I currently own a 2023 Yukon Denali XL with the 6.2 V8 motor in it. I bought it new and I am the first owner. It currently had 37,*** on it. GMC is currently in the process of purchasing the vehicle back from me. As I list the reasons below, please keep in mind that I love this vehicle and it breaks my heart having to sell it back to them to purchase something else. I do not like the headlights on the 2026 but that’s probably what we will be purchasing.
Issue number 1:
The first safety concern started a little over a year into ownership. Upon vehicle startup (whether it be manual start or remote start) the driver side mirror would not retain the driver memory position. It would go into whatever position it wanted to. Sometimes not even close to the programmed position. At this early stage, the frequency of it happening was not as high. I took it to GM and after a day they stated that they could not duplicate the issue and performed a SW update. The issue was fixed but only till I got home and started the car back up.
GM and I did this same cycle multiple times. Over the span of months and multiple dealership trips the frequency of the mirrors increased and it happened on every start up. Then the passenger side mirror started to have issues but the issue with that mirror is slightly different. I have that mirror programed to go down to the curb upon putting the car in reverse. The mirror would not always return back up after putting the vehicle into Drive. Which caused us to have to adjust the mirror back up prior to driving. That one also started with low frequency and now the frequency of the occurrence is higher.
The final straw with the mirror concerns was when the original mirror concern happened while I was trying to merge on the highway with my kids in the car. We were stopped at a red light and the auto stop/start function kicked in and shut the car off. When the light turned green, I took my foot off the brake, the car started back up and I drove on to an on-ramp. I was checking over my shoulder as I was picking up speed to merge, then when I look at the drivers side mirror to make sure I had enough space between myself and the vehicle on the highway the mirror was pointing all the way up and to the right so all I saw was my driver’s side tinted window. This raised a huge red flag for me because I adjusted them before I left the house which means the start/stop function caused them to move again. I then started contacting the main GM to get it fixed. They eventually sent an engineer which looked at the car and said there was nothing wrong.
Issue number 2
At 35,XXXX miles the car started squealing. I took it into the dealership for diagnosis and repair. Turns out that the cause of this was the bearings on the idler pulley were failing and was causing the belt to lean slightly. The pulley and belt were replaced under warranty. To me this is a little early for a car to start wearing this equipment.
Issue number 3
In December of last year, I was driving the kids to school when I felt the back of my head freezing cold. That was a concern because the car was remote started and I had the heater blasting to warm up the car before the kids got in there. I reached over my head to the top air vent and felt it freezing cold. I swapped them to the floor and it also felt cold. I asked my son how long has this been going on and he said all week. The rear vents finally heated up 20 minutes into the drive. I took it to the local GM dealership over Christmas break. (Issue numbers 2 & 3 were together). When I picked up the car the fixed issue 2 and said there there was no problem and issue 3 did not exist and the explanation provided by GMC—that this condition is “normal operation” per bulletin #PIT6373 (attached)—does not align with real-world use or basic consumer expectations.
First, vehicles equipped with dual-zone or rear climate control should not blow cold air onto rear passengers while stopped at traffic lights when the heater is set to the highest setting. That is not a reasonable or acceptable “normal condition.” Second, and more importantly, this issue is not limited to idling. It also occurs while driving. Even after remote starting the vehicle and allowing it to run for approximately 10 minutes, it can take anywhere from 15 to 25 minutes of driving before warm air begins to blow in the rear cabin. I always remote start the vehicle to let the cabin warm up or cool down before I drive anywhere. It usually runs on remote start for roughly 10 minutes.
The bulletin itself states that troubleshooting should include increasing engine RPM above 1,200. If rear heat improves, no repair is required; if it does not, normal SI diagnostics should be followed. The service writer and I performed this test together by raising the RPM above 1,200. The rear vents continued to blow cold air. I then switched places with the service writer so he could feel the airflow himself, and he acknowledged that it was an issue that needed to be addressed.
At that point, service writer informed his manager and requested that he come out to observe the issue firsthand. The manager refused to do so and instead printed the bulletin again, reiterating that the condition was normal.
Despite my explicit concern that I did not want my children exposed to cold air during their drive to school, the dealership retained the vehicle for several more days. When I was called to pick it up a week later, I was again told that there was no issue and that I would need to increase engine RPM to achieve rear heat. In practice, this would require shifting the vehicle into Park or Neutral at traffic lights, holding the engine above 1,200 RPM (which we already verified does not resolve the issue), then allowing RPMs to drop, shifting back into Drive, and proceeding—repeating this process at every stop. This is neither safe nor reasonable, causes unnecessary wear on the engine, and wastes fuel. It is not an acceptable workaround for a vehicle that is under warranty and marketed as family-friendly. Given the dealership’s refusal to properly diagnose the issue after failing their own prescribed troubleshooting steps, I took it to a different dealership.
That dealership said the same thing and I asked them to use one of the vehicles in their lots for reference. They kept the car another day. I then received a call the following day and they said that the vehicle in the lot warmed up within 5 minutes and mine did not warm up after 15 minutes of running. They took it back into the ship and noticed a little bit of coolant coming out of the weep holes on the water pump and that the coolant was low. They determined the water pump was failing. They replaced the water pump, belt, and topped off the coolant. Now it works fine without having to rev up the car. Before all of this, I heard some gurgling sounds coming from inside the vehicle, passenger side by the dashboard. I brought the car in for that issue and they again said it was normal but looking back at the issue there was probably air in the system.
Aside from those issues, there are a few things I did not like about the vehicle. Nothing major, it’s things we can all live with. When your fuel is low, it no longer shows your range left. It literally just says “LOW”. In order to see the range you have to go into the app. Also, “LOW” fuel disables remote star (Make sense as to why). The Bose sound system in the car is really good but to get the best of it you have to turn the Bose control on. Unfortunately, it is fully controlled by the speed of the vehicle. There is now low, med, or high. So, when you come to a stop lights it’s too low but then you pick up speed and it’s good. Vice versa, if you turn it up to where you can hear good while you’re stopped, then it’s really high at higher speeds. Another gripe is the automatic headlights. First, they removed the button and forced it through the turn signal lever. You have to find the sequence and to use the sequence you end up flashing other people before you can finally get it to activate. Second, you cannot use the fog lights with the automatic headlights. By turning on the fog lights the automatic headlights disable themselves. When parked on an inclined driveway, sometime when you shift into park or reverse there is a loud clunk and it can be felt through the vehicle. OEM Brakes wear out fast especially if you drive aggressively. Replacing them was easy but to get the brake light removed I had to take it to GMC and that cost me $200 because they wanted to verify that they were indeed replaced. There are a couple of other things, but I typed enough.
If you made it this far, please keep in mind that I do love this car. I think it’s GMC’s best looking Yukon & years as far as looks (In my personal opinion). So, I don’t say this to say badly about it because I truly do love it, but these are the issues I have had with mine.
if you know you know.
