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2016 GMC Sierra Denali Ultimate wants to take even more off the top

What do you do when getting to the top of Denali isn't enough? You create a higher peak called Denali Ultimate. That's what GMC has done with the 2016 Sierra, the new Sierra Denali Ultimate adding even more content and showing off the truck's refreshed face and new Denali grille. The reasoning behind this truck is perfectly sane. GMC says that in 2013 it had zero percent of the premium light-duty truck market; since that time, the brand says the segment (with an average transaction price beyond $55,000) has grown by a factor of ten, and the Sierra Denali has given GMC a 15.5-percent share. When it goes on sale in in the first quarter of next year, it can be optioned on the four-wheel drive 1500 Crew Cab with either the five-foot-eight or six-foot-six-inch bed. Standard equipment includes a sunroof, Lane Keep Assist, automatic headlights, Tri-Mode Power Steps, chrome tow hooks, and 22-inch wheels. The press release below has more. GMC Sierra Denali Ultimate: The Pinnacle of Premium Unique 22-inch wheels, expanded package of standard content drives exclusivity DETROIT, Tuesday, Nov. 17, 2015 – GMC is taking the range-topping style, craftsmanship and capability of the Sierra Denali even higher with the 2016 Sierra Denali Ultimate. It builds on the Sierra Denali's already class-leading attributes with a package of precision-crafted features designed to elevate its comfort, design and capability in the growing premium niche of the full-size truck market. GMC introduces the Sierra Denali Ultimate today, ahead of its public debut at the Los Angeles Auto Show. It goes on sale late in the first quarter of 2016. "The Sierra Denali has helped drive the growth of premium portion of the light-duty crew cab segment," said Duncan Aldred, vice president of GMC Sales and Marketing. "This truck is the ultimate expression of the Sierra Denali with greater emphasis on the bold and refined presence and advanced features that make Denali models synonymous with precision and exclusivity." Thanks in large part to Sierra Denali, which was redesigned in 2014, GMC commands 15.5 percent of the premium full-size truck segment, where average transaction prices exceed $55,000. The segment has nearly doubled in 2015 and grown tenfold since 2013, when GMC had zero percent of the market. In fact, Sierra Denali has helped GMC earn a higher share of the premium portion of the light-duty crew cab segment than of the overall full-size pickup segment.

GM program sees dealers taking on way more loaner cars

Given the volume of vehicles we're talking about, this is a significant development for GM's bottom line. Bring your car into the dealership for service, and you may need a loaner car in exchange. And with so many recalls being carried out, that means a lot of loaners – especially at General Motors dealerships. That could be one of the reasons why GM is massively expanding its loaner fleet program. While many Chevrolet and Buick-GMC dealerships have an on-site rental car location operated by a third party like Enterprise (which may or may not provide a GM vehicle), others manage their own loaner fleets. But while the range of dealerships operating such fleets was once small, reports Automotive News, the number has been growing rapidly: from the locations responsible for only 20 percent of those brands' sales two years ago to about 90 percent today. The impetus for that growth comes down to a massive expansion of GM's Courtesy Transportation Program. The initiative encourages dealers to ramp up their loaner fleet to a maximum size determined by GM, with a mix determined by the dealer itself, so that a showroom in Texas can be bolstered with a fleet of pickup trucks and a dealer in California can employ more Volt and Camaro Convertible loaners. The dealership gets a $500 credit for each vehicle its puts in its fleet, and can use those vehicles as loaners for service customers, as multi-day test drivers or to rent out separately. The vehicles remain in the dealer's fleet for 90 days or 7,500 miles, then they can be sold as used, but with new-car incentives. The dealer gets a fleet of loaners, customers get to use the loaners, try out a new car overnight or buy a barely used car with attractive incentives, and GM gets to clock more sales. But therein lies the kicker: the automaker counts the dispatch of the loaner new vehicle to the dealership as a new-car sale, which could end up distorting its sales figures. Counting loaner vehicles as sold vehicles is something of an industry-standard practice, but given the volume of vehicles we're talking about, this is a significant development for GM's bottom line. One dealership - Paddock Chevrolet in Kenmore, NY, for example - had no loaner fleet two years ago, but now runs a fleet of 50 vehicles. Multiply that by the 4,000 or so dealers GM has across America and you're talking about the potential for hundreds of thousands of these sorts of sales.

GM phasing out light-duty 1500-series vans

In the market for a fullsize van but don't need a heavy-duty model? You're in the minority, and you're also out of luck. That's because there are barely any more fullsize vans on the market with gross vehicle weight rating of less than 8,500 pounds, the threshold that separates light- and heavy-duty vans.
According to PickupTrucks.com, neither the Ford E-Series, Ram ProMaster, nor Mercedes-Benz Sprinter are available in light-duty versions. Few of the Ford Transit configurations are, either, and now General Motors is discontinuing production of the 1500-series Chevy Express and GMC Savana.
Apparently light-duty versions accounted for just 23 percent of Express sales and only 7 percent of Savanas. Add to that the fact that these 1500 versions were the only ones using the old generation of engines and suspension, and that the Wentzville plant near St. Louis, Missouri, is trying to make room for the next Chevy Colorado and GMC Canyon pickups, and the fate of the light-duty GM van was sealed.