GM Gears Up For Next Gen Suburban, Tahoe, Yukon, Escalade, and More

Gorehamj · June 25, 2019

John Goreham
Contributing Writer, GM-Trucks.com
6-25-2019

GM is adding another $20 million to its recent $1.2 billion investment in its Arlington assembly plant. The plant builds GM's full-sized SUVs. It is the only plant that makes the Chevrolet Tahoe and Suburban, GMC Yukon and Yukon XL and the Cadillac Escalade. There are rumors that a new GM SUV may join the mix when the next generation begins production in the coming year.

“We’ve been building trucks in Texas for more than 20 years, and our additional investment in Arlington Assembly is proof of our commitment and confidence in our Arlington team,” said Gerald Johnson, GM executive vice president of Global Manufacturing. “We are counting on the Arlington team to continue focusing on building the highest quality products possible for our customers while preparations continue for the launch of the next generation of our full-size SUVs.”

The Arlington plant opened in 1954. It presently employs about 4,500 workers directly and had a payroll in 2018 of $405,231,063. The plant paid the state of Texas $47,883,571. in state income tax last year. The first vehicle ever built there was a 4-door black Pontiac Chieftain. The plant has also built the GTO and El Camino. Arlington is unusual in many ways. One is that the plant is powered by wind GM sources from green power suppliers in the region.

BIGDOGx · June 28, 2019

Well looking at what Lincoln is doing, they are light years behind imo! The top of the line Escalade can't even hold a candle to what Lincoln is doing for the same price point! The cheap seating surface only leather that 35k trucks have is not going to cut it anymore in the caddy, the same parts bin grabbing that they have done for decades now needs to end, you have to be a fool to buy a Escalade over that of the new Lincoln today! The difference is now night and day, laughable actually imo!

swathdiver · June 28, 2019

38 minutes ago, BIGDOGx said:

Well looking at what Lincoln is doing...

Yeah, they copied the basic lines and some of the details of the K2s in 2018. Don't want a plain jane Esky, get the Platinum with Tehama leather.

Colossus · June 28, 2019

And yet Lincoln sales are so low that Ford is considering axeing the brand.

Paintor · June 29, 2019

15 hours ago, Colossus said:

And yet Lincoln sales are so low that Ford is considering axeing the brand.

Ford-Lincoln design head honcho just ran off to Nissan.

Colossus · June 29, 2019

As if the Nissan products were not already ugly enough...

Mandalorian · July 1, 2019

They better put Supercruise into these things. GM has a legitimate "killer app" with Supercruise, yet they seem determined NOT to sell it. Heck, they seem determined to sell regular old adaptive cruise. They also went to all that trouble of developing the Blackwing V8, when they had arguably the best V8 in the world already.

Paintor · July 1, 2019

On 6/29/2019 at 7:22 PM, Colossus said:

As if the Nissan products were not already ugly enough...

What do all these Latino immigrants buy? What does Mexico buy?

GM.

There was a time, when Nissan brought in the Hardbody pickup and Latino’s went crazy buying them to slam them. Lowriders...

Guess what is going to happen to Nissan once again? A tiny little truck is going to rise from the ashes. 2 spark plugs per cylinder for nostalgia..with a stick shift...

I think the Ford head honcho design guy knows exactly what America’s new middle class is going to buy...especially after gas prices go up next year by $1-2 per gallon.

bg1988 · July 3, 2019

On 6/29/2019 at 4:22 PM, Colossus said:

As if the Nissan products were not already ugly enough...

and the most reliable Nissan transmission was made by toyota(used the Alt-prius hybrid )

those Nissan CVTs will only last 32k to 34k miles I test drove a nissan with a CVT (my grandpa wanted one so badly )

the CVT failed when test driving it

I was sitting there revving up the engine at 3,000 rpm GOING NO-WHERE very fast I think we topped out at 10 MPH luckily it broke down in front of the dealership...great car if you want to spend 15k on something that will top out at 10MPH... WE ended up getting a brand new Chevy sonic LT for 15k

jlong1984 · July 3, 2019

On 6/28/2019 at 1:26 PM, BIGDOGx said:

Well looking at what Lincoln is doing, they are light years behind imo! The top of the line Escalade can't even hold a candle to what Lincoln is doing for the same price point! The cheap seating surface only leather that 35k trucks have is not going to cut it anymore in the caddy, the same parts bin grabbing that they have done for decades now needs to end, you have to be a fool to buy a Escalade over that of the new Lincoln today! The difference is now night and day, laughable actually imo!

The interior is superb, but the Navigator is ugly and the wimpy sounding V6 just doesn't cut it for me. Yes, I'm aware the HO Ecoboost is impressive in performance, but the sound is just terrible. I don't buy a big truck or SUV to race it, but I do like it to sound good.

therapy · July 7, 2019

On 6/29/2019 at 4:22 PM, Colossus said:

As if the Nissan products were not already ugly enough...

Haha...SERIOUSLY!

Look at this thing:

It looks like it was designed by four different teams that never got to talk to each other. The worst part is, the Infinity version is even uglier!

Mandalorian · July 7, 2019

22 minutes ago, therapy said:

Haha...SERIOUSLY!

Look at this thing:

It looks like it was designed by four different teams that never got to talk to each other. The worst part is, the Infinity version is even uglier!

The Armada is a serious value buy. Solid V8 engine and on the global Patrol chassis, which is extremely an durable vehicle. Plus the interior is really nice.

therapy · July 7, 2019

1 hour ago, Mandalorian said:

The Armada is a serious value buy. Solid V8 engine and on the global Patrol chassis, which is extremely an durable vehicle. Plus the interior is really nice.

I got one as a rental last year - maybe it was the trim line or something but I was far from impressed. I've been in police ford explorers that felt nicer.

Mandalorian · July 8, 2019

6 hours ago, therapy said:

I got one as a rental last year - maybe it was the trim line or something but I was far from impressed. I've been in police ford explorers that felt nicer.

The base model ones are terrible. The Platinum with tan leather or Platinum Reserve with brown leather are the way to go.

bigred460 · July 8, 2019

On 7/3/2019 at 1:05 PM, jlong1984 said:

The interior is superb, but the Navigator is ugly and the wimpy sounding V6 just doesn't cut it for me. Yes, I'm aware the HO Ecoboost is impressive in performance, but the sound is just terrible. I don't buy a big truck or SUV to race it, but I do like it to sound good.

Before I bought a '19 I was also concerned with the V6 and how it would sound. I was pleasantly surprised on how they tuned it, sounded nice and throaty like a V8. Ford knew that was a concern so they addressed it.

I only owned the '19 for 4 days before I returned it, I couldn't sit in the seats for extended periods of time, very uncomfortable for me. Other than the seats I loved the vehicle.