We’re a city family so we don’t use a car very often. But when the idea of a long Memorial Day weekend in the Catskills came into view, we were psyched to get behind the wheel. Luckily our friends at GM offered to let us test drive a tricked out Chevrolet Tahoe for our upstate adventure. From the moment that the Tahoe pulled up out front, the little guy was begging to sit in the car. He played inside the cavernous interior as we loaded up the trunk that easily opened and shut with the press of a button. The 3rd row of seats easily folded down with the press of a button, too. Once we were all loaded up with what felt like WAY too much stuff, we hit the road in some serious comfort. Here are the pros and cons of our experience with the Tahoe from Brooklyn to Bovina and back.

Pros:

• Gas mileage. This beast gets better gas mileage than our friend’s Jeep Wrangler. With that said, it’s not fabulous on gas with 16 city and 22 highway.
• Easy to use computer. I almost always get frustrated trying to figure out the computer, bluetooth, navigation, screen but this one was simple and intuitive. Finally!
• WiFi hotspot made it easy to use apps to play music without blowing through tons of data. And, when cell service went out (yup, we were that far off the grid) the internet generally worked.
• Space for the car seat. We’ve had issues with SUVs in the past but this one had enough room for an infant car seat to fit behind the driver’s seat and a toddler car seat behind the passenger seat. We did have to skooch the driver’s side seat up a tad but not so much that it felt cramped.
• Adaptive cruise control. This is a lifesaver. We set the cruise control speed and if someone pulled in front of us going 10mph slower, the car automatically slowed down to match. When we switched lanes to get away from the jerk, the car automatically sped back up to the cruising speed.
• Flip down back seat viewing mirror. This was so cool. In the flip down thing where you can put your sunglasses, there’s a bent mirror that allows you to see all of the back seats without having to turn around. We loved that for keeping an eye on the monkey; he liked seeing us in it, too.
• Comfy seats. The soft and wide leather seats made it easy to sit for four and a half hours. It even felt like it went by fast!
• Ginormous size considered, the Tahoe was quick and nimble on the road whether feeding into highway traffic, going up a mountain or navigating city streets.
• Easy fold down seats in both the 2nd and 3rd row. I’m not sure how often I’d want to use my $69K SUV as a hauling vehicle but it would definitely be easy to load up some 2x4s and sheet rock, antiques or a prepping trip’s worth of stuff from Costco.
• 5-Star Government safety ratings for frontal crash and side crash

Cons:

• Leg room feels weirdly distributed with the front having too much and the 3rd row not having enough.
• Overall size is too big for city folks like us and even felt a little big on the mountain. Maybe we’re just too used to compact cars?
• It drives like a truck. For people who aren’t truck people, the handling on this car can feel overwhelming. I definitely prefer a more petite SUV in general.
• Wireless charging although in theory is an awesome addition, didn’t charge the phone very quickly and put the phone in a position that made it difficult to use.
• Navigation interference. We used the built in navigation for the ride up, but decided to use our phone on the way back because the navigator would lower the music so much and announce unnecessary directions so often that we couldn’t enjoy our tunes.

Overall, the Tahoe just felt too big for us to purchase outright but we enjoyed driving it and didn’t have any issues packing it up for a five day toddler vacation. It made a pretty sweet back drop for a banjo jam session, too!