seat, driver's seat. If you look down here, there's new massaging 18-way seats

and I might be wrong. At 18, it could be 23 or 322. So obviously it's going to move forward

and backward, but this control right here is reflected on the new entertainment center

which I think is 14 inches. You can see the contrast stitching here on the seat and the

cross and it's perforated, obviously seated and heated and cooled. But if you look over here

you can see the premium Bose system speaker grill. Again, we've got Denali

kind of a topographic map embossed into the leather and this extreme contrast stitching

along with open grain, very nicely done matte wood. There again, we have the feature of the Denali embossing, topographic map embossed into the

leather. If you look really closely, let's see if we can get that to show up. All these ultimate

show the location of where Denali is. As long as we're walking around, take a look at the new

headlight design. Also, the dark chrome, smoked chrome that they call Vader chrome finish. Below is standard bright chrome and even the tow hooks are chrome plated

And you'll also notice that the GMC, instead of being red, is now dark

Let's get a closer look at what the driver is going to see. We've got three different exclusive

and larger displays. The roughly 14 inch infotainment display, a roughly 13 inch display

for the driver and an almost 15 inch HUD, which obviously we're not going to be able to show you

HUD, which obviously we're not going to be able to show you at the moment

Much bigger, much brighter infotainment display, easy to use controls and a new by wire shifter. The column shift is gone. There's a lot of reasons for that

The primary one is real estate up and around so you don't have to get your hands in front of seeing

things. In this pre-production model, not all of the graphics are applied

And because I'm sitting in the seat, somebody turned on the massage and I'm getting one. Let's move over here and take a better look at the

all new instrument cluster. And unfortunately, I can't show you the HUD. You're just going to have to imagine that it's

super wide, super visible and super useful. And this has a class exclusive

use of GM's new Super Cruise. And in this application, it will apply to your trailer towing, which is pretty amazing

Obviously, if we're going to talk about the Denali Ultimate, we have to talk about the AT4X

We're going to actually crawl underneath the truck and show you the new DSSV shocks

some of the suspension features. But again, that ruggedized, non-steel bed that you can throw anything at without making it look like you threw anything at it

So let's talk about the AT4X. The AT4 is still available. The X is the premium package on that

A couple of things to note. Down here, you're not going to see any sign of the exhaust pipe

It's curved down and just exits right under the rear bumper. Again, that's for off-roading

The step changes here, very minimal. What you will see is new 18-inch tires

excuse me, 18-inch wheels with 32-inch tires. Now, suspension travel on this AT4X is also improved

It's about close to 50 millimeters greater suspension travel. Multimatic DSSV, which are dual spool valve, and we wrote about those last year, didn't we

Front and rear, we'll get up under the truck and show you those. And then we'll look at the front

where there's a slight difference, big difference compared to the GMC Denali Ultimate, but a big

difference compared to last year for the ATX. Now, this model comes standard with a 6.2-millimeter VA

One thing we do need to point out is these premium steel rock rails

which are extremely sturdy, and there's two pieces. They're not standard. They're an option

Just as with the Denali, the interior is significantly revised. You can again see the

large driver information center and the larger infotainment console and the by-wire shifter

If you'll note, just taking my hand in here, we've got texturizing here that is exclusive to the AT4X

and the stitching pattern with those cross stitches carries over. But you'll notice on

the seats, they're completely different with red stitching inset, and that red stitching goes

throughout. Our host at GMC did a little more investigation, and two things you should note

is that the wheels are carryover with that kind of a snowflake design

If you look here in the door panels, we've got a similar Bose system on the premium AT4X

and also, let's take a look over here, that cross stitching that we saw on Denali is carried over

here. That pattern, only this time in red, but a completely different embossing system on what is

probably not, in this instance, leather. Why would you want leather in this instance? You'd want

something a little more rugged. As you'll see, there is never an excuse for not pointing out

how premium this product is, and it's everywhere you look. Some are subtle, like the stitching and

the colorizing. Some are not. That's been either an attribute or a failure of General Motors for

decades. Now, the AT4X does have front and rear e-lockers. The instrument cluster here is going

to be a little bit different than the Denali in that it's oriented towards off-roading and more

extreme off-roading. Here again, we can see that the emphasis on a different drive-by-wire shifter

has hit GMC just like it has everyone else. There's the piano keys to control everything else

Look, real buttons and real knobs that you can use with gloves on. What a treat. There's a couple

other manufacturers that think that you are always in kid gloves or gloveless in the middle of the

Michigan winter or Minnesota winter or Canadian winter. So that's going to wrap up our look at

two new trucks from GMC for 2022, the Denali Ultimate and the AT4X. We really look forward to

trying out these vehicles as soon as they're available to us and giving you a full report

on the luxury for the off-road capabilities of these new 22 GMC full-size trucks

For GMTrucks.com, I'm Tom Camm