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Junkyard Gem: 1973 GMC Sierra Grande Camper Special

Starting in the 1973 model year, General Motors introduced the "Rounded Line" family of C/K-series Chevrolet and GMC trucks, and sales of the pickup versions continued all the way through 1987. Nice examples of these trucks can sell for large money, but the junkyard teaches us that not all collectible vehicles are worth rescuing and fixing up. Here's a reinforcement of that lesson, courtesy of a first-year GMC C2500 Camper Special with the high-zoot Sierra Grande trim level, found in a self-service yard just outside of Denver, Colorado. I'm no GM truck expert, but I know enough to stay clear of the battles over what to call this pickup. Let's just say it's a three-quarter-ton, rear-wheel-drive third-gen C-Series with really cool badges. Yes, I bought this badge for my garage wall, and it was totally worth the $4.23. GM came up with the Camper Special package during the late 1960s, when removable pickup campers became popular, and for 1973 it included heavy-duty springs and a wiring harness made to plug into the connectors on slide-in truck campers. It also included woodsy-looking badges, but someone pried the ones off this truck before I could buy them. This may well have been a one-owner truck, because it still had original warranty paperwork inside. Here we see that it was purchased new on August 2, 1973 (which happens to be the day that George Brett got his very first hit in the big leagues) by a resident of Compton, California. Yes, that Compton. The build tag tells us that this Camper Special was born at the Fremont Assembly plant in California, which became the GM-Toyota NUMMI venture in 1984 and is now the Tesla Factory. I think most 1973 C/K pickups sold new in Colorado would have come from Pontiac Assembly in Michigan. There was a time, not many years ago, when a genuine 454-cubic-inch (that's 7.4 liters to those of you sweating under the oppressive weight of the French Empire's Measurement System) big-block Chevrolet engine would have been yanked out and purchased within hours of hitting the rows of a yard like this. These days, engine-swappers can get more power with less weight from any number of donor vehicles. If this engine is the original 454, it was rated at 240 horsepower and 355 pound-feet (down from 270 hp in 1972 due to emissions-related changes). This truck had a three-speed automatic transmission, like most optioned-up Detroit pickups of its era.

2022 GMC Sierra Denali Ultimate vs. 2022 Ram 1500 Limited Longhorn vs. Ford F-150 Limited | Luxury truck interior face-off

GMC's new uber-expensive 2022 Sierra Denali Ultimate is the latest luxury truck to nudge toward six-figure territory. With demand for upmarket half-tons surging, GMC's otherwise-solid pickup found itself in desperate need of an interior remodel. For 2022, we're getting just that, and it appears ready to take the fight to the segment's best, including the 2022 Ram 1500 Limited and 2022 Ford F-150 Limited. Here's the new Denali Ultimate interior in all of its full-grain, open-pore glory. 2022 GMC Sierra 1500 Denali Ultimate vs. 2021 GMC Denali  Not only did the material quality and styling both improve greatly, but the new truck also gets a completely different shifter setup (truck buyers don't like column shifters anymore, apparently). It would actually be difficult to overstate the quality of the upgrade here; the photos really speak for themselves. It's also worth noting that in addition to looking significantly more upscale than the model it's succeeding, the new Denali interior also differs a bit more from its Chevy counterpart than its predecessor did. Here's the new Silverado High Country for reference: While some elements do carry over, the entire dash design is different, down to the positioning of the heating and cooling vents. While the main HVAC controls are essentially carried over, note that they're pretty much the only ones. Even the horizontal bar of switches running along the center stack is positioned differently between the two. Yep. This is a pretty big upgrade over the 2021 cabin, and clearly the range-topper in GM's truck hierarchy. But what of the competition? 2022 GMC Sierra 1500 Denali Ultimate vs. 2022 Ram Limited Longhorn Southfork This one's tough. We're going to have to spend time in them back to back, but the Ram Limited, with its various anniversary editions and other special permutations, is certainly the interior to beat. To our eyes, the Sierra's more horizontal layout is a bit more modern and perhaps luxurious-looking than the more upright cabin treatment of the Ram, but it's tough to say for certain from photos. Both the Denali Ultimate and Ram Limited carry their upscale feel into their back benches too, which is something we can't say quite as confidently about our next contestant.  2022 GMC Sierra 1500 Denali Ultimate vs. 2021 Ford F-150 Limited The Ford F-150 Limited holds its own, but it's probably the least photogenic of the models we've looked at here, at least apart from the outgoing Denali.

2022 GMC Sierra 1500 Denali interior spied with dramatic redesign

The 2022 GMC Sierra’s interior overhaul is coming into better view with these new spy shots revealing a totally new dash.  GMC teased out a few changes when it announced Super Cruise was coming to the 2022 Sierra, but only so much was visible in the tightly cropped photo. These spy shots tell a fuller story about whatÂ’s going on inside the new GMC pickup. WeÂ’re instantly drawn to the new center stack that doesnÂ’t even remotely look like the truckÂ’s current design. ThereÂ’s a new widescreen infotainment system integrated nicely into the dash just below new thin air vents. It appears to be running a version of Android Automotive. The Google Assistant bubble is visible in the top left corner, and a Google sign-in screen is showing on the far right. GMC is obviously still prioritizing hard buttons and knobs for all vital controls. A big, knurled-looking volume knob is positioned to the left of the screen. And the climate control layout is all buttons and knobs with glossy black and chrome accents. This, along with the angled surfaces, classes it up a bit versus the current sea of flat black center stack buttons. Even the push button start appears dressed up in chrome. One other large change to the center console area is the introduction of a gear lever replacing the column-mounted shifter. The new shifter looks slathered in leather, glossy plastic and chrome accents. ThereÂ’s a part of us that will miss the chunky truck-like operation of the column-mounted shifter, but this new design is certainly more befitting of a luxury pickup. And from what we can tell, this Sierra is the luxury-oriented Denali trim. Its exterior features give it away with the ostentatious grille treatment and chrome trim scattered about. We still donÂ’t know which, if any, of these features we see here will be exclusive to the Denali, but the digital instrument cluster seems like a given but will likely be available further down the trim tree. This replaces the truckÂ’s current, tired-looking gauges with a vibrant and neatly-integrated screen. Super Cruise, as it is throughout the lineup of GM cars that offer it, also looks optional — this Denali does not have the fancy light-up steering wheel or controls for it. ItÂ’s worth noting that this DenaliÂ’s interior could be different than the rest of the Sierra lineup. GM already did that with the redesigned Yukon, giving its top trim model a different look than the rest of the trims.