2007 GMC Yukon SLT 2WD review (5.3L 8cyl 4A)

The 2007 GMC Yukon SLT is a comfortable boat-on-wheels. As a two-wheel-drive vehicle, the standard Yukon is of questionable value as an SUV: There are few cars that are less sporty, and its size and ungainly handling are far from utilitarian. Nevertheless, with loads of interior space for five passengers, and a generous cargo area, the Yukon makes good use of its capacious dimensions. Drivers and passengers have plenty of standard and optional onboard tech to inform and entertain them: Our test model came with an optional GPS navigation system, which reduces the SLT's audio offering to a single-slot CD/MP3 player ($2,145), an optional rear-seat DVD entertainment system ($1295), and the SLT-1 Décor package ($2,430), which includes leather seats, trizone climate control and rear-parking assist. With other options, including a power sunroof ($595), an upgraded Bose speaker system ($495), a 3.73 ratio rear axle ($100), and a heated windshield washer system, our Yukon SLT tester weighed anchor at $43,985.

The first thing that drivers of the 2007 Yukon SLT realize is that they are about four feet higher than most other drivers on the road. Standing 6-feet 4-inches tall and measuring nearly 17 feet in length, the Yukon is hard to miss and even harder to park.

The SLT sits in the middle of the Yukon range, with the SLE below and the high-end Denali above. Our SLT-1 interior package included leather appointments, trizone climate control, rear-parking assist, and an MP3-compatible single-disc CD changer. Additionally, our car came with an optional DVD-based navigation and MP3-compatible CD/DVD player package, which adds an LCD information screen through which the driver can also control the audio system.

The navigation/audio interface was the same as the one we liked so much in the 2007 Cadillac Escalade, and it gave us a number of options to configure maps and music information. The LCD touch-screen display made the Yukon's navigation system relatively straightforward to program. Although, for some reason, our car's default was for entry of addresses by cross street rather than by street number, which took some time to remedy.

In addition to the upgraded navigation system, our Yukon included the Bose luxury speaker system ($495), complete with a subwoofer in the center console. Sound quality through the upgraded six-speaker system was clear and robust at all ranges, and we liked the EQ schematic screen on the LCD that allowed us to configure the speakers to localize sound for optimum acoustics.

Also to our liking were the display that provides full MP3 ID3-tag information (folder/artist/track) and the auxiliary input jack in the front of the head unit, which allowed us to plug in our Creative Zen Vision:M MP3 player.

Interestingly, the LCD touch-screen interface would not allow us to switch the audio source to auxiliary when the vehicle was in motion, presumably due to the fiddling required to plug in an external device. We did like the straightforward positioning of the aux-input jack, however: Its central and accessible placement made a refreshing change from having to fiddle around in the glove box or center console.

In addition to the touch screen and hard buttons in the head unit, the stereo can be operated with buttons--including source, track and volume--mounted on the steering wheel. Our test model did not come with satellite radio, but XM is available as an option on the SLT. For those in the back seats, a separate interface mounted in the rear console, complete with auxiliary-input jack and video-in ports, allows rear passengers to select and control their own media.

The other main tech option on our test model was a ceiling-mounted rear-seat DVD entertainment system, which comes with two sets of wireless headphones and can be had for an additional $1295.