Chevy just dropped off their ultimate swanky Suburban, a four-wheel-drive High Country model, for a week for us to sample–so we immediately hooked a trailer to it.
The Suburban pulls a moderate load like it isn’t even back there, but despite this being GM’s largest SUV equipped with a 3.0-liter Powerstroke diesel engine, it’s only rated for 7300 pounds of …
Do we get a review of the excavator?
Rons said:Do we get a review of the excavator?
It's barely off the trailer, but I'll be adding my contributions to this thread as things progress.
In reply to JG Pasterjak :
JG, Powerstroke should read Duramax.
eastpark said:In reply to JG Pasterjak :
JG, Powerstroke should read Duramax.
This is what I get for writing copy as soon as I go home instead of going to the bathroom like I needed to.
We fix. Thanks.
Let's just start calling all diesels 'cummins'. People will get the point. Like drinking a "coke" when you really drank a Dr. Pepper.
this is my dream family hauling/road trip/ camper hauling/ bike hauling rig..
just so many "steves"
How long do you have the little tractor thing? Do we have time to build some sweet jumps?
Never mind, I see we”ll have lots of time to build some jumps. Seriously, drive it over here. It’ll be so agricultural.
David S. Wallens said:Seriously, drive it over here. It’ll be so agricultural.
Yeah if I left now I wouldn't make it before spring. It's a lot of things but none of them are fast.
Fueled by Caffeine said:this is my dream family hauling/road trip/ camper hauling/ bike hauling rig..
just so many "steves"
It drives pretty brilliantly for such a large vehicle. I could definitely see doing 500 miles in one and not being worn out.
I'm gonna go on record as not liking camera mirrors, though. I love the idea but every execution I've ever experienced—including this one—is awful. So maybe it's just not such a great idea? The field of view is weird, the focal distance for your eyes is weird, everything is just weird.
I just rented the $63,000 base model 4x4 Suburban up in Minneapolis 2 weeks ago and put 900 miles in 4 days of running up to Hibbing and down south towards Mankato.
I daily drive a Silverado and felt this was a beast - too tall and giant feeling but I imagine it would be sweet to drive it full of family and gear out towards Glacier National Park to camp this summer.
In reply to JG Pasterjak :
Awesome. The tow from here to the up or the black hills would be amazing.
To be clear, the Suburban is huge and drives huge. It's the furthest thing from "nimble" I could ever imagine. But it does have excellent steering sensitivity, feedback and stability, and awesome brake feel and feedback. so the result is a vehicle that, despite its size—which you never forger about—can still be operated at a high degree of precision with minimal effort.
That's a compromise I'm willing to make for the right vehicle (usually the right vehicle is one that can hold everything and tow everything +1). I'd never daily drive it, but as a track hauler/vacation sled/project mule with lots of swank, man it hits a lot of good buttons.
In reply to JG Pasterjak :
Top speed runs on I-95: Have timers at 40 and LPGA....
$90k sounds like a lot of money, but that's still cheaper than that new jeep thing.
7300# towing capacity is more than most people will ever need, I would think. That's more than my project car, trailer, spares, and all the race equipment I have weighs.
A 401 CJ said:Let's just start calling all diesels 'cummings'. People will get the point. Like drinking a "coke" when you really drank a Dr. Pepper.
Fixed that for you.
Edited to add: $90K? Oy! But the 25 mpg fuel economy will be the payback right? I just can't get my head wrapped around these prices.
11GTCS said:$90K? Oy! But the 25 mpg fuel economy will be the payback right? I just can't get my head wrapped around these prices.
I know this is very "get off my lawn"-speak, but I bought my first house for less than a modern diesel Chevy Suburban costs. To be fair, though, my first house didn't get nearly 25mpg.
Clearly its GRM when more people look at the excavator than the Suburban. I hear good things about the new 6cyl diesel and 10speed trans. And yes it costs more than my house but is nicer inside.
In reply to JG Pasterjak :
Nope, I get it. That's the world we live in and if you have a herd of kids (or kids and dogs) and like to haul campers / boats / race cars this is the tool for that. GM will sell each and everyone they make and I doubt there will be any discounts. It looks like a great vehicle to suck up a lot of miles on a road trip and I admit that I'm a cheap SOB.
So, I reset the fuel economy meter after som ehighway cruising, and since Saturday I've been using the Suburban as pretty much an around-town daily. It's big, but surprisingly maneuverable in parking lots. Either that or I;ve just been running stuff over and not noticing.
But the efficiency has been pretty impressive, relative to the size of the thing. this is a vehicle that's probably s large as teh machines that laid the road it's driving on, but it's getting minivan-level mileage for the most part.
Average for the week so far has been 20mpg +/-. Pretty much all city driving. Occasional one-exit highway trips.
The fuel gauge hasn't even moved as far as I can tell and there's still over 625 miles on the available range meter. And the tank isn't even comically large. 28 gallons is pretty moderate by modern truck standards, and would be under $100 to fill up in most cases.
Just drove the new diesel Suburban, and JG’s right: It drives smaller than it actually is. It doesn’t turn into a Civic, but it doesn’t feel so huge, either.
It’s also quiet and comfortable. Good touch points. Logical switches and controls. Thanks to the motorized running boards, easy to get in and out of. As I told JG, if we had to drive this to California right now, I could do that.
Not a fan of the LCD rear-view mirror, either.
Also, the little bump on the top of the steering column bugged me. 
Small things, I know.
In reply to David S. Wallens :
That was the hazard switch spot for lots of cars that I recall growing up with.
with regards to the lcd mirror- I LOVED it on a convertible mustang rental I had several years ago- I wonder if it might have been higher resolution?
In reply to grover :
I have the camera mirror in my Silverado ZR2 and it has three different levels of zoom. It definitely takes some getting used to, but it's crisp and changing the zoom should address the field of view issue. I didn't like it at first, but now I feel like I can't see around the car as well without one.
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