2025 Chevrolet Suburban & Tahoe First Drive: Big SUVs Add Tech But Keep What Matters

Big trucks and big SUVs are a way of life in Texas. The roads are wide, and there are lots of long drives between major cities, ranches, and the world's biggest Honky Tonks. Big steers, big hats, and big vehicles all feel right at home. So it makes sense that Chevrolet would invite us out to Dallas to drive the biggest SUVs in their lineup, the refreshed 2025 Suburban and Tahoe.

The Suburban and Tahoe both offer three rows of seating, and both are based on the same platform as their popular truck brethren, the Silverado 1500. They're designed with maximum capability in mind, with the ability to haul a big family around while also pulling a big trailer. For 2025, they've both been updated with refreshed styling in the front and rear, a more-powerful diesel engine, updates to the interior, more standard tech, and a more refined ride via retuned suspension. Large and in charge, the Suburban and Tahoe get a big infusion of appeal for 2025, offering lots of the latest tech along with proper capability and impressive comfort.

One of the highlights of the Suburban and Tahoe refresh is the new 17.7-inch touchscreen, standard on both SUVs. The attractive landscape-style screen has already been featured in several Chevy models including the Traverse and the Blazer EV, but now it makes its way into Chevy's biggest family haulers. Angled towards the driver for visibility and easy access, the screen features big icons for all your typical functions like Apple CarPlay, Android Auto, climate control, and various vehicle settings. It also features a set of smaller icons near the top-left corner that can be customized to go directly to things like settings or navigation.

Driving a few different examples of the Suburban and Tahoe, the screen felt well placed in the cabin and easy to read – great for keeping your eyes on the road as much as possible. The screen is also well integrated into the dashboard, with a convenient ledge for placing your hand while selecting an icon from the massive screen. And, if you want your navigation to display on the clear 11-inch driver screen, you can do that easily via a quick selection of the proper steering-wheel button.

The Suburban and Tahoe's available 3.0-liter turbodiesel has been tweaked to increase both power and torque. The inline-six 3.0-liter turbodiesel engine now has 305 horsepower and 495 lb-ft of torque, up from 277 horsepower and 460 lb-ft in the old model. The extra power comes from a retuned turbo compressor, new high-flow injectors, new steel pistons, and revised piston-cooling oil jets that help keep the temps down. 

On the road, you'd be hard pressed to sense the added horsepower, but the changes in refinement are evident. Added sound absorption materials and a revised air intake make the diesel a bit quieter, adding to a sense of isolation in the cabin — a rare virtue amongst big diesel-powered trucks and SUVs.

The standard engine for both the Tahoe and Suburban is a 5.3-liter V8, carried over from the previous model year with 355 horsepower and 383 lb-ft of torque. The optional 6.2-liter V8 also carries over with 420 horsepower and 460 lb-ft of torque. The torque king here is clearly the diesel, even if it does trail the pack in terms of horsepower.

Fuel economy numbers aren't out for the 2025 Tahoe and Suburban yet, but the numbers for the 2024 Tahoe show just how efficient the diesel can be. With the diesel engine and rear-wheel drive, the 2024 Tahoe is rated as high as 24 mpg combined by the EPA. Compare that to the 17 mpg combined rating that you get with the standard 5.3-liter V8, or the 16 mpg combined rating from the 6.2-liter engine, and it's clear which powertrain is the best choice for efficiency.

It's also worth noting that the optional Duramax diesel engine is now available on the Z71 trim for the first time, giving it a bit of added range for long off-road adventures. While the EPA's 2024 ratings don't cover a Z71-diesel combo, they do estimate that a four-wheel drive Tahoe with the 3.0-liter Duramax powertrain can go 528 miles on a single tank of diesel fuel. A range of 500 miles for a 2025 Tahoe Z71 with the diesel engine, then, probably isn't out of the question.

Across all trim levels of both the Suburban and the Tahoe, updated looks lead the way. The front bumper, grille and headlights are all updated, as are the taillights. Up front, the styling changes make the Suburban and Tahoe feel even larger than before. The upright grille and larger LED front accent lights give the front end a tall, imposing feel. Contributing to the grand stature of the three-row Chevy SUVs are massive optional 24-inch wheels.

The 2025 Suburban and Tahoe feel classier as a result of the styling update, but the change in styling also makes them feel heftier. The new headlight and grille design are visually taller, giving the front end a broader look. Various trim levels get distinct exterior treatments, with the LS and LT models offering no-nonsense styling, while the RST offers a slightly sleeker look. The Z71 signifies a bit of added off-road capability with underbody skid plates, while upscale trims like the Premier and High Country offer enough brightwork to have you questioning the price of a GMC Yukon.

The base Tahoe LS starts at $60,495 (including $1,995 destination) with the top-trim High Country checking in at $80,195. Suburbans are $3,000 more than their Tahoe counterparts across the board.

Out in the open spaces of Texas on the highway, the Tahoe and Suburban are relatively easy to drive with well-weighted steering and a relatively smooth ride. Our drive route kept us to mostly highway roads, where the optional adaptive air suspension and magnetic ride control soaked up lots of bumps, with rough city streets being dealt with similarly. The optional 24-inch wheels, however, made the ride a bit less comfortable – steer clear of those big wheels if you want maximum comfort.

There's also no getting around just how large SUVs like the Suburban and the Tahoe are. They look big, and they drive big. The driver's seating position is relatively high, so there's a commanding view of the road in front of you, but sensing where the edges of the vehicle are takes some getting used to. Backing up or fitting into parking spaces is aided by Chevy's surround-view camera that offers a number of selectable angles for watching the sides and rear of the SUV. You'll be glad it's there pretty much any time you park. 

Along with helpful features for 2025 like the surround view camera, the Suburban and Tahoe also offer a very comprehensive suite of standard driver safety aids. Automatic emergency braking, forward collision warning, lane-keep assist, and lane departure warning are all standard, even on the base LS and LT trims. Adaptive cruise control is standard, too, which should help with long highway journeys.

Available on the upper trim levels is GM's Super Cruise hands-free driving system, which allows drivers to set a speed and then let go of the steering wheel. The system sticks to pre-mapped roads (Chevy says there are now over 400,000 miles of mapped highways in the U.S. and Canada) and it will stay active if the driver is attentive. 

Super Cruise is one of the top hands-free systems available today. Lane-centering is excellent, with appropriate-but-conservative following distances maintained even on the systems shortest-gap setting. In heavy traffic zones it can get a bit flustered, and braking for slowing cars in front of you is somewhat heavy handed, but those are minor gripes at best. For me, using Super Cruise on a daily commute or on a long highway road trip represents the opportunity to seriously decrease road fatigue — a benefit that's well worth the cost. 

The interiors of the Suburban and Tahoe twins are spacious and well-suited to family travel. Seats in the first and second row are comfortable and well-padded, with third row seats offering a bit more utilitarian vibe and slightly firmer padding. Access to all three rows is easy and there's still plenty of space for adults in all available seating positions. The second row seats fold down (and back up) with relative ease, making lots of space for large items or giving adults lots of room to climb out of the back. 

The third row seats can be power folded down (and back up) via buttons in the third row, and USB ports are available from front to back, keeping all the family's devices properly charged.

Regardless of trim, the Suburban and Tahoe both have interiors that are well laid out, with lots of storage cubbies for small items. Top trims like the Premier and High Country sprinkle top-notch materials throughout the cabin, but even the most expensive Suburban can't hide its utilitarian family lineage when you see buttons and controls that are shared with the Silverado 1500 pickup. Not a dealbreaker, no, but a mild drawback worth noting.

All three available engines for the 2025 Tahoe and Suburban have the same impressive towing capacities carried over from last year's models, whether it's a boat you're taking to the lake or a utility trailer attached, with maximum towing capacity achieved with the standard 5.3-liter V8.

When equipped with the 5.3-liter V8 and paired with rear-wheel drive, the Tahoe can tow as much as 8,400 pounds, or 8,200 with four-wheel drive. The 6.2-liter V8 and the 3.0-liter diesel drop down to 8,200 pounds of towing capability with rear-wheel drive, and down to 8,100 pounds and 8,000 pounds with four-wheel drive, respectively. 

The Suburban, since it's longer and a bit heavier, can tow slightly less than the Tahoe – about 200 pounds less, depending on trim level and engine. Maximum payload is a similar story, with both SUVs offering a lot of capability. The Tahoe is capable of holding as much as 1,834 pounds and the Suburban maxes out at 1,759 pounds.

There are several strong competitors in the full-size SUV class that warrant serious consideration. Cargo capacity is an area where the Suburban leads almost all its rivals, offering 144.5 cubic feet of storage with both rear rows folded. The Grand Wagoneer L offers 130 cubes, and the Ford Expedition Max maxes out at 123.1 cubes of storage. 

Competitor three-row SUVs from Jeep, Ford, and Toyota, however, offer bigger numbers in the towing department. The Jeep Wagoneer can tow a maximum of 10,000 pounds for example, while rivals like the Toyota Sequoia and Ford Expedition can pull as much 9,250 pounds and 9,600 pounds, respectively. The Expedition also offers impressive screens and interior tech worth taking for a test run. Chevy also has to keep a close eye on its top trim levels to make sure they don't overlap too much with luxury GM cousins like the GMC Yukon and Cadillac Escalade, both of which are plenty capable on their own and offer more luxurious takes on the Silverado-based SUV experience. 

The 2025 Chevrolet Suburban and Tahoe are undoubtedly improved. With upscale interiors, an impressive list of high-tech features and options, and respectable capabilities when it comes to towing and hauling, they're both more appealing than ever. Rivals like the Wagoneer and Expedition are refined and highly capable and, as such, they deserve a closer look, but the Chevy twins are still two top choices in the class.