I drive a compact SUV and most of the vehicles I review tend to be small to medium in size. Still tough to maneuver in the local Whole Foods parking lot, but generally easy and comfortable drives. People do love bigger vehicles, however, and that desire to have tank-like vehicle sizes has spread from the USA to just about everywhere in the world. Driving down the narrow streets of "The Old City" might be darn difficult in a behemoth, but most of my driving here in Colorado is easy enough. Until I drive a truly large vehicle, at which time I realize how I need to be much more conscious of dimensions and particularly of parking well.
Like so many people, however, I get the appeal of a big truck, so I've quite enjoyed my week with the 2025 GMC Sierra 1500 AT4X, one of the most luxurious trucks on the market (with a price tag to match). Climb into the Sierra 1500 and you'll swear you're in a luxury SUV but look out the back window - or use the truck bed view camera - and you'll remember that it has a 5-foot 10-inch bed too. Let's start with its appearance, because this is one beautiful truck, here in Sterling Metallic:
A lot of the ruggedness of this particular truck is the AT4X trim set; that adds upgraded skid plates, a new rear bumper, and a lot of interior upgrades, along with AT4X medallions so everyone else knows you ponied up for the more expensive model. The truck I drove was powered by a Duramax 3.0L Turbo Diesel with a 10-speed automatic transmission. It had a typical hesitation on aggressive acceleration that's part of an ICE vehicle (as compared to EVs), but there's plenty of power to give it a solid payload capacity of up to 1,290 pounds and a towing capacity of up to 8,700 pounds.
Check out the headlights too; the 'eyebrow' and side trim lights gave it a bit of a Transformers look, but you might see something entirely different in this vehicular Rorschach test!
Moving inside the cab, it's a big, beautiful, and spacious ride with a dashboard design that takes advantage of all the space:
In the old days, the front would have easily supported a bench seat with space for three (though the middle person would have needed to be careful not to accidentally nudge it out of gear), but instead, the center console has a minimum of controls and a lot of space to help the truck feel open. Here's a closer look at that center console:
I never quite figured out the purpose of the center slot between the gear shift and the cup holders, and it was too short to be a convenient smartphone storage area. The gear shift is easy to work with, though you don't "shift" into park, you push the "P" button to enable parking gear. As is common nowadays, the bin at the front of the center console is a Qi wireless charging spot and it worked reasonably well on bumpy roads.
This is an off-road ready truck, though so you might well be wondering where all the controls are located for various terrains and similar. That's all tucked over by the driver's left knee, quite inconvenient if you're on the move, but easy to utilize if you can stop for a moment, and even easier if you step out:
Tucking the parking brake control into this area also means that it's automatic and can be ignored. I parked it on a sloping driveway with just the "P" parking gear and never had an issue. The dashboard has lots of controls, and most are in the center, near the infotainment system. It's a whopping 13.4-inch color touch screen with wireless Android Auto and wireless Apple CarPlay, along with a 12-speaker Bose system, trailering app, and OnStar with 8-years of essentials service included in the truck price.
Everything's also very shiny as that's the finish GMC chose for this particular truck:
Interestingly, CarPlay only got 2/3 of the screen, but if I switched to the GMC navigational system, it took up the entire screen. Since CarPlay (and Android Auto) is capable of stretching and resizing, not sure why there wasn't an option to have CarPlay stretch. Notice that there's no obvious camera button. Given the size of the Sierra 1500, having a parking camera to help get centered in a lane is essential. It's two taps away: Tap on the house icon on the lower left of the display screen, then tap on "Cameras" to cycle between the many different views available. Definitely helped me out because the first time I parked this truck, I was distressingly over the line and intruding on the adjacent spot!
The climate controls were easy to work with, if a bit mundane and traditional in design. It is nice to have all the seat heating options on separate buttons, giving easy passenger and driver access to seat cool, seat back heat, and seat back and cushion heat, each with multiple levels. The steering wheel heating button, as is common, was on the steering wheel itself.
Can you find the steering wheel heater control? Unusually, the cruise controls are on the left side in the Sierra 1500, while the driver information center controls are on the right side. At least it's beautifully symmetric. This truck also has paddle shifters, but if you're towing something heavy and slogging up a grade, being able to control what gear you're in does indeed prove important, unlike so many vehicles where the paddle shifters seem pointless.
What's hard to convey with these photos is how luxurious the 2025 GMC Sierra 1500 AT4X feels, particularly for an off-road truck. It really is big, quiet, and built around a very nice sound system that's ready to blast your favorite music. What impressed me more, however, was the spaciousness of the crew cab, particularly rear leg room:
Too often truck designers sacrifice rear legroom in favor of slightly longer truck beds, but in this instance it's just a longer truck, so there's plenty of rear legroom for even the tallest of your crew, while still sporting a truck bed that's just a few inches under six feet. The above is with the driver's seat pushed back to accommodate my own height too, which is darn impressive in person. The back seats are actually comfortable and the cabin's quiet enough that you can all have a conversation while zipping along the highway.
With the tailgate dropped, you can see it's plenty roomy. This also features the GMC spray-on bedliner, which I would consider a must-add feature. Not visible is a 120V bed power outlet. Look closely at the tailgate, though, because it's the GMC Multipro, which means you can unfold it and get access to a Knocker audio system:
This also offers a step that makes climbing into the bed considerably easier, and the Grab Handle also helps quite a bit. The entire truck is high up off the road, so these are essential for most people to get maximal use out of the truckbed. With that in mind, you can see that the rear tailgate in the below photo shows the different sections of the Multipro tailgate, along with the upgraded AT4X rear bumper:
There's so much to like about this truck, honestly. Great performance without any yechy diesel exhaust, room to comfortably seat five adults, a terrific sound system, and more comforts than I've mentioned, including a surprisingly flexible seat massager if you can figure out all the controls.
This model's rated for 19/20 mpg for fuel efficiency, but I actually saw an average for my driving of 21.5mpg, which was surprisingly. Over the lifetime of this truck, it reports 19.7mpg, right in line with the EPA numbers. Decent for a big truck intended to tow your favorite boat or trailer, though obv. fuel efficiency will lower when you're towing some gear. Lots to like, but the price tag might have you dreaming about winning the lottery: it's about $90K plus taxes and license, so it's definitely a premium truck. Is it worth it? Yes. If you can afford it. But then you might also want to consider the longer term future of diesel in the United States before you commit. Still, it's one heck of a truck!
2025 GMC Sierra 1500 AT4X, powered by a Duramax 3.0L Turbo Diesel and 10-speed automatic transmission. BASE PRICE: $79,400.00. OPTIONS INCLUDED: AT4X Edition, Sterling Metallic Paint Upcharge. AS DRIVEN: $87,785.00
Disclaimer: GMC Loaned me the Sierra 1500 for a week in return for this candid write-up. This article originally appeared on PlanetDave.com with the title Beauty and Beast: The 2025 GMC Sierra 1500 AT4X Truck and is republished with permission.
