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Next Chevy Silverado could get this built-in tailgate step

General Motors just received patent approval for a tailgate step in a pickup bed. And given the timing, don't be surprised if you see this on the upcoming 2019 Silverado pickup (not the mention its GMC Sierra twin), expected to arrive in late 2018. According to the patent, granted in December of last year, the whole mechanism is housed in the tailgate assemble. The magic happens when a portion of the top half of the tailgate swings down and a step folds out. There's also a handle that locks into position to help climb up into the bed. As trucks get bigger and taller over the years, it gets harder and harder to access the cargo bed. Ford's solution with the 2009 F-150 was a step that slides out from the end of the tailgate. Back then, Chevy made an ill-advised ad highlighting the feature for Ford. And while Howie Long mocked the F-150's "man step" Ford saw almost a third of its trucks with the option in the first year. The GM design seems to improve on Ford's idea as it appears to be wider and has a back to the lower step. That is, you don't have to worry about stepping through the ladder-rung design as on the F-150. Ford's tailgate step later spread to the F Super Duty, and other cargo access assists have proliferated through the truck world. On the most recent redesign, the Chevrolet Silverado took a trick from the Avalanche and added cutouts to the corners of the rear bumper that act as a foothold. Ford also offers a deployable side step, Chevrolet has running boards that scoot rearward with a kick of the boot, and Ram offers fixed wheel-to-wheel side rails. Nissan is in on the game too, with an optional folding step that tucks under the rear bumper. We don't expect Chevrolet to comment on when or if we'll see this feature in the showrooms. But given that engineers are already hard at work on the next Silverado and the timing of this patent lines right up with the new truck's development cycle, we'll be disappointed if this patent stays in the file cabinet. Related Video:

GM's fullsize SUVs boost highway mileage by nearly 10 percent

We met the redesigned 2015 versions of the Chevrolet Suburban and Tahoe, and the GMC Yukon and Yukon XL at the 2013 LA Auto Show. Improved gas mileage numbers have been announced to go along with the improved exteriors and interiors, with city mileage improving by seven percent and highway mileage going up by nearly ten percent; you'll now get 16 miles per gallon in the city and 23 on the highway.
The only applies to models with the 5.3-liter engine, though, not the premium Yukon Denali and Yukon XL Denali SUVs with the 6.2-liter motor. Still, the 5.3 gets you more power than previously, with 355 horsepower and 383 pound-feet of torque underfoot, on top of the improved fuel economy numbers. The 6.2-liter sticks with official mpg ratings of 15 highway, 21 city. There's a brief press release below with words straight from the horse's mouth.

Daily Driver: 2015 GMC Canyon

Daily Driver videos are micro-reviews of vehicles in the Autoblog press fleet, featuring impressions from the staffers that drive them every day. Today's Daily Driver features the 2015 GMC Canyon, reviewed by Seyth Miersma. You can watch the video above or read a transcript below. Watch more Autoblog videos at /videos. VIDEO TRANSCRIPT [00:00:00] Hey, guys. This is Seyth with Autoblog, and I'm here in the 2015 GMC Canyon pickup truck. The version I'm in is about as bare bones as this truck gets. We've got a convenience group package, which means I have things like a remote lock and unlock. I've got a spray-in bed liner and then I've got the very tiny but still useful infotainment system, which allows for things like hooking up your phone, [00:00:30] Bluetooth streaming music from my iPhone to the sound system, things of that nature. Really there's not a whole lot here. What you see is what you get. The interior is pretty basic. We've got gray plastic. We've got black plastic. We've got these gray cloth seats which I actually kind of dig. They've got a cool shape. It's comfortable in terms of the interior but it's certainly not fancy at all. You go back and look into the segment and you look at offerings from Nissan and Toyota and you'll see that this really feels pretty [00:01:00] plush certainly compared to their base level trucks. We've got the 2.5-liter 4-cylinder in it. Still makes 200 horsepower and 191 pound feet of torque. It doesn't feel completely slow but I'll admit that some of that has to do with the fact that I have a six-speed to play around with. I'm revving it up a little bit higher than you normally would with a pickup truck. It's not fast. It doesn't mean that it's not a little bit fun to drive. [00:01:30] We've come so far in terms of overall ride quality, noise vibration and harshness and things of that nature in all pickup trucks that it's frankly surprising to see something at the very bottom end in terms of price of the market be as good as this is. I think that you're going to get a lot of people who are into the truck lifestyle who like the look. You're going to get a lot of people who are moving down from bigger trucks that still want to have a little bit of capability. Then with things with a truck of this nature where you're talking about a [00:02:00] sub-$25,000 price point, you're just going to get a lot of people who want a vehicle of any kind, kind of a budget vehicle.