When we attended GMs all-new full-size pickup roll-out last summer, the knockout among the knockouts (relatively, of course; bear with us) was the sexy GMC Sierra Denali.
The Denali was a tantalizing proposition: drop the Escalades 6.2-liter V-8 engine into a lighter pickup packed full of luxury and slathered in buckets of chrome. It would be the Escalade EXT for the working man with a penchant for the fabulous.
Though the Denali would be among the last of these new big-uns to roll outarriving in dealerships this spring there in a corner of the display at the event shone a Denali prototype, lookin all blingy and glitzy and movie-starry in a shiny deep-black clearcoat with chrome pipe side rails and gobs of chrome coating the door handles, 20-inch wheels, and upper and lower grillework, all gleaming in the Michigan summer sun. We couldnt wait to get our hands on one and roll wit da Hummers and the Escalades on Sunset Boulevard.
Black: The Difference Between Badass and Just Bad
Then came our Denali crew cab tester, which showed up at the doorstep of our West Coast Bureau rendered in a milquetoast off-beige Silver Birch metallic. Wait, where was the chrome? It was there, but had nothing to set it off. The pipe side rails would have helped, but they, too, were missing. Thus, the Denali looked like any ol Sierra, and the eight inches of clearance above the wheels completely dwarfed the chrome 20s. The rear bumper and black-trimmed taillamps were downright cheap-looking. Blah.
You know, its hard enough to get excited about a pickup and, heck, we couldnt even out-pimp an Altima with this thing, let alone a Slade. Oh how we longed for a few cans of black spray paint. Or 22s. Or lowering springs. Or all of that. Man, what a difference a color makes.
And so we canceled our reservations at the Ivy and Chateau Marmont and used the Denali as a typical Angeleno would any other pickup. We went shopping. We drove to the gym. We picked up friends and asked what they thought. We drove by a few condo construction sites, where we garnered the only thumbs-ups of the week. It all went very well. But absent was that feeling that gosh darn it people envy us. They would have, however, if only it was black.
Read Article