What to Buy? Tahoe vs Yukon Denali

[S33k3r]

Welcome from another GMT800 Denali owner. I looked at several models across the platform and I’ll still take my 6.0 over a 5.3 Tahoe or 5.3 Yukon any day. The 5.3 is a solid engine. Good option. But the 6.0 is a crazy fun motor, easy to work on, for maintenance, repairs and upgrades as well. like he said above^ gas mileage is minimally different. Not enough to notice. The full time All Wheel Drive has its limitations but there isn’t much it can’t handle. I live in a ski town and run in snow for roughly 4 1/2ish months a year. It’s not met much that has stopped it in the snow. And we just had the storm of the decade late February, 10 feet of snow in 10 days. We’re just not equipped to handle that much snow all at once. Denali ran through it totally fine.

We've a 5.3 Suburban 1500 and had a 5.3 Tahoe; We have a 6.0 Suburban 2500, a 6.0 Sierra Denali, and a 6.0 Silverado 2500. The Tahoe had 3.42 gearing, and religiously got 17 MPG. I don't think we ever used it for long trips before it got totalled. The 6.0 Sierra Denali and 2500 Suburban both get 13 MPG, religiously. The silverado gets 11ish. It is my opinion the 5.3 does get considerably better gas mileage. Now, are the MPG you get worth losing the fun factor and capabilities of the 6.0? That's up for each owner to decide.

 

[alpha_omega]

I own (2) 2003 Tahoes and (1) 2005 Denali and the difference between them is night and day even with both of my Tahoes being LT trim. Id get the Denali 6.0l AWD over the Tahoe LT 5.3L every time! In fact ive been looking for another Denali to replace one of the Tahoes. The difference between the 5.3L and 6.0L is night and day. Not having to mess with buttons and being in AWD all the time is nice. No waiting for the 4WD to engage after you are already stuck. Even the difference between LT trim and Denali trim level is night and day. Go with the Denali EVERY time!

x2. I personally have not had any issues with my 6.2l Denali and as mentioned above, the features, power, trim…etc are night and day.

 

[Aquamania001]

Obviously I am biased... Tahoe!

 

[dkad260]

OP, welcome!

Another thought, do you need the 3rd row? If so, you might want to check them out because on the short wheelbase models, the 3rd row is very low to the floor.

On the LWB (Suburban, Yukon XL) they are much more usable.

Also, if you get a 2nd row bench, the seats don't recline, you need 2nd row captains. That's the story on the GMT900, someone can check that for me as I believe it's the same for the GMT800.