Denali Duramax: Expectation vs. Reality

[Crash51730]

Also far fewer owners....what percentage of 21/22s Tahoes and Yukons are diesel? 5%....2% or even less? Are there more than 10 active posters on here that own a Tahoe/Yukon diesel? I'll admit I'd buy one in a heartbeat to try it out, but I'd lean towards an extended warranty for sure if I was going to keep it past 50-60k miles, emission systems are a headache in any brand

As others have said, completely different driving experience so you're right, comparing to 5.3/6.2, throttle response is going to be different to say the least...

I may be wrong on my numbers but… I think when Diesels were hard to come by (I guess they still are!) there were only 40-42 available per week on the line. I don’t know what the lines capacity per week is but that’s not many. I look at almost every Tahoe, Yukon and Esky I see and I haven’t seen many diesels. We love our XL. We’ve had it since the middle of May and only out 1300 miles on it. Crazy to believe I can get almost 31 MPG’s out of it on the highway. I don’t have a complaint about it. It’s no speed demon but it doesn’t struggle to out of its own way either. Craziest thing I’ve seen with it is we park it in the garage with the keys in it. After a couple days you have to actually physically move the key fob to start the thing. The dash will tell you the key fob is asleep. Never seen that before!

 

[todayusay]

I may be wrong on my numbers but… I think when Diesels were hard to come by (I guess they still are!) there were only 40-42 available per week on the line. I don’t know what the lines capacity per week is but that’s not many. I look at almost every Tahoe, Yukon and Esky I see and I haven’t seen many diesels. We love our XL. We’ve had it since the middle of May and only out 1300 miles on it. Crazy to believe I can get almost 31 MPG’s out of it on the highway. I don’t have a complaint about it. It’s no speed demon but it doesn’t struggle to out of its own way either. Craziest thing I’ve seen with it is we park it in the garage with the keys in it. After a couple days you have to actually physically move the key fob to start the thing. The dash will tell you the key fob is asleep. Never seen that before!

The filters on Chevrolet's website are messed up...over 7k tahoes listed and only 10 as having a diesel powertrain...the 5.3/6.2s only have a couple hundred each and then 3.23 gear ratio has over 6k....the 10 may actually be correct but I'd have figured it was higher...

 

[BrokerThis]

Mine when listed on GMC was not populating as a diesel for some reason, even though the sticker and dealer website showed it as diesel. There is something really off with their search, cause my rig only shows at 12/22 filter matching ... and the color is X'd as not a match somehow.

 

[todayusay]

You bring up many good points . Although it’s almost impossible to find a warranty that covers the emissions systems besides the gm backed extended bumper to bumper warranty (not the gmepp). It only goes to 60K though and it doesn’t seem that every dealer offers it

DEF pump went out on my 2016 dodge dually...with about 55k on the odometer. got lucky as I believe it only had a 5yr 50k warranty on the emission system...cost outside of warranty was $2500...I told them i'd just spend a grand to delete it and I guess with them knowing they were going to lose the shop work, got Ram to cover most of it and I paid $300...i had never had that truck in their shop before (it went into limp mode on me and i couldn't make it home) and he said they told Ram I had been having issues with it over the past several thousand miles - which wasn't the case but I got it fixed so there's that

honestly, outside of the curiosity factor, i'd like to see how these engines are doing once they get to 80k....reliability factor at that point as well as value...knowing that the oil pump belt change is imminent in the near future ----anybody know the cost to replace it?

i know one guy that had it in a half ton and seemed to really like it, but he's already sold it and haven't talk to him since

 

[Crash51730]

DEF pump went out on my 2016 dodge dually...with about 55k on the odometer. got lucky as I believe it only had a 5yr 50k warranty on the emission system...cost outside of warranty was $2500...I told them i'd just spend a grand to delete it and I guess with them knowing they were going to lose the shop work, got Ram to cover most of it and I paid $300...i had never had that truck in their shop before (it went into limp mode on me and i couldn't make it home) and he said they told Ram I had been having issues with it over the past several thousand miles - which wasn't the case but I got it fixed so there's that

honestly, outside of the curiosity factor, i'd like to see how these engines are doing once they get to 80k....reliability factor at that point as well as value...knowing that the oil pump belt change is imminent in the near future ----anybody know the cost to replace it?

i know one guy that had it in a half ton and seemed to really like it, but he's already sold it and haven't talk to him since

I thought the major cost in the belt change was the transmission drop. I think I saw $1500 somewhere.

 

[Stbentoak]

The oil pump belt issue is a totally overblown issue. Vast majority of owners will not even keep them that long.
Do good maintenance, dump a can of Seafoam thru them every so often, and don’t speculate about what may or may not happen. Drive it and be happy….

 

[tthecchadd]

Does your new Duramax Denali have a low-range transfer case or is it single speed (high) AWD only?

I believe it is low range but to be honest I don't know much about the mechanical side. I threw a picture below if that helps any.

 

[doc5339]

I believe it is low range but to be honest I don't know much about the mechanical side. I threw a picture below if that helps any.

Yup, you have a 2-speed transfer case with 4WD Hi and Low Range. Thanks for posting the picture!

 

[CTown Duramax]

That's a great question and probably something I should've commented on.

A big fear of mine was that it would feel like it is struggling or that it was just slow. I can say that I am pleasantly surprised with the acceleration. The torque is absolutely noticeable and it feels surprisingly nimble. My wife even made a comment about how she was surprised it doesn't feel heavy.

I think if you are someone that doesn't care too much about lightning acceleration

I have the '21 LT Duramax and drove the 327 ci gas model too before deciding. I really could not tell that the gas was any faster to 60mph or even 80mph but, off the line and for drivability, the diesel was the clear winner to me (just a biased and subjective observation and I love Chevy V-8's, could have gone with one of them too). I don't think their is any speed disadvantage here. Perhaps pushing the small block 327 to the red line would have made more of a difference, but I don't think so b/c this diesel revs pretty high too.

 

[suterusu]

Also far fewer owners....what percentage of 21/22s Tahoes and Yukons are diesel? 5%....2% or even less? Are there more than 10 active posters on here that own a Tahoe/Yukon diesel? I'll admit I'd buy one in a heartbeat to try it out, but I'd lean towards an extended warranty for sure if I was going to keep it past 50-60k miles, emission systems are a headache in any brand

As others have said, completely different driving experience so you're right, comparing to 5.3/6.2, throttle response is going to be different to say the least...

The take rate according to my dealer was nearly 30% according to their GM stats last year. Also, the LM2 trucks have a 5yr/100K powertrain warranty right on the window sticker to help sell the durability.

I appreciate this as well. I haven’t been able to find anyone locally that has one with the diesel so I feel like I’m taking a bit of a risk while also being a pioneer. Similar to what someone else stated, I’m waiting on an order since January which just got built last week and is in transit to the dealer. Your feedback seems pretty much all positive. Anything you’ve found that you don’t like about it yet? (It’s OK if not).. haha

I think a 6.2L is more of a risk than buying a concept that's been around for decades and powerplant that has been around for years. There are far more catastrophic engine failures documented on the V8 (even outside the range GM reported), and I wouldn't trust a dealer-repaired engine that had mechanical failure of any kind.

Yup, you have a 2-speed transfer case with 4WD Hi and Low Range. Thanks for posting the picture!

All Denali's have the 2 speed case standard.

 

[Rizop]

I have the '21 LT Duramax and drove the 327 ci gas model too before deciding. I really could not tell that the gas was any faster to 60mph or even 80mph but, off the line and for drivability, the diesel was the clear winner to me (just a biased and subjective observation and I love Chevy V-8's, could have gone with one of them too). I don't think their is any speed disadvantage here. Perhaps pushing the small block 327 to the red line would have made more of a difference, but I don't think so b/c this diesel revs pretty high too.

That’s great feeeback . If the average person can’t really tell that much of a acceleration difference day to day although the 0-60 metrics are clearly different , that really speaks volumes of the instant torque and transmission tuning

 

[Rizop]

The take rate according to my dealer was nearly 30% according to their GM stats last year. Also, the LM2 trucks have a 5yr/100K powertrain warranty right on the window sticker to help sell the durability.




I think a 6.2L is more of a risk than buying a concept that's been around for decades and powerplant that has been around for years. There are far more catastrophic engine failures documented on the V8 (even outside the range GM reported), and I wouldn't trust a dealer-repaired engine that had mechanical failure of any kind.



All Denali's have the 2 speed case standard.

Wish there were some stats and percentages on who has had problems with the 6.2 and 5.3 vs who has not had issues . It doesn’t help that literally the only person I personally know that has a new body style Yukon / Tahoe just literally had their Yukon Denali experience 6.2 engine failure on a panhandle road trip that left them stranded in the middle of nowhere with 3 kids last week . They had to get it towed to a small dealership and stay in a local crummy hotel lol

 

[Stbentoak]

I’d say there is a reasonable chance most V8’s are fine…but as a prospective owner if I would have read any of the mile long threads on the issues with them, it certainly would have influenced my decision to buy or not. I bought this vehicle to take on the road and if I thought there was even a reasonable chance it would fail at any opportune moment with no parts available etc, it would have been a hard no for me. Dependability real or perceived, is super important to me as many times we are 100+ miles from home and road trip often. I have short tripped it for weeks on end and drove 1k in a day. So far the Dmax has done this superbly without a whimper.

 

[todayusay]

The take rate according to my dealer was nearly 30% according to their GM stats last year. Also, the LM2 trucks have a 5yr/100K powertrain warranty right on the window sticker to help sell the durability.

looks like the 30% is including their HD lineup, which is mainly diesel sales

Q1 2022, GM half tons are 10% diesel and SUVs are 5%... 5% is higher than I expected but at least shows the growing interest

somebody can (will) correct me but don't think the diesel emission system is covered under the powertrain warranty

links the pics were taken from

Vehicle Sales Dashboard | Engine Technology Forum

Access the Vehicle Sales Dashboard to view information on diesel vehicle sales, alternative energy vehicle sales, and more. Contact us with any questions!

www.dieselforum.org

https://gmauthority.com/blog/2022/04/gm-full-size-truck-sales-numbers-figures-results-first-quarter-q1-2022/

https://gmauthority.com/blog/2022/05/chevrolet-suburban-tahoe-sales-numbers-figures-results-first-quarter-2022-q1/

the GMC HD diesel sales looks off but other than that numbers look about right

 

[Rizop]

looks like the 30% is including their HD lineup, which is mainly diesel sales

Q1 2022, GM half tons are 10% diesel and SUVs are 5%... 5% is higher than I expected but at least shows the growing interest

somebody can (will) correct me but don't think the diesel emission system is covered under the powertrain warranty

links the pics were taken from

Vehicle Sales Dashboard | Engine Technology Forum

Access the Vehicle Sales Dashboard to view information on diesel vehicle sales, alternative energy vehicle sales, and more. Contact us with any questions!

www.dieselforum.org

https://gmauthority.com/blog/2022/04/gm-full-size-truck-sales-numbers-figures-results-first-quarter-q1-2022/

https://gmauthority.com/blog/2022/05/chevrolet-suburban-tahoe-sales-numbers-figures-results-first-quarter-2022-q1/

View attachment 374858


View attachment 374859

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the GMC HD diesel sales looks off but other than that numbers look about right

Yeah I don’t think the diesel emissions is covered by the power train warranty . The only warranty I’ve found that covers this is the GM-backed (not GMEPP) bumper to bumper extended limited warranty that basically extends the factory warranty to 60k. I don’t think every dealer sells this though and it only goes to 60K

 

[BrokerThis]

Here is what my warranties consist of.... didn't buy any extra plans
There is something on GM website describing the emission components being covered

 

[WalleyeMikeIII]

The oil pump belt issue is a totally overblown issue. Vast majority of owners will not even keep them that long.
Do good maintenance, dump a can of Seafoam thru them every so often, and don’t speculate about what may or may not happen. Drive it and be happy….

Well, someone will own it when the oil pump belt needs to be changed. May not be the first owner, but if you are selling it, and the potential buyer knows they are staring at $1500 general maintenance coming, it will affect the resale. Agree, it’s not that big of a deal - similar to timing belt/water pump at 100k on Honda’s V6; gotta be done. But to just dismiss it as a “non issue” because the first owner won’t own it doesn’t alter that it needs to be done…is a bit short sighted. If someone is selling a rig with 120-130k on it, the buyer will ask if the belt has been changed, and it will swing the price as appropriate.

I still think the diesel is a fine option, and it’s a great engine. Depends on user’s application and preference.

 

[Rizop]

Here is what my warranties consist of.... didn't buy any extra plans
There is something on GM website describing the emission components being covered

View attachment 374872

Thanks ! Is this the factory one that came with the vehicle ? Kinda looks like it . Regarding emissions , looks like the key word here is “select component” .

 

[Rizop]

Well, someone will own it when the oil pump belt needs to be changed. May not be the first owner, but if you are selling it, and the potential buyer knows they are staring at $1500 general maintenance coming, it will affect the resale. Agree, it’s not that big of a deal - similar to timing belt/water pump at 100k on Honda’s V6; gotta be done. But to just dismiss it as a “non issue” because the first owner won’t own it doesn’t alter that it needs to be done…is a bit short sighted. If someone is selling a rig with 120-130k on it, the buyer will ask if the belt has been changed, and it will swing the price as appropriate.

I still think the diesel is a fine option, and it’s a great engine. Depends on user’s application and preference.

Good point . I’ve had the fortune of owning several Lexus vehicles in the past . Really bullet proof and reliable cars but I’d be surprised if their impending timing belt/water pump maintenance didn’t affect the resale value at a relatively high mileage

 

[BrokerThis]

Yes the one i posted above were factory warranties. Here is the link to download the packet for digging into the warranty details. Page 24-27

Manuals and Guides | Vehicle Support | GMC

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