Rental Car Review: 2016 Chevy Tahoe LTZ 4x4

"Boaty" (boaty1) 03/04/2016 at 10:06 • Filed to: None

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BaronBoaty (not his real name or title) is a consultant that lives in Denver but travels all over the country for work. He travels nearly every week and therefore spends a considerable amount of time in rental cars. Since he’s a car guy (and plane guy and motorcycle guy) and he occasionally writes about the cars that he rents and life in general. Recently he has also started recording YouTube reviews of certain cars. You can find him on !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , YouTube, and via !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! if you want to talk.

Hello again, Internet. It has been a while since my last Rental Car Review so to make up for it, I’ve decided to review the vehicle I had this week. In addition, I made a !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! about it! You can check it out on my page here and let me know what you think.

With all the pleasantries out of the way, let’s get down to business. I’ve long played a game with my friends to see if they can correctly guess what rental car I have for each week. The rules are simple: I give them three hints, they get three simple follow up questions, and then they have to guess. If they get it right, they get a point. If they get it wrong, they don’t. The point system is quite complicated but in summary: they don’t matter.

With that being said, I created a video where I gave the whole world three hints in an effort to see if actual car people were smarter than my friends. Check it out here but to summarize, the hints were:

American manufacturer (with American production)

SUV (full size)

Bucks the trend of downsizing and crossoverifying and remains unabashedly old school by being a large body on frame SUV

Since YouTube viewers can’t ask questions in real time, I further clarified with:

It has two corporate siblings (making for three versions of the vehicle, all from different brands)

It is the lowest level of those three in terms of market placement and luxury

Obviously the only correct answer is… the Chevy Tahoe. More specifically, this week I had a 2016 Chevrolet Tahoe LTZ 4WD with an MSRP of $68,355. Who says rental car companies only rent out Chevy Sonics and Dodge Darts? Note: I have elite status at a couple of rental agencies and therefore get pretty good cars at the standard midsize price.

Anyway, let’s move on to the vehicle and what I think of it. First thing’s first, I’ve rented over a dozen GMTK2UC/Gs over the last couple years. I drive a truck at home and quite enjoy a large, plush, comfortable SUV and will always take one over a base level Chrysler 200 or a minivan. In terms of a comfortable rental car with just about all the best comfort features, it’s hard to beat a GM full size SUV. Let’s talk about a few of the quirks of the Tahoe and some additional overall thoughts.

The good:

Let’s get one thing straight right off the bat: driving a Tahoe (or other full size, body-on-frame SUV) is nothing like driving a car or a crossover. The biggest and potentially most obvious difference is that it’s huge. And it’s not just the physical dimensions that are big, it’s everything about it. It’s heavy. There are no two ways about it, the sheer weight of the thing is something you feel every time you turn, every time you brake, every time you try to accelerate - you can feel just how large this truck is. It’s slightly worse than that when you realize just how high the center of gravity is. It rolls, it bobs, it weaves, it could play on the Denver Nuggets it’s so big and heavy up high. But, it feels solid. It’s a dense kind of heavy - similar to an old Mercedes Benz - and that’s what makes it unique. When you are driving along the road, or better yet cruising down the highway, you feel invincible. There is a certain sense that you are immune to most of the other issues that plague modern cars. It’s so quiet and so solidly sound deadend that you are aloof as to whatever else is going on around you. With the LTZ’s magnetic ride suspension, the bumps just flow under you as you waft along in serenity and comfort, getting cold air blown up your bottom from the air conditioned seats while Elton John kills it on the high powered stereo. You look over and are almost at eye level with the semi truck next to you and it just feels so….. right. That’s surely not something you can get from a Prius, or a minivan, or even the nicest luxury sedans. The mix of comfort, power, space, perceived quality, and poise is unique to high end SUVs.

What is also unique to high end SUVs is the lack of overall performance. Sure, the Tahoe can haul stuff and it can tow but it’s not something you’re able to drive around in a spirited manner. It’s most at home eating up highway miles while your 2.3 children sit in the back and play Angry Birds on their iPads. Sure, you could theoretically do that in the family crossover or wagon but it just isn’t the same. Where the Tahoe differentiates itself from the more mundane people carriers is that it can do much more than that. It can tow up to 8,000 pounds (not that I’d want to try it with the Tahoe’s 5.3L V8 and mandatory 3.08 axle ratio), it has available low range 4x4 and can hold its own while offroad, and can have its seats fold down for more than 90 cubic feet of interior space. Outside of the other full-size SUVs, there are no vehicles on the market that can do any or all of those things at the same time. Yes - minivans have more interior space. And yes - full size pickup trucks can tow more. And yes - a Jeep Wrangler will leave it for dead off road but the point is that in terms of versitility, I don’t think anything can compete with a Tahoe or Suburban or Expedition for being a true jack-of-all-trades.

Now I will diverge here and say that the vast majority of people that buy this truck don’t do that kind of stuff. Your typical Tahoe driver is a middle-aged soccer mom toting her children between private school, baseball practice, and her pilates studio and won’t ever go near the full potential of a vehicle like this. It doesn’t mean that there aren’t people out there who buy these and properly use them. I’m sure there are dozens of people like that...

The bad:

It’s not all sunshine and rainbows with this truck - let’s talk about some of the things it’s not so great at. It suck on gas mileage. It’s way underpowered. The transmission is outdated and like many trannys these days, is focused on getting into the top gear as quickly as it can. This, combined with the lack of power and excessive weight means that you must plan out any sort of overtaking maneuver way in advance. Drive down the highway and floor it and you’ll oftentimes wait 2-3 seconds as the transmission drops a few gears and the engine fights for it’s life to move the million pounds of Americana to where you need it to go.

Most of this is down to the newest version of the venerable 5.3L V8 found under the hood. With its 355 horsepower and 383 pound feet of torque, it’s no lightweight but still struggles with the sheer mass of this vehicle. The Tahoe’s corporate siblings, the Yukon and Escalade both have an available 6.2L V8 and eight speed automatic combination (and different gear ratios) that is much more suited to the job of moving such a large vehicle. If you’re looking to do any sort of towing, definitely look into those options as the 5.3 just doesn’t have the balls to do it. You’ll want to note though that the 6.2/8 speed combo is only available in the Yukon Denali. The standard Yukon SLT and SLE make do with the 5.3/6 speed but do have the option for shorter gear ratios which should help the low end grunt a little bit.

The main contributor to the poor fuel economy and lack of performance is the weight I love so much. Weight is the double edged sword that gives the vehicle its stellar long distance cruising abilities but makes everything else a bit of a nightmare. Around town it lumbers and sloshes its way around and makes the vehicle drive almost like a school bus in traffic and at slow speeds. Once you’ve got the momentum on your side, things become effortless but getting there is a major pain in the ass.

Another big issue I have with it is its interior dimensions. I’m a tall guy (6’6’’) but have a heck of a time getting comfortable in the interior. For a vehicle so large on the outside, the driver’s seat feels shockingly small and tight. One of the big issues with this is that the sunroof option takes up way too many valuable inches on the ceiling for me to sit straight up. Combine that with a seat that doesn’t go down far enough to counteract that loss of headroom, and doesn’t go back far enough to get me out of the way of the sunroof, and I don’t fit great. The power adjustable pedals are nice but for some reason the brake pedal seems to be about 3 inches higher up than the gas pedal. I don’t mind a little offset in an automatic but this vehicle is way too offset for comfort. The interior isn’t all bad though. There are a ton of cubbies and cupholders, and dozens of power ports, including a proper 110v outlet. As someone who works in the field quite a bit (and has a ton of devices needing power), the Tahoe is definitely a nice place to be to get some work done. For 2016, Chevy has also come out with 4G LTE hotspots for the vast majority of its lineup. It isn’t something I would pay for but I’m sure for some folks that’s a great benefit to have in a mobile “office.”

The verdict:

As you can probably tell, I’m a reasonably big fan of body on frame full size SUVs. I think they have their purposes and surely aren’t for every consumer but are the only option for a large percentage of the population that can’t have multiple vehicles for a variety of purposes. If you’re willing to put up with some of the drawbacks, you can have a true jack of all trades that is untouched on its ability to be versatile and get the job done.

With that being said, do I think the Tahoe is the best one on the market? Well, that depends on what exactly you’re looking for. The Tahoe and Yukon with the 5.3 are truly out gunned when it comes to power. The 6.2 V8 is a major upgrade and the eight speed transmission is a million times better than the six. The Ford Expedition and Lincoln Navigator may have slightly lower horsepower numbers than the 5.3 and 6.2 respectively but offer an amazing amount of low and midrange torque out of their Ecoboost 3.5s. If you go that route though, you’ll have to put up with Ford’s Sync system which is simply terrible and makes day to day tasks unreasonably difficult.

All in all I think if it was me, I would go with the Lincoln Navigator if I was in this market. I don’t think it looks as good as the Escalade or Yukon Denali and I don’t think the multimedia interface is anywhere near as responsive and intuitive but the power and torque out of that Ecoboost V6 more than makes up for it. The transmission (and available sport mode) make driving much more responsive and you hardly ever find yourself in the wrong gear. If you’re in the market for a truck like this, you’re going to want torque and because of that, I have to give it to the Lincoln.

What do you think? Ever driven a big SUV? Let me know your thoughts in the comments and thanks for reading! Feel free to follow me on twitter and subscribe to my YouTube page for more rants and raves on rental cars and other things.

j250ex > Boaty 03/04/2016 at 10:39

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Drive one everyday. Drove a ford excursion for a few years. The tahoe is a great driving SUV and they look fantastic in black trim. My only complaint is they are god awful expensive and seem to hold their value fairly well on the use market. Makes buying a used tahoe a hassle

450X_FTW > Boaty 03/04/2016 at 10:49

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2016 Chevrolet Tahoe LTZ 4WD with an MSRP of $68,355

That can’t be true. (goes to chevrolet.com, starting price of Tahoe is $47,000, LTZ starts at $61,720)

HOLY CRAP, when did the Tahoe become the rebadged Escalade?

WiscoProud > j250ex 03/04/2016 at 11:06

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I was looking at some a few years back and was amazed/horrified at how much used ones cost. Good for the new buyer I guess.

sm70- why not Duesenberg? > 450X_FTW 03/04/2016 at 11:13

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Escalade now starts at $73,000 and runs all the way up to the verge of six figures.

BrianGriffin thinks “reliable” is just a state of mind > Boaty 03/04/2016 at 11:14

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Solution: Tahoe PPV. Less leather, but much better driving experience.

450X_FTW > sm70- why not Duesenberg? 03/04/2016 at 11:18

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That thing better be made with rich mahogany for those prices

BorkBorkBjork > Boaty 03/04/2016 at 11:39

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The 5.3 is fine for towing, and 0-60 in 6.7 seconds is not underpowered. The 6.2 is much better, but don’t put the 5.3 down as a slouch.

sm70- why not Duesenberg? > 450X_FTW 03/04/2016 at 11:54

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I’ve driven the new Escalade. While I know many people on here will argue that no car is worth more than x amount, I feel like the Escalade justifies its price as well as any other top end luxury car.

Boaty > BorkBorkBjork 03/05/2016 at 16:20

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I think the biggest thing that lets it down is the transmission. I like the 6.2 much more and a big fan of power (if you couldn’t tell) but I think the transmission behind the 5.3 is a major problem.

Boaty > sm70- why not Duesenberg? 03/05/2016 at 16:22

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I haven’t driven the newest generation of them but they definitely are a whole different beast when compared to the standard LS Tahoe. LTZ and Denali, and the difference becomes a bit less but still noticeable. I’m still blown away by how expensive they are and how popular they are all over the country.