The examples of creativity gone wrong by GM are too numerous to mention, but they certainly contributed to the eventual bankruptcy.

 

^^^^1,after the Aztec I could no longer blame all of GM's woes on the UAW and their bloated contracts

 

The SSR was the answer to a question no one asked. It's styling was kinda gimmicky and just slightly cool (the first time you saw one, anyway). But once that quickly wore off, there was nothing of substance. It was built on the Trailblazer platform, so it sucked as a performance vehicle and was totally useless otherwise. Served no other purpose other than being a conversation piece, but that's a double-edged sword because the conversation would probably revolve around what possessed you to buy one in the first place.

The Denali-trim type trucks are just a cash cow for GM. Fancier plastic outside, crappy GM leather inside, upgraded stereo, and boom, $40K+ price for a pickup whose mechanicals and quality were equal to a $30K Silverado. I often get a kick out of people who buy luxury/lifestyle pickups. Only in America (and maybe Dubai).

 

The Denali line used to have performance items in addition to the trim. Also, when I bought my SD, the price difference between a loaded 4wd Sierra SLT with leather and an AWD Denali with the larger engine, AWD, quadrasteer, etc. was a bit over $2K. As for quality issues, I owned 3 GM trucks in the past decade (99 Sierra, 02 Avalanche, and 04 SD) and had very few problems with them aside from a bit of cold start knock in the two early 5.3 engines. Of course, that alone may sour some folks forever.

 

I wasn't saying the quality of GM trucks sucks. We have a '95 Safari that we use for our business and it's a reliable workhorse. I'm just saying that the materials and quality of the Denali trims aren't worth the premium over the "plain" GMC or Chevy trucks.