Love my Denali

Author's Rating:

Pros: Every possible luxury feature except sun-roof, what else it doesn't have, probably doesn't exist.

Cons: Front driver's and passenger door latches sometimes stick.

Handling And Control:

The Bottom Line: 
I would buy another one in a minute. Although the trend is to smaller cars, (savings versus comfort), if you can afford it, sometimes comfort and safety trumps gas savings.

Author's Review
I bought my Denali in 2000 after driving a 1992 Jeep Laredo (which I bought new) and a used Toyota Corolla. I intended to buy another Jeep but after a salesman talked me into test-driving the Denali.... It was love at first sight.

The only hesitation is that it was a bit big for me and my teenage son, which at first I justified because I had to haul his hockey gear around.

All in all, I would buy another one in a minute.

It handles like a dream, has every option that you can think of with the exception of a sun-roof. That overhead space is taken up by an On-Star system whose services at that time were not available in northern Canada.

The heated leather seats, with every possible adjustment option make even long 1800 mile trips an extremely comfortable experience, although because it is so quiet and smooth is is very easy to go past the legal speed limit, I learned after my first ticket.

A Bose stereo with cassette/CD changer has rear controls so I could listen to the radio while my son and a friend could listen to their favorite CD. Rear sears are also heated and have their own air controls as well.

As my son loves to go on overnight fishing trips, I could put down a Coleman queen sized air bed after folding the rear seats down. It's like having a van or truck with canopy.

The only problem that I had with the Denali is that the front passenger door locks sometimes stick, so the driver has to reach over and manually push the door lock switch up. The driver's door sometimes is a problem: the latch inside the door sticks, so I had to use a screwdriver to flip it up or down in order to close the door. (I discovered this problem late one minus 30 below night, and I drove across our little hamlet holding the door closed with one hand!!!) This has happened about three times in five years and I keep telling myself that next time I take it in for a service, I'll get it fixed but I keep forgetting to read "note to self". I discovered the problem before my warranty was up so GM would have fixed it.
I paid around $52,000 Canadian and although I put $40,000 US (the field required a US Dollar amount), I am not sure what the exchange rate was at that time, so please ignore that.

Oh, I almost forgot..... I have never had a mechanical problem. It is five years old and when I took it in for the last service, the shop (not a GM dealer) changed the brakes. I have driven for many years and hadn't noticed a problem with the brakes, but they said the brakes had to be replaced, and who am I to argue (after its done?).