The Chevrolet Tahoe is one of the most common full-size SUVs on the roads of the UAE. There are only a handful of other SUVs that can compete with it, at least on the basis of popularity and sales success. Being a General Motors product, the Tahoe shares its platform with other GM cars such as the GMC Yukon and Cadillac Escalade. Chevrolet officially christened the Tahoe somewhere in 1995. Since then, there have been a few more major generational updates for the Tahoe, and the outgoing model constitutes the sixth generation of the well-liked SUV. In our region, this Chevy goes into the ring with some of the best in the class, including the Nissan Patrol, Toyota Land Cruiser, Ford Explorer, and Dodge Durango.
Available in up to six different trim options, there’s a Tahoe for almost everyone and at broad price bracket. For starters, the Tahoe LS trim with rear-wheel drive (RWD) costs AED 175,900, while adding all-wheel drive (AWD) to the same will raise the price by a further AED 16,000. The middle-of-the-pack Tahoe is priced at AED 210,900 and AED 222,500 for the RWD and AWD variants, respectively. Meanwhile, the top trims consist of the Tahoe LTZ (RWD) at AED 259,900 and LTZ (AWD) at AED 265,000.
The 2019 Chevrolet Tahoe is a vast vehicle, even for a full-size SUV. From the tip of its chrome nose to end of its tail, the Tahoe measures nearly 5.2 meters in length. It’s also pretty wide and tall - measuring over 2.0 meters from side-to-side and almost 1.9 meters to the top of its roof. The 2.9-meter wheelbase is also impressive, and opens up a lot of room on this inside - where it could theoretically seat up to nine people. Then again, I don’t know how many buyers actually go for the nine-seat variant. But, the Tahoe is definitely great at swallowing up seven adults, comfortably. Higher trim levels also get the benefit of more soft-touch materials in the interior, though it’s certainly no luxury SUV.
In the UAE, there’s only one engine option that’s available with the Tahoe, and that’s the robust 5.3-liter, naturally-aspirated V8. It sounds exactly how you’d imagine an American V8 to, plus also produces a helpful 355 hp and 383 Nm of the twisty stuff. Regardless of which variant of the Tahoe you go for, all come equipped with a 6-speed automatic gearbox, as standard. Once you learn of its 2.5-ton mass, you wouldn’t be surprised by the Tahoe’s rather muted performance. It takes this brute 9.5 seconds to reach 100 km/h, and top speed is a piffling 170 km/h. You see, you can only do so much with 355 horses and a slow (but smooth) transmission. Also, it’s not like the Tahoe was designed in a wind tunnel (it probably doesn’t even know what one looks like). Its villa-like proportions also explains the 12.3 L/100 km fuel economy figure.
You can have the Chevy Tahoe with some nifty features such as adaptive dampers, automatic and adaptive headlights, radar-guided cruise control, 20-inch polished alloy wheels, remote keyless entry with push-start ignition, electric sunroof, full leather upholstery, power-operated front seats with heating & cooling functions, heads-up display, multi-zone automatic climate control, electrically-adjustable steering wheel, digital driver information display, power tailgate, cooled glovebox, an 8.0-inch touchscreen display with built-in navigation, Bluetooth connectivity and Apple CarPlay, and a rear-seat entertainment system among others. Meanwhile, this Chevy’s safety basket brings advanced features such as forward collision warning with auto-emergency braking, lane departure warning with lane departure mitigation, blind spot warning, rear cross traffic alert, front & rear parking sensors with reversing camera, stability and traction control systems, hill assist, active headrests, ABS with EBD and brake assist, plus up to six airbags.
