I apologize for the long story but trust me I couldn’t help but reach out to you all.
So I’ve owned a 2021 Yukon Denali since mid February 2021 and have loved almost every aspect of it as yet….except the power to be honest. It has a 6.2L V8 and having owned several, only Denalis, be it Yukons or Sierras (ALL 6.2L V8 motors) since 2011….I’ve come to expect a certain level of performance from these engines and they always delivered….until now. With the 2021 Yukon Denali I felt they’ve really softened the vehicle up with the tune or something. When I mash the gas pedal, sure the truck moves but there’s no sense of urgency or aggression that used to be very much the case in my previous trucks.
I thought that in 2015, they made the Yukons/Tahoes/Escalades real quiet. Maybe this is just another step to making these vehicles more sophisticated and “smooth”. So I accepted it as “It is what it is”.
Three days ago, my father took delivery of his long awaited 2021 Escalade (took 9 months to come since we ordered). It came with the same motor…or so I’d like to believe. He’s a little superstitious and weird this way. He never drives a car from brand new…he always gives it to me to put on the maiden 800 miles or so…hence I’ve had the luxury of driving it around for the past 3 days and I’ve come to the following conclusions:
1. I now hate my Denali after having experienced the interior/exterior and luxuries of the Escalade. The materials and technology employed…it’s all just sooooo good. Back in 2015 when i had the Denali, dad had also gotten an Escalade…the differences didn’t feel a world apart…but now…they certainly do. You really feel the $25,000-$30,000 difference between the two trucks.
2. I definitely more so do not like my specific truck because, all those things I mentioned above about the 6.2L motor still very much exist in this new Escalade whereas my Denali just feels like a slob. Even the hard acceleration is so smooth and linear in the Caddy whereas the GMC feels like it’s VERY mildly stuttering under hard acceleration. It definitely feels as though it has lesser power than the Caddy. The Caddy just gets up and goes. It feels like the good ‘ol American truck muscle I’ve always known. My GMC, something just feels off about how it drives.
I know from various reviews that the Caddy rides…rather floats better than the GMC and I expect that because its a Caddy but such a vast difference in how the two motors sound and behave. Now I don’t remember the production dates, however I remember having looked up my truck and unfortunately it falls in the date range of when GM trucks were being built with the faulty lifters. Could my motor experience be because of that? Is my truck not performing as desired due to this reason? Problem is that I’m doing over 8,000 miles now and my engine is driving just as “healthy” as it did the day I picked it up from the dealership 8 months ago. But it ain’t no Escalade’s in terms of performance….anybody have any opinion or experience on this? I’d love to hear….
