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2020 GMC Sierra 1500 Interior Driveway Test | Still lagging behind

GM has caught nothing but grief for the interiors of its full-size pickups since they were redesigned. Some of it is about perspective. Ram blew everybody away with the new 1500’s interior, but it's not like the Ford F-150 is embarrassed by it. Chevy and GMC are. Even a top-shelf Sierra Denali doesnÂ’t live up to the luxurious environment its price tag would promise.  The trim of Sierra we're testing is an AT4, though. ThatÂ’s the light off-roading version of the Sierra thatÂ’s mechanically the same as the Silverado Trail Boss we recently reviewed. Looking at the interior from a pure functionality standpoint, the Sierra is perfectly fine at performing its truck duties. The seats are wide, flat and comfortable. It has huge armrests on both sides so you can stretch out as much as your truck stretches the boundaries of the road (seriously, this thing is huge). All the buttons in the center stack are well-labeled, easily found and big enough to stab away at without hitting the wrong one. It even has a volume and tuning knob. Yeehaw!  But look at the design. And the styling, or lack thereof. ItÂ’s plain and lacking in imagination. The whole center stack is just one big slab of black plastic, and the only splashes of color or style to distinguish it visually are bits of silver surrounding knobs and bits of gray surrounding air vents. That's certainly not enough to make it attractive. There are token pieces of "wood" inserted on Denali models, but they're almost hidden away along the center console and doors.  The screen looks as if itÂ’s scrunched into the top of the stack due to the vents curving in on both sides, making it look smaller than its perfectly acceptable 8-inch size. That just makes it more obvious that GM doesn't offer something to challenge the gigantic 12-inch optional screen on the Ram 1500. Not good, because size does matter when it comes to trucks, even if it's measured in a touchscreen's inches rather than engine displacement. LetÂ’s not discount how good all of the tech is in the Sierra 1500, though. GMÂ’s infotainment software that runs on the screen is glitch-free and runs like lightning through screens and menus. The performance is impressive, and of course both Apple CarPlay and Android Auto are on board.

How Chevy Silverado, GMC Sierra will take on the Ford F-150 profit machine

FORT WAYNE, Ind. — When General Motors engineers were developing the 2019 Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra pickup trucks, some of them joined public tours of Ford's Dearborn, Mich., factory to watch aluminum-bodied F-Series trucks go down the assembly line. The redesign of the Ford F-Series trucks, launched in 2014, set a new standard for fuel economy and lightweight vehicle construction. But armed with stopwatches and trained eyes, the GM engineers believed they saw problems. "They had a real hard time getting those doors to fit," Tim Herrick, the executive chief engineer for GM truck programs, told Reuters. His team did more intelligence gathering. They bought and tore apart Ford F-Series doors sold as repair parts. Their conclusion: GM could cut weight in its trucks for a lower cost using doors made of a combination of aluminum and high-strength steel that could be thinner than standard steel, shaving off kilograms in the process. These pounds-and-pennies decisions will have major implications in the highest-stakes game going in Detroit: dominance in the world's most profitable vehicle market, the gasoline-fueled large pickup segment. What's more, GM is banking on strong sales of overhauled 2019 Silverados and GMC Sierras to fund its push into automated and electric vehicles — a business many investors see as the auto industry's long-term future. The risks are high given the hits automakers have taken from U.S. President Donald Trump's trade policies. Rising aluminum prices spurred by Trump's tariffs are driving up costs on the Ford's F-Series, while rising steel and aluminum prices likewise drag on GM results. GM also has a significant risk should the United States, Mexico and Canada fail to agree on a new NAFTA trade deal, given GM trucks built at its Silao, Mexico, factory could face a 25 percent tariff if NAFTA collapses. Major profit per truck Interviews with GM executives and a tour at its factory here in northwest Indiana provide a detailed look inside GM's plan for the most important vehicles in its global lineup. These big pickups are everything Tesla's Model 3 or Chevy's Bolt electric car is not. The mostly steel body is bolted to the truck's steel frame, rather than the one-piece body and frame electric vehicles. The majority of trucks will have a V-8 gasoline engine powering the rear wheels — like the classic GM cars of the 1950s. Some Silverados will have new four-cylinder engines, but there is no electric or hybrid offering as of now.

GMC Safari GT, a rad-era hauler with custom-van swagger

The GMC Safari van, along with its Chevy Astro sibling, performed yeoman service ferrying passengers and hauling cargo for two decades starting in 1985. But one special variant, the Safari GT — and, at Chevrolet, the Astro RS — added an unexpected dollop of swagger. Those vans had a custom look that was straight out of the '70s "sin bin" era. One of those Safari GTs is up for grabs right now, fittingly, on the RADforsale auction site. The option package at both GMC and Chevrolet was coded BYP, the GT Sport Package, and it appears to have been offered from 1990 to 1994. Its defining element was the two-tone paint treatment shown here, with black on the lower body and the greenhouse, and your choice of white, silver, blue, gold, or red as the main body color. Blanked out rear quarter windows and "simulated air exhaust louvers" behind the middle side windows added a further bit of style (long-wheelbase XT versions skipped that flourish). Also included were a front air dam, blacked-out grille, aluminum rally wheels, and a sport suspension. This 1991 Safari GT appears to have been further sportified with a lower-body aero kit, a rooftop spoiler, and aftermarket wheels. This rear-wheel-drive, standard-wheelbase model is powered by a 4.3-liter V6 hooked to a four-speed automatic transmission. It has traveled a relatively low 126,000 miles and looks to be in exceptionally good shape — particularly given that most of these vans lived a hard life. At this writing, bidding stands at $5,100 with bidding to end May 21. That suggests this Astro GT will bring a strong price — but if you want one, you may be hard-pressed to find another.