Yahoo News Tested: 2021 Chevy Tahoe Z71 Goes Big Where It Counts
To wake the daydreamers, a high-school teacher of mine would slap a broken goalie stick on the desk of the offender and shout, "A picture is worth a thousand words!" In addition to learning to pay attention, we learned that visual aids are indeed very helpful—and the photos you're seeing of the 2021 Chevy Tahoe are indeed visual aids. But the headlights, giant grille, and design look better in person than they do in photos.
Besides, the big news is hidden away in the back and beneath the skin. General Motors engineers finally put an independent rear suspension into Chevy's large, three-row human haulers, the Tahoe and Suburban, as well as the GMC Yukon and Yukon XL. The independent rear suspension—a trailing-arm design—requires less space than a live axle, allowing for a lower floor. In previous Tahoes, third-row riders sat close to the floor, beach-chair style. Chevrolet has also extended the new Tahoe's wheelbase by 4.9 inches, and overall length is up by 6.7 inches.
These changes mean that, for the first time, the Tahoe's third row is a great place to sit. Legroom increases by more than 10 inches, and it will now be tolerated by full-grown adults for more than five minutes at a time. The second-row seats move and fold forward to provide good access to the third row. And to ensure that the third-row riders' knees aren't crunched when the second row is re-erected, the second row automatically returns to its more forward position. From there, second-row occupants can decide whether or not to kneecap the third-rowers with the seats. It's a smart design that makes the third row that much better.
Other convenient ideas include the five USB-C plugs as well as a rear window that opens independent of the hatch, something that's dying out in today's SUVs. Popping the window can make it easy to load smaller items, and leaving it open can help maximize the 25 cubic feet of available space behind the third row should you want to haul something long, like a ladder. GM tells us that there are 10 more cubic feet back there than before. To put that in perspective, we found that it's possible to carry six carry-on-size bags back there, two more than the old Tahoe.
Unlike its cousin, the Silverado pickup, Chevy went further with the Tahoe's interior. A large 10.2-inch touchscreen infotainment interface blends cohesively into the dash, and the column shifter is now a push-button-and-slider setup to the right of the gauge cluster. There's a motorized, retractable center-console lid for those who enjoy a bit of theater before storing their purse or men's European satchel. It is odd that it's motorized and perhaps stranger that the control switch for it is on the roof. The rest of the ergonomics are better. Chevy has blended physical controls (buttons, knobs, etc.) with screen inputs. There are some uncouth plastics, but you really have to be out to find them. Otherwise, the touch points have a richness commensurate with the Tahoe Z71's $76,175 as-tested price.
Sticker shocked? Tahoes cost how much? That's enough money to purchase a base BMW X7, and it is within a grand of the Mercedes-Benz GLS's starting price. We think that the most likely cross-shopped vehicle will be the Ford Expedition. In its most basic and rear-drive form, a Tahoe LS is a little more than $50K. Our Tahoe Z71 tester comes with a 5.3-liter V-8, a 10-speed automatic transmission, and an on-demand two-speed all-wheel-drive transfer case. The Z71 specific skid-plate-styled front bumper protects a real skid plate behind it from scratches.
Our Z71's air springs are part of a $2450 Off-Road Capability package that also includes magnetorheological dampers. With them, the ride has the firmness and control you expect of a body-on-frame sport utility with off-road ambitions. It jolts you just enough to remind you that there is some actual off-road hardware between you and the speed bump in the Lululemon parking lot. The air springs can increase ground clearance—to a max of 10.0 inches from 8.0—in their tallest setting.
The familiar 355-hp 5.3-liter V-8 adequately carries the 5866-pound Z71. Adequate in this case means a 7.5-second time to 60 mph. We'd expect the High Country trim level's 420-hp 6.2-liter to be able to lop two seconds off that time, and all non-ZL1 Tahoes with the 5.3-liter V-8—LS, RST, LT, and Premier—should be quicker. GM's excellent light-duty inline-six diesel will be available early next year, too. What you trade for speed in the diesel you should make up for in fuel economy. With the 5.3-liter, the EPA labels the new Tahoe with four-wheel drive with an 18-mpg combined estimate. That's 1 mpg thriftier than the '20 model, and part of that is surely due to the adoption of a more sophisticated cylinder-deactivation system. We averaged 14 mpg with the Z71 and suspect that, as with acceleration, the non-Z71 versions will perform a bit better in this metric.
Remarkably, those Goodyear Wrangler TrailRunner AT tires don't produce the drone we've come to expect from knobby off-road-friendly tires. The rushing wind, rather than the hum of tire and road noise, are the predominate soundtrack. In our 70-mph sound-level test, the Tahoe's cabin registers a luxury-car-like 66 decibels. Skidpad grip is Jeep Wrangler-like at 0.63 g, but we should note how we extracted that, err, performance. The only way to permanently disable the very protective stability-control system is to engage low range. In rear-drive mode, we couldn't get the truck to corner harder than about 0.44 g. This is a low enough threshold that we suspect some owners will encounter it on a cloverleaf. Keep it within its low limits, and the truck goes down the road quietly and competently. The steering tracks arrow straight, and the brakes inspire confidence with both a 184-foot stop from 70 mph and firm feel.
Tahoes have been on sale since June, so it's possible you've seen one or even two on the road. If you have seen it in person, we think you'll agree that it's better than how it looks in photos. And if you're daydreaming about Tahoes in photos, it looks better in person.
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