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First Drive Review: 2007 Chevrolet Tahoe |
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Sunday, 19 March 2006 |
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Page 4 of 5
Driving Experience:
 So,what is the new Tahoe is like to drive? Well, if you’ve ever driven a previous generation model you’d know that while Tahoes never drove bad, they feel large. That somewhat bouncy ride and semi-unresponsive front end feel can be traced back to GM’s use of a torsion bar front suspension. Thankfully for 2007 GM has moved a coil-over spring design in the front, still retaining the live axle in the back. Coil-over shocks give much better ride and handling due to their more accurate damping of the vehicle. This makes an amazing difference to how the Tahoe drives and feels. Body roll on the model we tested with 20 inch rims was minimal. The size of the Tahoe feels considerably smaller than the outgoing model. I’m not sure if this was because I don’t mind driving large vehicles, but I had no trouble parking or handling the Tahoe despite its size in any setting we encountered. GM has retained their huge rear-view mirrors so visibility on the sides is still great.
 The other big news of the 07 model year is the introduction of GM’s active fuel management (formally known as displacement on demand) with the new 5.3L V8. This new 5.3L puts out an impressive 320hp and gives the Tahoe the legs it needs to move confidently and swiftly. Active fuel management allows you to feel a little less guilty about all that power, giving an estimated EPA rating of 21mpg on the highway. The best we could possibly wrangle out of our vehicle was 19mpg but with so few miles I expect that number would jump 1-2mpg as time goes on. Being so new, few people have driven a vehicle with active fuel management. Many ask “What is it like, how does it feel?” The honest to god truth is doesn’t feel like anything. It works seamlessly in the background, turning off 4 cylinders when they are not needed, letting the other four do the grunt work. This allows for less fuel to be used when you don’t need it, basically scaling the engine size as needed. It’s a great concept that seems to work exactly as advertised. It’s amazing that a 320hp half-ton SUV can get better mileage with 120 more hp and 3 more pistons than our Hummer H3, which barely squeaks out 18mpg at best with an I5 engine. There is a screen page in the driver information center that lets you know instant mileage and indicates if the vehicle is in 8 cylinder or 4 cylinder mode. This indication is useful because you’d never be able to know otherwise. But active fuel management isn’t perfect, at least in my book. It’s an extremely sensitive system that automatically kicks back into 8 cylinder mode with even the lightest increase in load. The longest I could keep the system in 4-cylinder mode was approximately one mile going slightly downhill. The system seems programmed to only activate under extremely light load situations, like coasting, and when the acceleration pedal is only lightly pressed. It’s a start but I believe GM should give themselves and consumers more credit allowing the system to stay active more.  The system defaults to 8 cylinder mode at a stop, which is because of issues with exhaust and engine noise from a half running V8 engine. I wouldn’t mind a setting within the driver information center that allowed you to adjust the sensitivity of the system or turn it off altogether.
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