GMC Yukon 2025 review: Denali

Picking the GMC brand was a deliberate choice by General Motors Australia, even though the Chevrolet brand is already established here and the more premium Cadillac is in the opening stages of its Australian expansion.

But GM wants Cadillac to focus on electric vehicles and, despite the Yukon sharing its underpinnings with the Silverado, using the Chevrolet brand would have made the value equation for a big SUV hard to add up.

By choosing GMC, and specifically the high-grade Denali, General Motors Australia is confident it has found the sweet spot for the Yukon. The asking price of $174,990, before on-road costs, is certainly not cheap, but the Yukon Denali offers a lot of vehicle for your money - and not just sheer size.

Denali is a GMC sub-brand for more premium model variants, so our local models come generously equipped with 24-inch alloy wheels, air suspension, tri-zone climate control, a dual-pane panoramic sunroof, a 16.8-inch multimedia touchscreen, rear-seat entertainment, a 14-speaker Bose surround sound audio system and leather-trimmed seats.

Obviously, the cost is impacted by the fact GM Australia has to have the Yukons built in Texas before being shipped to Melbourne where they are converted to right-hand drive alongside the Chevrolet Silverado by GM’s local partner, Walkinshaw Automotive Group.

While it certainly offers good return for your money, such a high starting price is a challenge for any new brand, so only time will tell if GM has made the right decision with GMC.

When it comes to space, the Yukon excels - unsurprisingly. It measures more than 5.3m long, more than 2.0m wide and nearly 2.0m tall, which is longer and wider than the LandCruiser 300, so it’s obviously a big SUV and that translates to plenty of space inside.

Getting into the cabin is easy, too, despite how tall it is, thanks to side steps which automatically lower when you unlock or open the doors, and then retract when the doors are closed for a cleaner look and more ground clearance.

Once you’re inside there’s good room up front and you can adjust the seat up nice and high to get a view over the big bonnet and down onto the traffic around you.

That’s worthy of note, as I suspect it’s an important selling-point for many buyers, as even amid the dominance of SUVs on our roads these days, having something like the Yukon helps you feel like you’re looking down on traffic as opposed to looking up.

As for the second row, there’s plenty of space, which can be traded off between it and the third row as the seats slide backwards and forwards. You’d comfortably fit two adults in the back (dare I say, in luxury) and three kids, even teenagers, would easily be accommodated.

As mentioned earlier, the Yukon Denali comes equipped as standard with rear seat entertainment, so there are two screens (one on the back of each front seat headrest) that can be used for watching media or even playing games, as there are individual HDMi ports for the pair. This would make for an ideal road trip car for the family, as the kids could sit in the second row and entertain themselves for hours.

And last, but not least, the third row is pretty roomy for an SUV, as it should be in a vehicle this size. With some modest compromise for the second row, you’ll comfortably fit two adults in the back and there are three seats, so you can fit up to eight people in the Yukon. 

In terms of accessing the seats, the second row tilts and folds forward with a manual lever, and the aforementioned step makes climbing up and in relatively easy. The third row can raise and lower at the push of a button, to liberate more boot space if you need it.

There’s a decent amount of room, enough for several shopping bags or some small suitcases, with the third row in use, but you can expand it up to a claimed 2053L with the third row stowed into the floor. And if you need to turn your Yukon into a delivery van, GMC claims you can literate up to 3480L of cargo capacity with the second row seats folded down.

Unsurprisingly, plenty of small item storage spaces are littered around the cabin. The door pockets are huge, with multiple shelves, there’s loads of cup and bottle holders and larger storage spaces like the big lidded box between the front seats.

All this space and flexibility makes me think there’s a golden opportunity for GMC to tap into the limousine market, getting fleet operators to ditch the S-Class, 7 Series or similar in favour of a big, black American SUV, just like you see in the movies.

As for the multimedia system, the massive 16.8-inch touchscreen looks great and this reviewer found it paired well with Android Auto, although there were reports from our initial drive event that some Apple iPhone users had difficulty.

Having your smartphone pair is important, as despite the high level of equipment for the Denali there is no in-built navigation system.

But that quibble aside, the media system is good and, importantly, there’s a sensible amount of physical buttons and dials for things like the air-conditioning and stereo, so the balance between technology and usability feels right.

The Yukon gets GM’s tried and tested 6.2-litre petrol V8, which was recently recalled around the world, but GM Australia claims 2025 model year examples of the Yukon already received the fix for the engine.

Like the Chevy Silverado, in the Yukon it makes 313kW/624Nm which is enough to pull this big unit along with relative ease. 

The engine is paired to a 10-speed automatic transmission and the Yukon is also fitted with GM’s 'Active Response 4WD System' with an electronic limited-slip rear differential and a two-speed transfer case, so it does have some off-road ability despite its big, shiny wheels. 

2025 GMC Yukon Denali

This system includes '2WD HI', '4WD Auto', '4WD HI' and '4WD LOW' for enhanced off-road capabilities, even if you wouldn’t call a $175k premium SUV on 24-inch chrome wheels a true off-roader (at least not in the same way you’d consider a LandCruiser, Patrol or Defender).

Instead, GM Australia is leaning on its strength, literally. With pulling caravans and horse trailers a priority for many modern SUV buyers, towing capacity is a big priority and GMC is proudly declaring the Yukon Denali has the highest braked towing capacity of any SUV on sale in Australia today at 3628kg.

That’s a 167kg advantage of the LandCruiser 300 Series, and should enhance its appeal to those looking to regularly haul heavy loads.

In news about as surprising as ‘water is wet’ and ‘teenager stares at screen’, the V8-powered, pick-up-based, GMC Yukon Denali uses a lot of fuel.

Our initial test drive was on almost entirely open roads and even then the trip computer had us using 13.1L/100km, which is not too far off the official claim of 12.8L/100km.

However, that’s a combined urban/highway cycle figure and given we spent very little time in what could be considered an urban environment, it’s fair to say if you spend all your time running around the city and suburbs you’ll be filling up the 91L fuel tank more often than you’d like.

2025 GMC Yukon Denali

We’ll have to wait until we’ve driven it in more representative conditions, but based on this experience, returns in the high teens are likely, even with a light right foot. Obviously you can also expect higher consumption if you’re towing.

That’s not to say the Yukon Denali is bad, 12.8L/100km is reasonable for an SUV this size with such a big engine, but if you want to buy one, you need to be eyes wide open about the realities.

Theoretical range (based on the official consumption number) is around 700km, but in the real world something closer to 500km is more likely.

In a moment of awkward timing, ANCAP publicly questioned the pedestrian safety of the American pick-ups like the Silverado at the same time GM confirmed the Yukon Denali was coming Down Under.

However, despite this, ANCAP has not tested the Silverado, nor any of the US-sourced full-size pick-ups, and there are no public plans for the Yukon Denali to be assessed locally.

ANCAP’s view, aside from ignoring the fact these big vehicles should protect the occupants very well, seemingly overlooks the number of trucks and buses that are much bigger than a Yukon, Silverado, etc that are already on our roads and even more pedestrian unfriendly. So, it feels like an unfair argument, at least in this reviewer’s opinion.

2025 GMC Yukon Denali

For its part, General Motors Australia has made it clear the Yukon Denali is loaded with every piece of safety equipment available to it for our market.

Importantly, that includes airbag coverage across all three rows, as well as a suite of advanced safety systems. These include 'Enhanced Automatic Emergency Park Assist', 'Front Pedestrian and Cyclist Braking', 'Rear Cross Traffic Braking', 'Rear Pedestrian Alert', adaptive cruise control, lane keep assist (with lane departure warning) and 'Reverse Automatic Braking'.

There’s also an on-board camera system which offers 11 viewing angles around the Yukon, so you can see exactly what - or who - is around you.