GMC has a new player in the high-stakes heavy-duty pickup segment with its 2020 Sierra 2500. General Motors' truck specialists have taken their truck game high-tech with this new pickup, which comes either standard or is available with a number of new safety features and driver aids.
Typically for the heavy-duty truck class, the new Sierra 2500 boasts serious in-your-face styling to go with better-than-before towing capacity of more than 13,607 kg (30,000 lbs). Much of that ability goes to an available 6.6L turbodiesel V8 engine carried over from last year's truck.
That engine makes 445 hp and 910 lb-ft of torque -- figures that sound like a lot, because they are. However, Ram's heavy duty trucks are currently winning the numbers game with a diesel that makes 1,000 lb-ft. Our feeling about that is "who cares," but we know a lot of heavy duty truck buyers are of the opinion that more is better. It's your money; spend it how you want to.
GMC's standard engine for the Sierra 2500 is a gas V8 that makes 401 hp and 464 lb-ft of torque.
The 2020 GMC Sierra 2500's real mechanical trick is a 10-speed automatic transmission, the heavy-duty segment's first transmission to cross the double-digit ratio threshold. We have to agree that more might actually be better in this case, as a higher number of tightly spaced ratios could be of benefit when towing serious weight behind you. It's an approach that works well for semi-trucks.
Back to all that new trailering tech: GMC offers an exterior camera setup with 15 different views, including one that can virtually see "through" a trailer. There's also a (huge!) 15-inch head-up display that includes information about road grade so you know how much gravity you're working against. GMC also offers the General Motors rear camera "mirror" here, making Sierra 2500 the first truck in the class with that feature.
GMC offers its neato multi-pro configurable tailgate here, its six different functions carried over intact from the Sierra 1500.
And while heavy duty trucks are primarily designed for towing and hauling, GMC will now sell you a Sierra 2500 with the AT4 off-road package introduced in the light-duty Sierra 1500. So-equipped Sierra 2500 models will challenge the Ram Power Wagon for attention among lovers of high-riding pickups. Among its neater features is a high-def surround vision camera to show you what's around the truck as you navigate the trail.
GMC says it has stretched the Sierra 2500's wheelbase, and the company claims that translates into class-leading front-seat head- and legroom in crew cab models, plus the segment's best cargo bed volume. That bed is easier to access, too, thanks to it being an inch closer to the ground than it was before.
