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2022 GMC Yukon AT4 to offer 6.2-liter V8

A year ago, GM said it was considering making its 6.2-liter V8 available outside the flagship trims of its full-sized SUV trio of Chevrolet Tahoe and Suburban, and GMC Yukon. There has been a year of gnashing teeth on GM forums since the automaker decided to meditate on the issue, but GM Authority reports The General has finally made the call — the 2022 Yukon AT4 will offer the 6.2-liter. This follows last week's news that three 2022 Chevrolet Tahoe and Suburban trims would also add the 6.2-liter as an option. With the Yukon Denali already in the 6.2-liter camp, only the Yukon SLE and SLT will be left out. Those latter two levels will continue to offer the 3.0-liter Duramax diesel as the optional engine, which the AT4 trim cannot take advantage of because the AT4's front fascia and skid plate interfere with the diesel's plumbing. The 5.3-liter V8 that's the standard engine makes 355 horsepower and 383 pound-feet of torque. The 6.2-liter makes 420 hp and 460 lb-ft. As has been pointed out, the 5.3-liter can tow 200 pounds more than the 6.2, but fuel economy is a wash — the 5.3 only gains 1 mpg in the city over the 6.2. This is a pure power play. For the moment, it looks like Yukon AT4 buyers won't need to do anything other than check a box to get the 6.2-liter. That's the opposite of what some Tahoe and Suburban buyers will face when trying to get the 6.2-liter for their rigs; outside of the Premier trim, Chevy put the engine behind a paywall of option packages. Since GMC hasn't revealed pricing for the 2022 lineup yet, we don't know what the surcharge will be for the big engine. The GMC Sierra AT4 pickup charges $2,195 to go from the 5.3 to the 6.2, so that's probably in the ballpark. Related Video: This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings.

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.

GM tinkering with Silverado, Sierra model mix amidst strong early sales

Variety, as they say, is the spice of life. That's a lesson that is currently being taught to General Motors, because despite a strong showing from its 2014 Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra, the General's pickup sales still can't best those of cross-town rival Ford.
With 59,163 trucks moved, GM fell just over 1,000 units short of toppling Ford, and one of the main reasons for that, according to GM's chief sales analyst, was due to a lack of variety in the engines and body styles available on dealer lots. "We are still over-weighted toward crew-cab V8 trucks. Our light-duty mix will moderate over time as our launch progresses," said Kurt McNeil.
Loading dealers with the popular combination of the 5.3-liter V8 and the four-door, Crew Cab body style was intentional during the truck's launch, but as supplies of leftover 2013 models, which are being sold at heavy incentives, are beginning to wane, both budget-conscious and high-dollar buyers are looking elsewhere instead of at the volume model pickups.