GMC's High Sierra

by Thane Peterson

Editor's Rating:

The Good: Towing capacity; classy interior; smooth, quiet ride

The Bad: Price can really mount as you add options

The Bottom Line: A knock-'em-dead, heavy-duty pickup truck

Reader Reviews

The more I see of General Motors' (GM) new full-size pickup trucks?the Chevy Silverado and the GMC Sierra, the subject of this review?the more impressed I am. Skeptics are predicting that Toyota's (TM) redesigned Tundra is going to eat GM's lunch once Toyota expands its line to include heavy-duty models, but I'm not so sure. I just finished test-driving the Sierra 2500HD, and I think it's by far the best heavy-duty pickup truck on the market.

I'm not alone in admiring GM's new line of trucks. By the usual measure?total deliveries to customers?they haven't sold especially well so far this year. Silverado sales fell 0.4%, to 202,151, and Sierra sales only rose 2.3%, to 64,639 units, in the first four months of this year.

But that's because GM has stopped pumping up the numbers with low-margin sales to rental fleets. Retail sales of the new trucks, the company says, are up. In fact, GM claims that during the first quarter of this year it gained four percentage points of market share in the full-size pickup segment against Ford (F), Toyota, and DaimlerChrysler (DCX).

That's a huge jump, and most of the gains are coming at the expense of struggling Ford. Sales of the Ford F-Series pickups plummeted 13.7%, to 228,343, in the first four months of this year. Meanwhile, sales of the Toyota Tundra were up 6.7%, to 43,386, and even Dodge's aging Ram pickups were up 1%, to 122,816.

I suspect that Ford's heaviest market share loss is in the light-duty pickup market, where the venerable F150 is getting thumped. But having to duke it out with a resurgent GM in heavy-duty pickups isn't making things any easier for Ford.

The 2007 Sierra 2500HD, the version I test-drove, is a three-quarter-ton pickup, which means it's a step up in towing and hauling capacity from more common half-ton pickups like the Sierra, Silverado 1500, and the Ford F150. This is the model you buy if you have a big boat or trailer to tow.

Maximum payload (i.e., how much weight you can load into the bed and cab) ranges from 3,300 lbs. to 3,900 lbs., depending on which cab you get. Maximum towing capacity on all versions of the 2500HD is 13,000 lbs. with a regular tow hitch, rising to 16,700 lbs. with a so-called fifth wheel hitch mounted in the truck's bed. (There's also a more expensive Sierra 3500HD with even greater towing capacity.)

It's a good-looking truck, too. Exterior fit-and-finish is much better than on past GM trucks, with tighter tolerances around the doors and hood, and a smaller gap between the cab and bed. Exterior styling is more distinctive, due in part to stylish car-like paint jobs, like my test truck's classy stealth gray.

More than in the past, the Sierra 2500HD now actually looks different from the Silverado. In keeping with GMC's macho image, it has a big, chrome-ringed grille with a big GMC emblem in the middle and a bulkier looking hood that hints of the power of the engine underneath. The windshield is raked at a sharp, 57-degree angle, which keeps the cab from looking too boxy while also increasing fuel efficiency.

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