2007 Chevrolet Tahoe LTZ

2007 Chevrolet Tahoe LTZ - 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.

Although the interior décor 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 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.

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. Brake-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.

The bad news is that despite GM’s claim that its new SUV has the best fuel economy in the big-ute segment, 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 you’re burning fuel and not going anywhere. We used it, a lot.

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 lane 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 Tahoe 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.