2015 CHEVY TAHOE & GMC YUKON

Let’s be honest; the comfortable GMC Yukon and Tahoe hardly need introduction. In continuous production since 1992, these red-blooded, body-on-frame SUVs have been shuttling kids to hockey practice literally since Sidney Crosby probably needed a ride.

But the Tahoe and Yukon of today are a far cry from the one Sid the Kid might have been trucked around in. Having just been treated to a clean-sheet redesign for the 2015 model year, both still retain many of the same styling cues from the A-pillar rearward, but are easily distinguished by their very different front ends. In the case of the GMC product, the grill remains true to GMC’s truck roots like on the Wichita GMC Sierra 1500; with a strong vertical presence and heavy styling features. The lights, for example, are gigantic and probably have some of the largest lens elements you’re liable to find on the market today. Best hope you don’t catch a rock in one. The Tahoe, by comparison, seems to be trying to slough off its undercover-cop-truck image with a more heavily styled front end than ever before. Sure, there’s still the same split horizontal grille we expect from a Chevy product, but the headlights wrap around the corners with what are probably best called eyelashes.

Moving back from there, the differences are fewer and farther between, with the rest of the body having very familiar proportions to the previous generations of Tahoe and Yukon. Big doors, big flanks, tall seating positions and just a general sense of big-ness. In the case of the Yukon, which can be had in a Suburban-sized XL format, that sense of scale is even more impressive. Landing in Toronto and picking up a Yukon Denali XL press car for a business trip that would traverse over 1,000 kilometers in a few scant days, the first thought was “why bother with a hotel when you’re driving a zip code?”

And honestly, if that was taken as a joke, it shouldn’t be. In the specific case of the Denali XL there’s not only plenty of room to stretch out and sleep, there’s also just about every luxury feature you could want. Carrying a slightly lower price tag that similarly-equipped Escalades, the Denali may come from a company better-associated with work trucks, but plays no second fiddle when it comes to comfort. The seats are wide, well-padded, and extremely comfortable. There’s an optional heads-up-display that projects a goodly amount of relevant information onto the windscreen, and the infotainment system integrates well enough that the HUD will project the song and artist streaming from Spotify off your phone, as well as the next navigation direction you need to take. The dashboard display incorporates a high-resolution LCD display between the gauges to communicate all ancillary data points, and if any of your devices need charging, there’s more USB ports inside the cabin than you can shake a stick at. Rear seat passengers can enjoy the now-ubiquitous drop-down LCD screen, and depending on need, the third row can be deployed or folded with the touch of a button thanks to the rear-mounted buttons on the side of the cargo area.

The Tahoe is, in most cases, slightly less well-trimmed. As the sort of bottom-line offering underpinning the full-size GM SUV platform, it is intended to provide large, comfortable transportation for the average family. And it does. With a goodly amount of ground clearance, available four-wheel drive, and the venerable 5.3L small-block V8 under the hood it is a perfectly adequate vehicle for Canada’s various climes. However, if there is one area in which the Tahoe falls down, it is under the hood. Restricted to that one 5.3L motor, the 355-horsepower engine struggles to motivate the Tahoe’s 5500-odd pounds, and provides little in the way of fuel economy as a result. Conversely, the massive 6.2L V8 that is fitted under the hood of the Yukon Denali produces a much more interesting 420-horsepower and a whopping 460 pound feet of torque (as opposed to 383 for the 5.3L), and actually rewarded us with better fuel economy figures over the course of our testing thanks to the big motor’s ability to move the heavy Yukon out with less fanfare.

Excepting the amount of throttle opening required to move the big SUVs, both vehicles feel quite similar under way. Granted, the Denali can be had with GM’s Magnetic Ride Selection shocks that allow for instantaneous electronic damping rate adjustments, but let’s be honest; the inclusion of a “Sport” mode in a 5,500-pound luxury SUV is perhaps the most optimistic use of that word ever employed by an auto manufacturer. No, these behemoths are best enjoyed at a more relaxed pace, where the tall seat height and quiet ride can cosset the occupants down the road with a hushed sense of relaxation. On the highway, they’re tall and compliant rides and low engine speeds make them gobble kilometres by the hundreds, while their large footprints are at least somewhat offset in the city by the commanding view from the driver’s seat. Just don’t rush anything.

Overall, the new 2015 Tahoe and Yukon are exactly what you expect: Unabashed large, but eminently practical SUVs that hearken back to an era when SUVs were closer to pickup trucks than cars, with big towing capacities, big motors, and big bodies. Like many other vehicles, the updates these vehicles have been treated to in order to keep them up-to-date are largely focussed around making them more capable within their roles, with better efficiency and more capacity for work than ever before. They can pull more, burn less, and keep their occupants more comfortable than ever before, but are still big, full-size SUVs capable of handling mild dirt roads and most inclement conditions. Which is precisely why they’ve been so popular since 1992, and probably will be for another 23 years.