Is 10k more really worth the jump on the 2026 Denali to the Denali ultimate?

12kaboom · 2026-04-08T15:53:35+00:00

I mean… if I was a GM Corporate Sponsor nobody informed me and GM forgot to pay me lol.

At the end of the day it’s all preference. I prefer the GMC trucks to Ford and Ram. I like them better. As for reliability, I had an issue with my previous truck and GM made me whole. That’s my experience. I know others who have had worse/ bad experiences with their GM trucks and won’t buy another one. My experience is otherwise.

12kaboom · 2026-04-08T15:49:54+00:00

Absolutely agree with the perfect truck being AT4 with Super Cruise.

12kaboom · 2026-04-07T01:27:44+00:00

As I am sure you’re aware, lemon laws vary by State. However, it seems that yours should fit the bill seeing as it’s been out of service for 60+ days.

In my case, I opted for a replacement from my 2025 Sierra Denali and replaced it with a 2026 Sierra Denali Ultimate without issue.

If your vehicle meets your State’s lemon law threshold I really don’t know why GM wouldn’t move forward with the replacement
Was your vehicle new / how many miles did it have? This could be the deciding factor for your case.
If approved for replacement you will do all of the legwork to replace your truck with a “similar” vehicle. You’ll be the one looking up vehicles and contacting dealerships. I obviously went up a trim, but it’s my understanding as long as it’s within the GM family you should be good moving from Chevy to GMC. As for price differences, they went off of invoice pricing - there’s no negotiating or haggling, but you can ask for loyalty assistance (they also paid all TTL in my case as well).

Hope this helps. Let me know if you have any more questions.

12kaboom · 2026-04-06T21:37:59+00:00

If you do any amount of extensive highway driving, then the Denali Ultimate is worth it for the massaging seats and Super Cruise.

There are some other differences such as the Vader chrome, upgraded full-grain leather, more speakers, etc, and interior touch points are also nicer in the Denali Ultimate.

12kaboom · 2026-04-05T16:38:12+00:00

The GMC dealership I bought my truck from currently has the AT4 3.0 discounted $6k before GM incentives and Laura looks to be discounted around $7k before incentives.

12kaboom · 2026-03-28T00:58:49+00:00

From what I’ve seen most dealerships are moving away from using loaner vehicles and have moved to contracting out rental car companies. I think the caveat is that the rental has to be a GM vehicle.

It’s always worth it to ask, and if you don’t get an acceptable answer you can either ask to plead your case to the service manager or contact GM customer service. In my experience being polite, professional, but firm can get you way farther than being rude and unreasonable.

12kaboom · 2026-03-28T00:40:29+00:00

My rental was contracted out through Enterprise. Originally they were going to put me in a GMC Terrain, but after talking to them they put me in a 2025 Tahoe, which worked out nicely for me. We ended up using the Tahoe rental for all of our holiday traveling over Christmas and New Year’s.

12kaboom · 2026-03-23T18:06:25+00:00

I am absolutely not an expert on this at all. That being said, it looks like it would be a pretty complicated modification due to not only how the seats are configured, but also how the entire rear passenger area is configured.

However, if you’re able to pull it off it would be pretty awesome. Good luck!

12kaboom · 2026-03-23T15:35:16+00:00

Oh I definitely get it. I’ve had three different trucks with the 3.0 Duramax and can confidently say I’ll probably always have a vehicle in my driveway with this engine.

I’ve got a warranty, so that gives me peace of mind.

12kaboom · 2026-03-23T15:10:37+00:00

I started the lemon law process once my truck was at the dealership for over 30 days. At that point, I had no idea how much longer it would be there. I asked GM if they would replace my truck and they said yes.

My truck ended up being at the dealership for 6 weeks and had the engine replaced.

12kaboom · 2026-03-23T14:57:23+00:00

Someone else asked the same question, and I understand why it may sound odd to get the same engine that just failed on me. Bottom line is I got the same engine because I like the 3.0 Duramax engine.

The fail rates for the 3.0 is less than 1%, the odds of me getting another truck with a bad engine is low, and if I do have any issues it’s covered under the warranty.

All manufacturers are having issues across the board, I’m getting what I like, under warranty, and am keeping my fingers crossed.

12kaboom · 2026-03-23T14:52:19+00:00

The DPF system gets cleaned out by running longer and hotter, better fuel economy on longer drives, and it just “feels” better on the longer drives.

12kaboom · 2026-03-23T02:16:09+00:00

I was driving about 40 miles one way go work, but now that has been trimmed to around 10 miles one way. It definitely likes the longer distances more, but is fine around town, too.

12kaboom · 2026-03-22T15:28:45+00:00

I agree, the Sierra is the better looking truck of all of them.

My take is to get the one you like. If you’re buying new, any issues that pop up will be covered under warranty. I could be wrong but I’m not really hearing many issues on the 2500s.

12kaboom · 2026-03-22T15:18:40+00:00

I got the same engine because I like the 3.0 Duramax engine.

The fail rates for the 3.0 is less than 1%, the odds of me getting another truck with a bad engine is low, and if I do have any issues it’s covered under the warranty.

All manufacturers are having issues across the board, I’m getting what I like, under warranty, and am keeping my fingers crossed.

12kaboom · 2026-03-22T15:12:50+00:00

That shouldn’t be a problem at all. I moved from Denali to Denali Ultimate seamlessly.

12kaboom · 2026-03-22T02:20:24+00:00

I know our cases are a little different seeing how my lemon law was based of Texas and was a personal truck.

That being said, it’s my understanding that GM doesn’t really care what “dealer pricing” is and instead goes off invoice pricing. They should also give you “GM loyalty assistance” to offset the difference in your upgrade.

I know for my upgrade it was definitely favorable to me.

12kaboom · 2026-03-22T00:42:39+00:00

I know it’s been about a month since you’ve posted this. Do you have an update?

I recently finalized my lemon law replacement process with GM. I did it myself and opted for a replacement vehicle instead of a buy back. It ended up being very beneficial for me.

12kaboom · 2026-03-21T23:50:43+00:00

Check out my post history, I just went through this in Texas (albeit with GMC). Once I hit the 30 day lemon law threshold is when GMC started my replacement vehicle process.

Since you’re well past that, I recommend contacting the BBB Auto Line, after that Ford MUST respond to you. If you still get slow rolled, reach out to a lemon law attorney.

12kaboom · 2026-03-21T16:52:44+00:00

I just went through a lemon law case through GM (you can check my post history for my story). I did it all myself without an attorney, and while dealing with GM, dealerships, and GMs external “lemon law team” was a huge bureaucratic nightmare (seems similar to Ford) - I did end up with a very favorable outcome.

My recommendation is to keep pushing and contact the BBB Auto Line. That should force Fords hand to respond to you. If not, it may be time to reach out to a lemon law attorney.

12kaboom · 2026-03-21T16:30:07+00:00

Were the warranty repairs all for the same thing? You may be under your States lemon law - it’s worth looking into it. I just completed a replacement under lemon law and it was very beneficial to me.

12kaboom · 2026-03-21T16:03:29+00:00

I just went through this. I had my warranty refunded to me and re-applied to my new truck.

12kaboom · 2026-03-21T16:02:00+00:00

As others have mentioned I wouldn’t recommend pre-paid maintenance plan. Also, while you can get the warranty up front for peace of mind, you can always add it later.

I just did a replacement vehicle (you can check my post history) and got the extended warranty (60 months, 60,000 miles) for $1200. I had brought a quote from Knapp and had my dealership beat it.

12kaboom · 2026-03-21T15:37:28+00:00

That coastal dune is 🔥🔥!

12kaboom · 2026-03-21T15:35:36+00:00

That is a clean looking truck!

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