GMC Sierra 1500 Denali Wins TRUCK TREND’s 2016 Pickup Truck of the Year Award

First-Class Amenities, 21st Century Technology, and Best-in-Class Power Lead GMC Sierra 1500 Denali to Best Field of Seven

LOS ANGELES -- December 22, 2015: TRUCK TREND, the nation’s premier light-truck authority, has selected the GMC Sierra 1500 Denali as the winner of its second annual Pickup Truck of the Year Award.

“GMC has set out to produce the definition of a luxury pickup, and its Sierra Denali has certainly hit that mark”

TRUCK TREND’s Pickup Truck of the Year award program is an invitation-only shootout that is only open to all-new or significantly revised pickup trucks for the upcoming model year. For 2016, the field of vehicles included seven entries from five companies and consisted of one variant from each company’s eligible product line. This year’s contenders included:

Chevrolet Silverado 1500 High Country

Chevrolet Colorado Z71

GMC Canyon SLT

GMC Sierra 1500 Denali

Nissan Titan XD Pro4X

Ram 1500 Rebel

Toyota Tacoma TRD Off-Road

TRUCK TREND’s experts were immediately impressed with the Sierra Denali, which is focused on comfort, safety, and innovation. For 2016 the Sierra Denali received a styling update by way of an all-new front fascia featuring advanced LED lighting that includes GMC’s signature daytime running lamps, headlamps, and foglamps. Premium accents and features are found throughout. A new body-colored front bumper leads the way, while chrome-clad mirrors, door handles, and trim add a light touch of class. Unique 20-inch, ultra-bright, machined aluminum wheels round out the exterior décor and add to the upscale Denali’s presence.

First-rate features abound in the cabin, starting with perforated leather seating, soft-touch materials on the instrument and door panels, and real brushed-aluminum trim. Triple-sealed doors, hydraulic body mounts, and active noise-cancellation technology all work together to ensure that Sierra Denali has the quietest cabin in the class. Magnetic Ride Control suspension provided a smooth and comfortable ride in all road conditions.

Tucked under the skin was a 6.2L V-8 engine that churned out 420 hp and 460 lb-ft of torque, which was mated to an all-new, eight-speed automatic transmission. This combination propelled the Sierra Denali to the top of our leaderboard when it came to instrumented testing. With an unladen 0-60-mph time of just 6.60 seconds and an elapsed quarter-mile time of 15.03 seconds at an astonishing 97.83 mph, the Sierra Denali was one of the quickest production pickups our experts have ever tested. The Sierra Denali backed this up by besting our field on the track with a payload and trailer in tow as well. Even with so much power on tap, the Sierra Denali returned an impressive best tank of more than 19 mpg.

“GMC has set out to produce the definition of a luxury pickup, and its Sierra Denali has certainly hit that mark,” says TRUCK TREND Editor Jason Gonderman. “By combining a finely appointed interior with a world-class drivetrain and 21st-century technology, GMC has taken the fullsize truck to the next level. Our test is hard on both man and machine, and the fact that the Sierra Denali took on each grueling challenge with relative ease consistently impressed our panel of experts.”

The GMC Sierra 1500 Denali won TRUCK TREND’s 2016 Pickup Truck of the Year award only after completing a demanding weeklong test comprised of more than 1,100 miles of performance testing, hauling, towing, fuel economy calculation, and off-roading—all important disciplines in which truck owners expect their vehicle to be competent.

To thoroughly test each truck, the competition began with a day of instrumented testing at the Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, California. The field was subjected to 0-60-mph and quarter-mile acceleration testing as well as 60-0-mph braking while unladen. Each truck was then loaded up with its maximum payload and retested from 0-60 and for quarter-mile elapsed time. The final instrumented test involved each truck accelerating to 60 mph while towing 75 percent of its rated trailer capacity.

Using the same parameters as the instrumented testing, the trucks were again loaded up and driven on a 15-mile loop through Southern California. Throughout the day, experts, payloads, and trailers rotated through the group, allowing each judge to drive every vehicle with a payload and a trailer. This also allowed testers to experience how easy each truck was to load or hook a trailer to, effectiveness of tie-down positions and integrated trailer brake controllers, how well the trucks were designed with outward visibility in mind, and chassis performance, among other features important to truck buyers.

With load testing complete, the vehicles were pointed toward California’s Owens Valley, where the field completed extensive off-highway testing over 50 miles of diverse desert trail. Through rough, graded roads, muddy basins, rocky climbs, and sandy washes, judges were able to evaluate tires, gearing, traction aids, electronic traction controls, ground clearance, suspension tuning, four-wheel-drive systems, thermal management, and overall vehicle dynamics.

Finally, over the course of the 1,100-mile test the experts had ample time on the highway with each vehicle to form qualified opinions regarding important factors such as interior ergonomics, seat comfort, technology usability, build quality, and features and benefits of each truck, while also logging fuel usage to gauge real-world economy.

With testing completed, the staff at TRUCK TREND crunched the data and found that the Sierra 1500 Denali led in three out of seven scoring categories: Interior (10%), Functionality (15%) and Empirical (20%), while coming in Second Place in the Highway (15%) and Exterior (15%) portion of the test. The remaining two categories were Off-Road (15%) and Towing and Hauling (15%). In the end, it was the Sierra 1500 Denali that scored the highest number of points and earned the nod from TRUCK TREND’s jurors.

“TRUCK TREND’s Pickup Truck of the Year award is not a popularity contest,” says Sean P. Holman, content director for TEN: The Enthusiast Network’s Truck and Off-Road Group. “ It is a data-driven test by truck enthusiasts who drive and evaluate trucks every day, bringing to the test expertise in different truck disciplines. TRUCK TREND prides itself as being the credible go-to authority for light-truck reviews and information for the industry.”