With true trucks rapidly fading into 20th-century obscurity in favor of car-like crossovers, the capability of a body-on-frame truck is an increasingly scarce commodity, especially in this XL trim with its longer wheelbase and more spacious third row. Other than the Yukon XL, you’re looking at options like the Ford Expedition EL and the Toyota Sequoia, both great entrants in this segment.
With the Yukon XL, you’d better be ready for nearly 19 feet of truck, standing at over 6 feet tall. It’s a lot of vehicle, and enough that driving in any city is going to take special attention. Luckily the Yukon is fitted with an embarrassment of sensors to warn you long before you accidentally nudge something into oblivion. The reward for all that bulk is the capability to seat 9, haul 121 cubic feet of cargo, and tow up to 8,300 pounds. Utility like that simply has to come with some drawbacks, and the Yukon does its best to make them as palatable as possible.
Starting at the base SLE trim, you’ll pay around $52,000 and get that impressive 9-person capacity, front and rear parking sensors, auto headlights and wipers, a rear-view camera, remote ignition, and keyless entry. Foglights, running boards, and roof rails are standards here, along with comfort and convenience features like tri-zone auto climate control, rear privacy glass, power front seats, and cruise control. The 8-inch touchscreen comes loaded with the upgraded IntelliLink system and offers Bluetooth, a 9-speaker Bose stereo, HD and satellite radio, a whopping 5 USB ports and an Aux input, plus 4G LTE with a Wi-Fi hotspot. Added luxury is available via the Convenience package, adding a power liftgate, auto-dimming rear-view mirror, and power-adjustable pedals. And every Yukon comes with a locking rear differential, 2-inch towing receiver, and 7-pin harness.
For extra safety, an Enhanced Driver Alert package will upgrade your auto headlights with automatic high beams, plus tack on a forward-collision warning system, lane-departure warning and lane-keep assist, and a vibrating seat to let you know when these systems have been triggered.
The $60,000 SLT trim doubles down on the safety with the Enhanced Driver Alert package included, which adds rear cross-traffic alert and a blind-spot monitoring system, but it’s the comfort and convenience that really gets the business here. Besides the Convenience package being included, you’ll also get keyless ignition and entry, a hands-free power liftgate, heated and ventilated front seats with a heated power second row and power-folding third row, power-folding mirrors with auto-dim, a heated power tilt-and-telescoping steering wheel, driver memory, and wireless charging. The SLT also adds ambient interior lighting for an extra splash of opulence.
With the SLE and SLT trims, you can add an HD Trailering package that ups the ante on the towing capability with lower gearing, an air suspension, and a trailer brake controller. If you want to customize your Yukon, you can add second-row captain’s chairs or splurge on the Open Road package for a sunroof, navigation, and a rear entertainment system with a Blu-ray screen. Curiously, you can also add adaptive cruise with crash-avoidance braking, a feature that should’ve been included in the EDA package.
For my week with the Yukon XL, I was given a top-tier Denali trim, which starts at just over $71,000. This adds visual upgrades like a unique chrome grille, 20-inch alloys, xenon headlights, and a customizable digital instrument panel. From a more functional perspective, the Denali adds a larger V8 engine, a magneto-rheological suspension, standard trailer-brake controller, navigation, and second-row captain’s chairs. The Denali also features an upgraded 10-speaker Bose Surround Sound stereo and active noise cancellation that make it one of the quietest vehicles I’ve tested on the highway.
Still not enough? You can push the price of the Denali past $80,000 with unique 22-inch alloys wheels with chrome inserts ($2,495), the Open Road package ($2,860), a heads-up display ($425), power-retractable running boards ($1,745), adaptive cruise ($995), and a theft-deterrent system ($410). With a $1,195 destination charge and a current $500 discount on the Open Road package, the total price for the Yukon XL Denali I tested came to $80,650.