Chevy Suburban launched in 1936: Newly Redesigned in 2015
Christine Tibbetts
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Bringing old rides up to speed with new technology.
Test driving a 2015 Chevy Suburban from the third-row back seat worked just fine for me. If I needed to allocate the Suburban’s space in which I was sitting for cargo, I could tap a little button and presto! Down it would fold, creating roomy flat space.
How well I remember grunting like a sumo wrestler in years past, removing back seats and lugging them to the garage for storage. Love this new power-folding feature.
The Suburban was first named the Carryall when developed 80 years ago; it’s Chevrolet’s longest running nameplate.
I drove a Chevy Astro van raising teens in the South decades ago, a clunky vehicle compared to this soft leather interior Suburban.
Room Enough For Big And Tall Families.
I’m tall and my sons are significantly taller so we’d benefit from the programmable height-settings on the liftgate of this Chevy Suburban. Guess that feature actually might be appreciated more by short families.
I observed plenty to increase my sense of security on the test drives around Walt Disney World’s perimeter roads in Orlando. I experienced several Chevy vehicles with a group of TravelingMoms. While we explored the New Fantasyland, we put the pedal to the metal (mom style) when driving Chevy’s 2015 Tahoe and Suburban, and the 2014 Impala and Camaro SS convertible.
Chevy Suburban Is Safety First.
Either I haven’t been paying attention or Chevy is way ahead of the curve with these new-car safety features.
Lane departure warning sends a little vibration under the driver’s left thigh if she’s veering that way out of the lane. Sexy vibration? That’s a nice way to think but could be life-saving too.
Same alert on the right if crossing that lane edge. How does it know? Credit a camera in the windshield paying attention to the lines of the lane.
Forward collision alerts are helpful as is self-adjusting cruise control. Should the vehicle in front of me be traveling a bit slower than my cruise control setting, mine will sense that and adjust accordingly, automatically. I always tense up wondering if my husband is paying attention to such closing gaps so this will make me a kinder passenger.
Chevy Suburban’s Connectivity.
Finding alphabet letters on road signs is already a long-ago amusement, but in this vehicle with 4G connectivity supporting up to seven devices for kids in the back rows, who’s ever looking out the windows?
The Chevy Suburban is made for family road trips.
Specific games exist for the Chevy OnStar Wi-Fi but I didn’t try any of them. Now I need to grow accustomed to thinking of the family vehicle as a perpetual hotspot.
Customization is this radio’s middle name, with drag and drop icons and wireless earphones. So temptingly distracting to the driver which is why Chevy engineers built in a disabling feature while the vehicle is in motion.
What You Need to Know
This luxury-interior Suburban claims 21 miles to the gallon on the highway and 16 around town, holding enough gas for 600 miles after a fill up.
Wonder if SUV sticker shock at the pump is diminished by long stretches in between or exacerbated by the quantity? No filling up on my test drive so I can’t say for certain, but I can say that the newly redesigned Chevy Suburban is worth a second look.