GMC Sierra pickup truck redesigned with tricked-out tailgate, carbon fiber box

DETROIT — The 2019 GMC Sierra pickup aims to wow customers with unique styling, the world’s first carbon-fiber pickup box and a tailgate with more tricks than a Swiss Army knife.

Those innovations stem from General Motors’ plan to make GMC the world’s leading premium truck brand. It’s an ambitious strategy that could unlock huge profits — and represents a direct challenge to Ford's crown jewel, the F-150 pickup.

GM revealed the redesigned Sierra on Thursday on the heels of unveiling the overhauled version of its sister truck, the Chevrolet Silverado, in January.

“We’ve been building toward this launch for four or five years,” GMC and Buick boss Duncan Aldred said in almost reverent tones as he walked around the new Sierra. “We’re still exploring how premium the brand can become.”

GMC is ideally positioned to cash in on the public’s desire for ever more advanced and luxurious trucks. The brand sells nothing but pickups and SUVs. Its vehicles developed an identity for being just a little — or in some cases a lot — better than GM’s mass-market Chevrolet truck line through years of careful, consistent brand management, even when the differences between a Chevy and GMC were mostly cosmetic.

“GMC has been leaving money on the table for years,” Autotrader senior analyst Michelle Krebs said. “This is an opportunity to take on Ford at the upper end of the pickup market. The [Ford] F-150 pretty much owns that today.”

The 2019 Sierra is the first GMC pickup with unique styling in decades, and it offers a raft of innovative and upscale features that not even the No. 1 selling F-150 can match.

GMC will announce 2019 Sierra prices later, but it’ll be no surprise if the top Denali model approaches $70,000 when optioned up with features including the carbon fiber box, MultiPro tailgate, head-up display and high-definition video rearview mirror.

The carbon fiber cargo box is revolutionary, applying a material usually seen in race cars and aircraft to a pickup’s defining component: the box that hauls everything from mulch to motorcycles.

It’s stronger and lighter than the Chevy Silverado and Ram 1500’s steel boxes. The first use of carbon fiber on a pickup, it’s also a gee-whiz feature Ford’s touted aluminum F-150 can’t match.

In addition to bragging rights, the box has functional benefits. The thin, strong carbon fiber is 64 pounds lighter and stronger than the Sierra’s standard steel box. It did so well in durability tests that GM re-engineered the Sierra’s standard steel box based on things it learned working with carbon fiber.

“It’s the strongest, toughest box ever in a pickup,” Aldred said. “It’s all about toughness and technology."

The carbon fiber box will be an option on the Sierra’s top Denali model. The new tailgate has six different functions, including a full-width step to climb into the bed, a pop-up cargo stop to keep long loads from sliding out when the tailgate is open, a shelf to create a two-level cargo space and a panel that drops down to make it easier to reach into the bed when the tailgate is open.

The MultiPro tailgate will be standard on the SLT and Denali models that account for 90% of Denali sales and available on other models.

The cab is bigger than the old Sierra with more head and leg room. The controls feature big dials and buttons intended for easy use wearing gloves or driving through a bumpy work site. The trim includes open-pore wood and real aluminum.

The rear seats of crew cab models have a pair of storage bins hidden in the back cushions, each big enough to hold a laptop.

Every piece of exterior sheet metal is unique to the Sierra, a far cry from the days when a badge was the only exterior difference between a Chevy and GMC pickup.

The high hood, bold grille and Denali’s chrome skid plates create a powerful face. Beveled lines on the doors and fenders are consistent with swept-back corners that house LED headlights and C-shaped running lights. The Denali also has a chrome strip around its windows, a unique feature among pickups.

“They’ve got to make it absolutely distinctive,” said Joe Phillippi of AutoTrends consulting. “A good-looking, unique exterior and new interior features are a good way to attack the luxury market. There’s plenty of opportunity there.”

The 2019 Sierra 1500 should go on sale in the fourth quarter of this year.

Follow Detroit Free Press auto critic Mark Phelan on Twitter @mark_phelan.

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