Cars House

I'm typing this whole thing up by hand, so excuse any errors in grammar or punctuation.

By Tony Quiroga

General Motors couldn't have picked a more disagreeable time to launch its new line of large SUVs. Although gas prices are retreating in the wake of the Hurricane Katrina disaster, the sting of $3 gas is still much on the minds of would-be buyers. Meanwhile, GM stock has been nose-diving as rumors of bankruptcy have fostered little cracks in the fragile corporate facade. And so it is that the 2007 SUVs--the Chevrolet Tahoe, the GMC Yukon, the Cadillac Escalade--are seemingly born under a bad sign, but the good news is that the 2007 Chevrolet Tahoe LTZ we drove is good enough to steal sales away from the competition and, equally important, will likely sell without the incentive coercion that was necessary to move the previous generation throughout much of its life.
Although the previous-gen Tahoe won a comparison test early in its life cycle ("Living Large," August 2002), its later years proved to be less fruitful. The last time we compared the Tahoe with its competition, it placed fourth in a field of five ("Gitche Gumee Games," April 2004). To recapture the class lead, nearly every aspect of Chevy's full-size sport-ute has been redesigned or altered.
Perhaps the most radical difference between the old and new can be seen inside the new SUV. Interiors have never been a GM truck strength--the previous Tahoe was criticized for having a cheap, dated dashboard. That old dash is gone, replaced by a modern-looking unit that would have been swell enough for the Cadillac version of the platform, but here it sits inside the least expensive of GM's big utes. The plastics that make up much of the interior are happily of the low-gloss variety and benefit from a graining pattern that wouldn't look out of place in a BMW. A firm press of one's index finger against the plastics does reveal, however, that they are of the less expensive and hard variety. The platform is known as GMT 900, and the other tenants, the GMC Yukon and the Cadillac Escalade, get the handsome graining and plastic into which your digits will sink slightly (VetteZ06 - Makes sense to me.)
If you resist fingering the plastics, the interior should suit you fine. Build quality is excellent, gaps between parts have shrunk to just about nothing, and the Tahoe we drove was squeak- and rattle-free. Our top-of-the-line LTZ truck came with seats that have the feel and look of fine leather goods; the leather in the Tahoe last time was difficult to distinguish from vinyl. The new seats are firm, you sit on top of them, and they lack bolstering, which works against holding you in place during the occasional cornering manuever, but it does make sliding in and out easy. The high seating position and commanding view of the road remain, but the dash sits lower, and that gives the illusion of an even greater throne height.
Although the interior decor has changed for the better, passengers have about the same amount of space as they did in the last Tahoe. A third row of seats is optional, and you can get second-row captain's chairs instead of a 60/40 bench. Second-row seats fold forward easily; power-actuated folding is optional and allows for access to the third row, which is strictly for the SpongeBob set. Equally diminutive is the amount of cargo space behind that third row, a problem solved by abandoning the seating and folding the third row forward. Or you can remove the third row, although each section of the two-piece bench weighs 65 pounds--cough twice, please. If you're one of those demanding souls who want a third row and cargo space, Chevy will be delighted to sell you a Suburban.
A new body, more chiseled and aggressive-looking, houses the upgraded interior. There's little chrome in evidence, and the styling, although clearly an evolution, benefits from tight panel gaps and elegant headlights and taillights. The expensive look isn't just skin-deep, as the Tahoe rides on a new frame and chassis. The frame, said to be 50 percent stiffer, bolts to the body and contributes to the solid, unflappable feel the truck now enjoys. For those who tow, a four-wheel drive model can lug around 7700 pounds.
A redesigned front suspension with coil springs replaces the old torsion-bar setup and increases the front track by three inches. In back, there's a solid axle located by five links--an evolution of the design in the previous Tahoe. Even on the optional 20-inch wheels of our tester, the chassis never jarred or shuddered. Suspension tuning is firmer that the plushness of past Tahoes, but body movement is kept in check and the chassis feels more secure and buttoned down than before. If things get too wet and wild, all of GM's large SUVs now come standard with stability control and roll-over mitigation.
Keeping a Tahoe within a highway lane is no longer a full-time job because the new rack-and-pinion steering actually offers on-center feel--a Tahoe first. We'd still like a bit more on-center resistance at highway speeds, as the steering becomes fairly light with speed. The new rack replaces a recirculating-ball setup that had enough lost motion to allow one to mimic the wacky driving in old movies, where going straight required constant sawing of the wheel. Brade-pedal feel has undergone a similar transformation. The stepping-into-a-cowpie feel is replaced by a firm pedal that doesn't waste any of its travel. We were surprised by the lengthy 201 feet it took to stop from 70 mph because the brakes feel more reassuring and secure than that distance indicates. The front and rear rotors are an inch larger, and the front calipers are of a new design, but the SUV required two more feet than the 199-foot distance we experienced in the Tahoe we tested in '04.
Although nearly every part of the old Tahoe was kicked to the curb, the powertrain escaped largely intact. A few modifications boost the power and fuel economy of the venerable small-block. The 5.3-liter V-8 of the LTZ (a 290-hp, 4.8-liter V-8 is standard on lower trim levels) makes 25 more horses and five more pound-feet of torque than the 2006 model. To better fuel economy, the engine now boasts cylinder deactivation that allows the V-8 to operate as a four-cylinder in situations where you don't need all eight--generally, when cruising. The switch from V-8 to V-4 is subtle and nearly transparent; if you look for it, you'll notice a slight change in engine note and a slight vibration that can be felt through the accelerator pedal. The easiest way of keeping track of how many cylinders are in use is the instantaneous-fuel-economy display that tells you if you're in V-8 or V-4 mode.
The bad news is that despite GM's claim that its new SUV has the best fuel economy in the big-ute segment (VetteZ06 - It does.), our Tahoe burned a gallon of regular every 12 miles. Although final EPA figures weren't available, Chevrolet estimates 16 mpg in the city and 22 on the highway. One obvious culprit for our poor fuel economy is our staff's desire to emulate drag racer Don "The Snake" Prudhomme. A less obvious culprit is the optional remote start that allows the key-fob possessor to start the engine from a distance. It's a valuable feature against bitter weather--the car can be warmed in the driveway while you're waiting for that Pop-Tart to cool off--but using it means that you're burning fuel and not going anywhere. We used it, a lot.
Despite our best efforts, we didn't win too many drag races. Our LTZ tester boasts more power than the previous truck, but it also weighs 5840 pounds (40 more than the Tahoe Z71 we tested in 2004). Accelerating from 0 to 60 mph takes 8.5 seconds, compared with 8.9 seconds in the old truck. A four-speed automatic is the only transmission (Escalades and Yukon Denalis get a new six-speed automatic), and it is perhaps the weakest link in an otherwise impressive sport-ute. GM hedged by saying our Tahoe lacked the final transmission calibration, which may explain why our tester often refused to downshift at speed, leaving the engine flat-footed. We'd like to see the six-speed offered in the Tahoe, and soon.
Once under way, the Tahoe proved to be a luxurious and quiet vessel. At a 70-mph cruise, only 68 decibels of noise made it inside. A small amount of wind rush around the A-pillars stood out because the rest of the truck was so quiet. Large exterior mirrors made lange changing easy in the Tahoe, and turn signals that click three times before the detent encouraged good road manners. We'd welcome that feature on every vehicle.
Everything we didn't like about the previous has been addressed in the '07 model. It's an impressive vehicle that needn't make any apologies; as such it joins the Corvette, the Pontiac Solstice, and the Cadillac SRX as the GM vehicles we'd most like to see on our car board. The full-size-SUV segment isn't expected to grow over the next few years, but GM is betting its new truck platform will dominate it. GM wasn't ready to reveal what the new Tahoe costs, so we're left to guess that the range will span from $35,000 to nearly 50 grand for our fully loaded LTZ. At these prices, the Tahoe's excellence should allow for GM to move the metal without having to bribe buyers with a briefcase full of money on the passenger's seat.

Highs: Elegant interior and exterior design, improved build quality, impressive solidity, refined ride, improved steering, quiet at speed.
Lows: Still weighs nearly three tons, dimwitted four-speed automatic, lacks adequate third-row space, poor fuel economy.
Verdict: This Tahoe's goodness should be incentive enough to make it successful. --------- From the pics I am really impressed by the interior. Exterior is fine too but the Interior is where most of the people will spend their time. The design is clean and everything looks well put together. I am curious to see how Toyota matches the interior of this new ute. --------- Csaba Csere's Counterpoint:
"...My only disappointment is unimproved packaging. Any wagon that weighs 5840 pounds and stretches 202 inches should have space for three rows of adult seating to justify its size and fuel consumption."

I entirely agree. There are two things a large SUV can do that a midsize SUV cannot: hold a lot of people and stuff, and tow. Unless you're towing, what reason is there to buy a jumbo ute with a tiny third row and no space behind it, when for less money you could get a fuel-thriftier and more agile midsize SUV with equal or better space there?

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I am IFCAR and I approve this message. --------- Some people just like the idea of a large SUV, I guess. Sometimes there's no logical explanation for a decision.

In any case, the Tahoe looks like a great SUV. ---------