1999 Yukon Show Truck
2000 Yukon Show Truck Sets New Standards for Full-Size SUV Design, Capabilities
NEW YORK - GMC forged a new road to innovative SUV design with an all-new 2000 Yukon Show Truck. This truck provides a very solid glimpse of the next generation GMC full-size SUV. Many of the features on the show truck will be available on the production Yukon. The Yukon Show Truck features unique GMC styling, world-class ride and handling, a substantial level of security and enhanced capabilities - all within a practical-sized package. It's not too large to fit in the garage or parking spaces.
Precision Quality Exterior Appearance
The Yukon's front-end design projects power and prominence. Its hood, fenders, bumper with special openings which provide additional radiator cooling, headlamps and grille, with its classic ruby red logo, are all uniquely GMC. The overall body contours are highly muscular.
The eight-passenger, four-wheel-drive Yukon Show Truck has a precision machined-quality appearance that reflects its upscale nature and extraordinary capabilities. Brushed metallic accents highlight its grille, bumper top, pull-bar door handles, running board step pads and recovery hooks. The high-strength, aerodynamic roof rack has a brushed chrome finish, and its six-spoke 17-inch wheels are brushed aluminum. The upper body color is pewter silver and the lower portion has a matte texture. Body-colored, integrated bodyside moldings, custom Michelin touring tires, smaller front and rear mud flaps and an oversized exhaust tip complete the exterior.
Interior Features
Yukon's interior carries forward the machined-quality appearance with a carbon fiber finish on the instrument panel bezel, door trim plates, console extension, overhead console and other select areas. Features of the richly appointed interior include:
- Front buckets, second-row 60/40 bench and a third-row split bench seat (new to the Yukon). The all-leather seats are shale-colored with pewter-colored suede inserts.
- A new power/sliding/tilt glass sunroof with "express open" feature
- The production vehicle features rear seat audio controls for a powerful new nine-speaker audio system with rear subwoofer
World-Class Ride and Handling
Yukon exhibits world-class ride and handling which is one of the most impressive characteristics of this new vehicle. The 23-percent stiffer body and chassis, measured at 23 Hertz, along with its new independent front torsion bar and a rear five-link coil suspension contributes to its extremely smooth ride.
With a wider track (2.4 inches more in the rear) and variable effort steering, the Yukon is even more stable, agile and maneuverable in tight spots. Its turning radius has been reduced by more than three feet.
Bigger Where It Counts
Yukon is nicely proportioned at 75.8" in height, 78.9" in width and 198.9" in length. However, Yukon's growth has come where it counts-not in exterior size, but with its extraordinary capabilities. They include:
- 40% larger front brake pads and rotors for enhanced braking power and longer life
- New vented rear disc brakes with twin piston calipers
- More head room, shoulder room, hip room in almost in any position
- Seat dimensions designed to accommodate 95% of the population
- More passenger capacity with added third-row seat
- A larger, more accessible rear cargo opening and more durable, lightweight, all-aluminum liftgate with liftglass-a major technological advancement for GM and the industry
- Larger heated outside rearview mirrors with "puddle lights" for ground/running board illumination
- Power by GM's substantial Vortec series engine. The Yukon Show Truck is powered by a 6.0-liter engine; however, the production vehicle will feature an enhanced Vortec 5300 V8.
- 4% higher fuel economy and reduced emissions.
Improved Safety and Enhance Security
The Yukon provides superior safety as a result of being designed to both North American and international safety standards. Highlights include:
- Improved four-wheel disc brakes, an upgraded antilock braking system (ABS), plus Dynamic Rear Proportioning (DRP) reduce stopping distance and support Yukon's heavy towing/hauling capability
- Seat-mounted side-impact air bags in the front row-not provided by other vehicles in its class - that add another safety dimension
- A new front-end design, with integral frame crush caps which absorb more energy, thereby reducing the risk of injury to Yukon occupants
Green From the Ground Up
GMs full-size sport utilities are designed to be as environmentally friendly as possible. Following are just a few examples of how the new SUVs reflect careful planning to reduce waste, scrap and potentially harmful materials:
- "Spliceless" design of electrical system eliminates 11 tons of lead per model year
- Long-life engine coolant and transmission fluid lengthen time between replacement and reduce levels of consumption and disposal
- Longer-life brake components prevent thousands of pounds of brake parts from reaching landfills per model year
- New hydroforming frame technologies reduce steel scrap by approximately 10,500 tons per model year
Innovative and Cool
The Yukon also provides more innovative, cool features the SUV customers will appreciate, such as:
- World-class comfort in any seating position, created with highly ergonomic seat contours and increases in seat adjuster travel
- A powerful new electronic, dual-zone climate-control system that uses infrared sensors and provides individual front and rear cabin climates
- A flip/fold design third-row seat, which allows either half or both sides of the 50/50 split bench seat to be conveniently stored inside the vehicle for additional cargo space rather than requiring removal. The seat's lightweight design, carrying handles and transport wheels also facilitate easy removal when desired.
- An interlocking safety device prevents usage when the third-row seat is improperly installed or stored outside the vehicle
- A programmable automatic door lock/unlock feature allows a driver to customize the opening and closing of the locks to individual requirements
New Luxury Audio System
The production version of the Yukon will offer a new nine-speaker audio system with rear subwoofer, custom-designed to delight even the most discriminating music lovers.
It is acoustically tailored and actively equalized to the interior architecture for optimum sound reproduction. Speakers include a mid-base woofer and balanced dome tweeter in each of the front doors, a wide-range speaker in each of the rear doors, two smaller speakers mounted in each of the rear cargo area D-pillars and the eight-inch subwoofer in the far rear. The entire nine-speaker package provides a balanced sound stage with best-in class sound for all occupants.
Powertrain
Yukon's Vortec V8 engine provides a superb combination of power and fuel economy. The engine is mated to an electronically controlled four-speed automatic overdrive transmission with the new Tow/Haul mode, which helps optimize gear shifts during heavy towing.
"Yukon customers may never need the extra horsepower, bigger brakes, brighter head-lamps, added passenger capacity, substantial cargo room and suspension that will smooth out even unusually rough roads," said O'Donnell, "but if they do, it's there.”
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Contact:
Pontiac-GMC Communications
(313) 667-4000
FAX (313) 667-4001
2000 Yukon Show Truck Achieves World-Class Ride & Handling
NEW YORK – The 2000 Yukon Show Truck provides world-class ride and handling with its outstanding structure rigid structure, precisely tuned suspension system, variable effort steering, comfort-optimized seats and enhanced interior quiteness.
“Yukon provides SUV customers with a comfortable, agile driving experience through significant enhancements to its suspension and steering systems, along with its flexible seat designs and roomy cabin,” said Dennis O’Donnell, Yukon brand manager.
Strength and Rigidity
A full-length box frame and stronger, stiffer body structure provide the foundation for Yukon’s smooth ride and agility. The frame was created using GM’s exclusive hydroforming process for the front and rear rails and supports. Hydroforming increases strength even as it reduces weight, providing Yukon with exceptional load-carrying capability. It also provides a more precisely engineered, solid foundation for attaching the suspension system. A steel-stamped, fully boxed design makes up the midsection.
The Yukon’s exceptionally strong, stiff body structure produces minimal vibration, even on an extremely bumpy road. The 23-percent increase in body stiffness is almost double that of current models.
Suspension Systems
Yukon’s independent front torsion bar suspension is specially tuned to provide more on-center steering feel, greater stability, a short turning circle and smoother ride. A completely new five-link, rear coil spring suspension further enhances Yukon’s smoother, more controlled ride.
Suspension Enhancements
Yukon Show Truck also features special Michelin touring tires and high-performance, self-leveling shock absorbers to enhance its ride. The Smooth Ride Self-Leveling rear shocks provide outstanding stability and control for handling heavy trailers/cargo loads by maintaining the rear suspension at proper ride height. The self-leveling shocks operate as part of a self-contained system that relies on load inputs for its operation. Hitting bumps on the road’s surface, for example, causes the rear shocks to be bumped up until they bring the rear of the vehicle level with the front.
Real-Time Damping
An optional Real-Time Damping (RTD) system, available on the production Yukon, controls shock damping to optimize ride under any circumstances. Whether a truck is loaded or unloaded, pulling a trailer or not, RTD continually senses different road surfaces, speeds, steering, braking, load and wheel height conditions and selects the best suspension damping to fit the driving conditions. A computer used to determine the optimal damping level at each wheel of the vehicle can change shock damping on a continual, 20-millisecond basis, if needed. Real-Time Damping includes a compressed-air, rear-leveling system to keep the vehicle level under all load conditions.
Improved Steering
More responsive steering control is provided by a unique variable effort power steering system which adapts the required steering effort to vehicle speed. It provides more responsive feel and stability at highway speeds, for example, and reduces the required effort for parking maneuvers.
“Yukon’s unique combination of frame, suspension, and steering enhancements make Yukon more comfortable, more stable, more agile, more maneuverable – in other words – even more inviting to own and drive,” said O’Donnell.
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Contact:
Pontiac-GMC Communications
(313) 667-4000
FAX (313) 667-4001
Worldwide Standards Underscore Yukon’s Superior Safety Features
NEW YORK – The 2000 Yukon Show Truck’s safety features stand head and shoulders above competing designs. They incorporate not only North American, but worldwide safety features, such as those of European Economic Community (EEC) and the Economic Commission for Europe (ECE).
“Everywhere one looks in Yukon, superior safety features are evident, from those designed to avoid accidents – like braking, to those designed to help protect its occupants – like front seat side-impact air bags,” said Dennis O’Donnell, Yukon brand manager.
Energy-Absorbing Frame
The truck’s unique modular frame absorbs more energy than previous models, with front rails that telescope inward during a collision to help absorb the impact. Thus, they reduce injury risk for Yukon’s occupants.
Improving Braking
Yukon’s improved four-wheel disc braking system, with larger mass rotors and 40-percent larger pads and improved ABS system, including Dynamic Rear Proportioning System, reduces stopping distance. Dynamic Rear Proportioning is activated when the rear tires begin to slip, but not enough to require full ABS. It provides maximum pressure to rear brakes during most stops and, at an impending brake lockup, removes just enough pressure to keep rear brakes in good balance with the front brakes.
Unique Amber Signals
Yukon features unique amber-colored turn signal and hazard lights that stand out more clearly in traffic as an alert to other drivers and pedestrians. Hazard lights, incorporated into the turn signal, also stand out more clearly from – and cannot be overridden by – red brake lights.
Improved Lighting
Yukon Show Truck also features new halogen projector headlamps, daytime running lights (which minimize glare to oncoming drivers), fog lamps and a faster-responding LED center high-mounted stop lamp (CHMSL), providing quicker signals to others of the vehicle’s intent to stop.
Side Air Bags
In addition to front air bags, Yukon is equipped with driver and passenger seat-mounted side-impact air bags – a feature not found on other domestic full-size SUVs in its class.
Stronger Seat Designs
Seats feature seatbacks and higher headrests designed for improved rear impact protection. There are head restraints on the outboard seating positions in all three rows.
Third-Row Seat Safety
Third row split bench seats have a special interlocking feature that prevents them from being put into an upright position unless they are firmly secured to the floor. The feature prevents the seats from being used if they are improperly installed, loosely stored in the vehicle or laying on the ground.
Third-row seats also feature convenient handles and transport wheels that allow them to be easily and safely removed and rolled away for storage.
Larger Mirrors/Puddle Lamps
Extra large heated power outside rearview mirrors provide a wider field of vision, reducing driver blind spots. The mirrors include “puddle lights” that allow occupants to inspect the ground directly below and rearward of their location before stepping into or out of the vehicle.
“Not only are customers getting a vehicle that maneuver’s more like a car, they benefit from superior safety standards – worldwide. That’s bound to make a driver and passenger feel even more secure about being in a Yukon,” said O’Donnell.
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Contact:
Pontiac-GMC Communications
(313) 667-4000
FAX (313) 667-4001
GM's New Full-Size SUVs: Green From the Ground Up
PONTIAC, MI - With segment-leading fuel economy and improvements in emissions reduction and recyclability, GM's all-new 2000 model year full-size sport utility vehicles achieve new levels of environmental friendliness while delivering the comfort, performance and utility that full-size truck customers demand.
GM's new SUV's feature more efficient powertrains, use more recycled materials in components, create less scrap during manufacturing and exceed industry standards for recyclability.
"Our new full-size utilities were developed to answer our customers' expectations in every respect - performance, comfort, fuel economy, size and environmental responsibility," said Michael Grimaldi, GM vice president and vehicle line executive for GM's full-size trucks.
In response to customer requirements, GM engineers have increased the horsepower, torque and towing capacity of its new SUV's. GM's new family of Vortec 4.8L, 5.3L and 6.0L V8 engines are approximately four percent more fuel efficient than the V8 engines they replace. This fuel economy improvement translates to savings of approximately 500 gallons of fuel per vehicle over its lifetime.
Other environmentally focused initiatives include:
- All molded plastic parts are marked for recyclability with an abbreviated polymer symbol. If all plastic parts were recycled at the end of their lives, 45,000 tons of plastic would avoid the landfills every year.
- Over 2,750 tons of recycled fabric from the textile industry are used for floor insulation per model year.
- Hazardous mercury is eliminated from underhood lamp switches. Based on average North American annual production estimates of approximately 380,000 full-size SUVs, GM will avoid the possible exposure of nearly one-half ton of mercury per year to the environment.
- Better fuel economy will save more than 4.3 million barrels of oil (more than 183 million gallons of gasoline) over the life of one model year's production.
- GM Oil Life (System senses driving factors affecting engine oil life and determines appropriate oil changing intervals, based on operating conditions. This innovation tells customers precisely when to change oil, potentially eliminating unnecessary oil changes and the corresponding waste.
- The new Bussed Electrical Center electrical system eliminates splices for power and signal distribution, eliminating the use of approximately 11 tons of lead per model year.
- The trucks' new standard non-asbestos four-wheel disc brake system can last up to four times longer in front brakes and two times longer in the rear. This potentially prevents hundreds of thousands of pounds of brake parts from reaching landfills per model year over the products' life.
- Wheel cap assemblies are made by using up to 200,000 pounds per year of recycled scrap from Saturn fenders.
- The use of hydroformed frame sections reduces steel scrap by nearly 66 pounds per frame (1500 Series only) or 10,500 tons per model year (including all models).
- 56,000 used tires will be recycled and reused as radiator side air baffles each year.
- Several parts on GM's all-new SUV's, including grilles, cowl screens, mirror housings, bumper caps and door handles are designed to reduce traditional paint operations. This reduces emissions of volatile organic compounds and particulate matter which are by-products of the painting process.
Production of Chevy's and GMC's full-size SUV's will begin later this year at GM's Silao, Mexico and Janesville, Wis., truck assembly plants.
General Motors is committed to developing vehicles that today's customer's demand and that protect health, natural resources and the world's environment.
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Contact:
Tom Beaman
248-753-7164
Daniel Flores
248-753-7159