2024 GMC Sierra HD Up Close: Fixing What Needed Fixing When it comes to trucks for people who really need them, heavy duty pickups are hard to beat. It’s bulky, super powerful, and usually horribly ineffective, and there’s nothing it can do better than what it does. Do you need to tow a huge boat? horse trailer? Pulling a gigantic camper across the country? An electric pickup won’t cut it, but the new 2024 GMC Sierra 2500/3500 will certainly do.
2024 GMC Sierra HD Up Close: Fixing What Needed Fixing
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Looking at the new 2024 truck shows that this is an important update, but it is by no means an entirely new model. The new front end makes the look of the truck more in line with the truck’s size, since it’s been expanded to appear approximately 10% larger than the smaller pickup. With Denali’s premium models and AT4 making up the majority of Sierra HD sales, the brand places a heavy emphasis on making sure these are where most buyers focus their attention. As such, the new Denali Ultimate and AT4X trims will bring higher levels of luxury appointments (and commensurately higher sticker prices) to the HD lineup.
From a design point of view, it wasn’t easy to tell how different the Denali Ultimate was from the regular Denali, although they were both on hand to take a closer look at, due to the dark metallic paintwork and interior lighting. Bright chrome trim on the up-and-coming Sierra 3500 Denali showed the new, deeper grille better, but that grille and trim disappeared on the dark chrome “Vader” finish and against them against a dark gray metallic truck. I should have seen it on a brighter-colored truck first, but my style preference may actually be the regular Denali, whose badges and detailing appeared more when rendered in bright chrome.
No updates to payload ratings, at least nothing that GMC has indicated, no new bed technology and increased 4,000-pound towing capacity for the 2500 model is welcome but not exceptional. In terms of overall capabilities, design or engineering improvements, the changes to the Sierra HD were modest for 2024—but frankly, there was no shortage of vintage in any of these divisions, so none of that needed to be changed.
Where did they spend the money
The company focused its attention on two areas: extrusion technology and an all-new interior design. The Sierra HD’s traction technology was already great, but adding features like a Transparent Trailer for the gooseneck and a fifth wheel set increases the availability of something very good. The transparent trailer may be one of the most popular towing technologies of the future Ever: Using a camera attached to the rear of the trailer that connects to the truck system and provides a view of the rear camera on the large center touch screen As if the trailer didn’t even exist It is practically the magic of the movie.
GMC says the new Sierra HD has plenty of best-in-class technology for towing, and we agree… if Ford never showed us a new car that towed as easily as it deserved. The new Ford has a system where you can select your trailer hitch ball on the backup camera screen, then take your hands off the steering wheel and only operate the pedals while the truck is aligned and prop itself directly onto the ball. This is as cool as the Transparent Trailer, but I think it would require a head-to-head pull test to determine who has the best systems right now.
The most notable place where GMC has spent the money is an all-new interior—okay, completely new in the HD, but if it sounds familiar, it’s because it’s exactly the same interior featured on the half-ton Sierra. In the design of the Ultimate Denali, it’s absolutely stunning.
2024 GMC Sierra HD Up Close: Fixing What Needed Fixing
Screen game in the Sierra HD is strong, too, with an available 15-inch display with a 12.3-inch digital assembly and an optional 13.4-inch touchscreen in the center console to deliver the most futuristic-looking HD pickup I’ve come across in the interior. Fortunately, GMC hasn’t become fully touch-sensitive in its controls just yet, and we dread the day that will eventually happen (as everyone seems to be heading in that direction). My only concern about the flashy new tech is that it uses Google’s built-in technology to power everything from voice commands to the multimedia system; This technology has not worked 100% correctly in any vehicle I’ve tested in. Hopefully, the new 2024 Sierra HD will be different in this respect.
