WestCoastYokel
TYF Newbie
- Joined
- Sep 7, 2021
- Posts
- 6
- Reaction score
- 9
My theory is this...
If you're buying one of these big american SUVs (Tahoe/Yukon/Expedition/etc) you've got to accept you're driving a giant a** vehicle that's going to be hard to park in tight spaces, take up a bunch of the road, requires practice to learn it's dimensions when backing up, gets poorer gas mileage, etc/etc. Compared to a typical 7-row SUV from the European/Asian brands (or even the "regular" american ones), these giant SUVs are going a step change up in exterior dimensions that will require some learning, living with some downsides, etc.
Given you've got to make an adjustment to driving a huge vehicle, I personally don't feel it is a significantly different adjustment between the normal and XL versions of these SUVs. Is a Suburban a bit of a pain to drive around at times? Yes...but so is a Tahoe!
The primary reason people buy these giant SUVs over regular 7-rows is space. The extra cost of the XL versions is limited (driving pain, fuel economy, purchase price) but it's a huge improvement in space. If all you do is transport people and suitcases then maybe you don't gain much of this benefit. But we use our vehicle for trips with lots of "stuff" like golfing, camping, skiing, etc. With a Tahoe we'd need a roof rack or rear cargo carrier for these trips. But then why go through the trouble of driving a giant SUV? We could do the same thing on a more normal sized 7-row which would be easier to drive.
TL;DR of the above is: if you're gonna go, go all out
If you're buying one of these big american SUVs (Tahoe/Yukon/Expedition/etc) you've got to accept you're driving a giant a** vehicle that's going to be hard to park in tight spaces, take up a bunch of the road, requires practice to learn it's dimensions when backing up, gets poorer gas mileage, etc/etc. Compared to a typical 7-row SUV from the European/Asian brands (or even the "regular" american ones), these giant SUVs are going a step change up in exterior dimensions that will require some learning, living with some downsides, etc.
Given you've got to make an adjustment to driving a huge vehicle, I personally don't feel it is a significantly different adjustment between the normal and XL versions of these SUVs. Is a Suburban a bit of a pain to drive around at times? Yes...but so is a Tahoe!
The primary reason people buy these giant SUVs over regular 7-rows is space. The extra cost of the XL versions is limited (driving pain, fuel economy, purchase price) but it's a huge improvement in space. If all you do is transport people and suitcases then maybe you don't gain much of this benefit. But we use our vehicle for trips with lots of "stuff" like golfing, camping, skiing, etc. With a Tahoe we'd need a roof rack or rear cargo carrier for these trips. But then why go through the trouble of driving a giant SUV? We could do the same thing on a more normal sized 7-row which would be easier to drive.
TL;DR of the above is: if you're gonna go, go all out
