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GM takes 2020 full-size pickup sales crown

It's no secret that 2020 was an unconventional year for auto sales. Extenuating circumstances or not, it was a year of upheaval even for ever-resilient (and ever-profitable) pickups, with General Motors taking the crown from Ford in the full-size segment.  The Ford F-Series still outsold every other full-size pickup nameplate in the country by a significant margin. It's only when you combine GM's Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra variants that you get a number that exceeds Ford's. This isn't really a new phenomenon, either. In fact, it was only somewhat recently that Ford took the overall full-size crown away from GM, and not only did Ford widen the gap in recent years, but Ram has once again become a legitimate challenger, even managing to outsell the Silverado by a healthy margin in 2019, but never coming close to the F-Series in terms of total volume.  But, 2020 being 2020, things got weird yet again. Ram remains relevant, of course, but Ford got caught with its pants down thanks to the one-two punch of COVID and the generational changeover of the core F-150 model, which resulted in a production interruption as the company's assembly facilities transitioned from building the old 2020 model to the new-for-2021. This perfect storm, as it turns out, was sufficient for GM to walk away with the full-size crown. See for yourself: Full-size 2020 pickup sales: GM total: 847,110 F-Series: 787,422 Silverado: 594,094 Ram: 563,676 Sierra: 253,016 Tundra: 109,203 Titan: 26,439 As you can see, Ram slipped back behind Silverado, slotting comfortably into third place. The Silverado 1500 had a flat year, but the heavy- and medium-duty variants bucked the trend and contributed to a slight uptick in sales for the nameplate, while F-Series tumbled more than 12% (nearly 110,000 units), opening the door for GM to steam ahead.  There were similarly significant shakeups in the midsize truck segment. First, 2020 was the first full year of retail sales for the Gladiator pickup, which surged to fourth place behind the stalwart Tacoma, Ranger and Colorado. GM's combined sales of the Colorado and Canyon are good enough for second place by manufacturer, but nowhere close to what it would take to dethrone Toyota.

2022 GMC Sierra spotted with minimal camouflage

By all accounts, GM's current full-size truck twins, the Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra, are good trucks that are in many ways competitive with the sales-leading Ford F-150 and a fresh Ram 1500 that's regularly nipping at the Bowtied truck's tailgate. Considering the cashflow generated by the segment, though, it's no surprise to see a refreshed version of the GMC Sierra testing with some light camouflage hiding some of the upgraded bits and pieces. We'll get to what we can see in just a moment, but first we'll point out what we can't see in these spy shots. What the GM pair really needs is a competitive interior. The current Silverado and Sierra are bridled by dashboards, door panels and instrument clusters that simply aren't good enough when compared to their Ram and Ford competitors. We've spoken with a few designers from GM, and they are well aware of the criticisms that have been levied at their full-size truck duo, so we'd be shocked if there wasn't a heavily revised interior lurking for the trucks' next refresh. Hopefully a future set of spy photos will give us a better look at what's inside, because from this far-away, through-the-windshield look doesn't give us much information. Will the Sierra share an interior with the redesigned Yukon? We'll just have to wait and see, but suffice it to say that any improvement will be welcome. Moving to the exterior, we can clearly see that the blocky, angular look of the current Sierra will continue through this refresh. A tiny look through the heavy tarp covering the truck's face reveals a black plastic mesh grille, but we're sure there's plenty of chrome hiding under there, too. We're left to wonder if that opening allows for a camera or radar to peek through, but rumors suggest GM's well-regarded Super Cruise could be on the menu within the next few years. We have no idea what's under this test truck's hood, but we wouldn't imagine there will be much change to the current truck's solid list of powertrain options. Here's hoping the 3.0-liter Duramax inline-six diesel engine gets the cooling it needs to raise its tow rating to match its class-leading efficiency, because it's arguably otherwise the best light-duty diesel offering in America. We know the automaker is working on electric powertrains, too, but we expect to see those debut first in the Hummer-branded truck that will be sold in GMC dealerships.

2023 GMC Sierra AT4X could swipe a few parts from the AT4X AEV

GM recently expanded its collaboration with American Expedition Vehicles beyond the Bison herd with the 2023 GMC Sierra AT4X AEV. This Jimmy takes matters further than the standard AT4X by increasing ground clearance, approach and departure angle, and breakover angle, improvements made possible by new stamped steel bumpers and a set of 33-inch mud-terrain tires wrapping 18-inch AEV Salta wheels. GM Authority says the AT4X AEV won't be the only Sierra to get special parts, crediting sources for the news that the standard 2023 Sierra AT4X will get some of the equipment from the special trim. According to the report, at some point for the coming model year, the off-road-focused Sierra will bolt on the AEV's stamped steel front and rear bumpers, stamped steel front skid plate, and 33-inch Goodyear mud terrains. If this is true, it's an intriguing move; the equipment list is nearly everything found on the proper AEV model. Going by that list, the only bits left off would be four additional skid plates, wheels, gloss black door handles, gloss black tailgate accent, and AEV logos. Judging from the GMC retail website, the grille that debuted on the AT4X AEV will also be on the standard AT4X.  GMC hasn't announced pricing for the 2023 range yet. The pickup will be carryover, but we would expect various well-known issues to increase the $78,300 price of the regular AT4X over the 2022 model. GMA believes "it's reasonable to assume" that a standard 2023 Sierra AT4X with some AEV parts would go up even more, whenever it hits the market — and this is on top of the Sierra's $1,500 price increase from making OnStar standard equipment. And after that, of course, the proper AT4X AEV would be more again.