2016 Chevrolet Tahoe review – Roadshow

The Good It’s easy to modulate the 2016 Chevrolet Tahoe’s throttle, making for smooth maneuvering and safe towing. Safety systems in the Luxury package include blind-spot monitoring, rear cross-traffic alert and forward collision warning. Even without the navigation option, Chevrolet’s MyLink head unit supports Android Auto and Apple CarPlay.

The Bad The Chevrolet Tahoe comes in a little pricier than its competition without necessarily besting the others in power or cabin space. Adaptive cruise control is only available in the top trim.

The Bottom Line The 2016 Chevrolet Tahoe remains a solid choice for family recreation and towing, making for an easy-driving and modern-looking SUV with some nice tech features, but it doesn’t leap ahead of the competition.

Driving the 2016 Chevrolet Tahoe down the California coast, I contemplated the uses I could make of this big beast. With its middle-row bucket seats, I could take five friends to its namesake Lake Tahoe. Although with only 15.3 cubic feet for cargo behind the third row, I would have to leave a couple of those friends behind. Its full 94.7 cubic feet, behind the first row, would allow an epic Ikea run.

Considering what it could tow, the Tahoe’s 8,600-pound rating would let me pull a 28-foot Airstream Land Yacht for an upscale Burning Man experience. Or on the Lake Tahoe idea again, this SUV could manage a Sea Ray 280 Sundancer, although dragging a 28-foot boat on a twisty mountain highway doesn’t sound particularly fun.

A big truck-based SUV like the Tahoe offers a lot of possibilities for recreation, while cylinder deactivation helps maintain reasonable fuel economy.

The Chevy Tahoe continues with its body-on-frame architecture, and adds a smooth, handsome exterior for the current generation.

Wayne Cunningham/Roadshow

The Chevrolet Tahoe got a significant update for the 2015 model year, pretty recent considering the longer product cycles for this type of vehicle. Eschewing the trend of independent suspensions among SUVs, the Tahoe stuck to its solid rear axle and body-on-frame architecture. Chevrolet currently cites the Ford Expedition, Nissan Armada and Toyota Sequoia as the Tahoe’s main competition.

Smooth-skinned
Chevrolet
Tahoe
sets…

See full gallery

1 – 6 of 32

Next
Prev

I got behind the wheel of a 2016 Tahoe in LT trim, with rear-wheel drive instead of the available four. And despite the last-century architecture, I was impressed with the modern look, the sheet metal showing smooth sides and a neatly squared-off rear instead of the more contoured look embraced by many other automakers. The Tahoe looks like a Bauhaus office building, all sheer sides and geometrical windows.

The Tahoe looks like a Bauhaus office building, all sheer sides and geometrical windows.

Under the hood, a 5.3-liter V-8 makes 355 horsepower and 383 pound-feet of torque, that latter figure tuned to give the Tahoe its towing power. Tipping halfway into the throttle left me wondering if the engine was taking a nap, as the Tahoe seemed in no rush to accelerate. However, putting the pedal down to pass on a two-lane highway showed that the engine could get up and go when needed.

This throttle mapping makes for a smooth driving experience in the Tahoe, giving me a lot of leeway in pedal travel for maneuvering in the city or other tight spaces. That controlled tip-in would make even more of a difference with a trailer hitched up. But the initially light power delivery can fool you into thinking the engine doesn’t have much to give.

Chevy mapped the Tahoe’s throttle program for easy modulation, which can seem like a lack of power until you really get on the gas pedal.

Wayne Cunningham/Roadshow

Cruising down the highway, I appreciated the Tahoe’s high seating position and view of the road, but in the city its sheer sides made me worry that I might not see a pedestrian, pet or bicyclist close in.

Lending to the Tahoe’s safety, the Luxury package in the model I drove brought in blind-spot monitors, a rearview camera with cross-traffic alert and forward collision alert. And making sure I didn’t miss a visual or auditory warning from these systems, I was sitting on Chevrolet’s Safety Alert Seat, which buzzed either side of the seat bottom in an alert that I could not ignore.

Lane drift prevention also worked to keep the Tahoe from rolling over lane lines in an unobtrusive manner, a feature that could save drivers who fall asleep at the wheel. Oddly missing from the package is adaptive cruise control, a feature only available at the Tahoe’s top trim.