If we had a water cooler in the office, it would have been one of those “water cooler conversations,” where people generally assemble and jawbone about this and that.  In this case—no surprise—the subject was vehicles, as in “What’s best-in-class?”  As you can well imagine, when we meet people and they ask us what we do to earn our keep, they generally ask us what vehicle they can buy.  This is analogous to going to a restaurant and asking the waitress “What’s good?”  I mean, unless the waitress happens to be a close relation, what do you know about her tastes?  For all you know she lives on Gummi Bears and Marlboros.  “Oh, yes, I’ll try the penne with calamari and malvasia, based on your recommendation, Dot.”  Similarly, we don’t know how people drive.  But we know what we like.  So we figure that based on that, and based on the fact that we do have the opportunity to drive quite a few different vehicles, we can come to a conclusion as to what we consider to be “best-in-class,” and therefore we can make a recommendation based on that more than on simply what we happen to “like.”

When the category came to “full-size SUVs,” the basic consensus was that the new GMT 900 platform, which has given rise to vehicles including the Chevy Tahoe, is excellent, and one argument was made for the Tahoe itself as being best of breed.  (I’m leaning toward the GMC Yukon, but that’s purely an aesthetic thing.)

OK.  We understand that gas prices are bumping $3.00 per gallon.  It isn’t pretty and it isn’t likely to get any prettier.  And we understand that having a 5.3-liter engine under the hood that’s moving around a vehicle with a curb weight of 5,537 lb. isn’t going to get much in the way of miles per gallon, despite the fact that it has “Active Fuel Management.”  Let’s face it: about 15 mpg (and trust me, that includes a considerable amount of highway, not stop-and-go, driving) is probably what you’re going to get (the sticker says 15 city/21 highway).  But we also understand that there are people who need to tow things of a certain mass, and this version can tow 7,700 lb.  In addition to which, there are people who need people, and if you need to drive around with plenty of people, the Tahoe has the wherewithal to handle as many as nine, given the appropriate seating setup.

This is a whole new SUV.  While it can be readily ID’d as a Chevy from the front—the sizable gold bow tie in the center of a horizontal split grille has a little something to do with it—the fact that the hood, complete with power bulge (hey, it is a 320-hp engine), wraps down onto the front, to make it look more aggressive than its predecessor.  Also, the fact that there is a wraparound fascia (the whole sheet metal array seems to be stretched over the frame) means that bumper-to-body gaps typical of trucks in this class are eliminated.  And that’s a good thing, and in keeping with the attention to detail that is paid to the elements of the vehicle.  The running boards are fully functional—which is helpful given the 22-in-step-in height.  Around back, the handle for the rear hatch is sizable enough to manage a mitten engineered by Arctic explorers.

Inside, the look is uncluttered and the ergonomics are well sorted.  Dials are where you’d expect them to be.  The center console is sized right for the truck (i.e., giant).  The glove box is not a joke as it sometimes is in even vehicles of this magnitude (i.e., wheelbase: 116 in.; length: 202 in.; width: 79 in.; height: 77 in.).  If there is a point to quibble about it is the size of the dials on the $2,145 optional radio, which includes a nav system.  While having one dial for volume and another for tuning is a wonderful thing, they really ought to be larger than the sort of thing that you might expect to find on Barbie’s Corvette.  A nice touch is the fact that there are lighted mirrors on the visors: clearly, somebodies thought about the fact that this is a vehicle for people.

For being such a sizable unit, the maneuverability is really quite impressive; the power-assisted rack-and-pinion steering allowed me to maneuver into parking spots that might have been tricky for something not nearly as majestic.  As this vehicle was fitted with optional 20-in. aluminum wheels, it really rides high; the coil-over shock front suspension setup ameliorated the off-road conditions that are typical of the actual roads in metro Detroit.

Right now, it is hard to figure another vehicle that is truly competitive with the Tahoe.  The MSRP of the vehicle driven is $37,685, and then options and destination brought it up to just south of $49K.  That is certainly a lot of money.  But it is for a lot of vehicle—quite probably the best-in-class.

Assessment: If you don’t want to go big, go somewhere else.