Gilbert’s Garage

For 2021, Suburban adds longer platform, features

Still huge – or huger – the 2021 Suburban is the best one yet. Photos by John Gilbert.

How many times over the past few that has happened this year as normal. months have you clicked on your TV Our normal lifestyle has been totally set for the evening news and seen disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic a caravan of huge, black Chevrolet which is in the process of killing over Suburbans in a convoy to a quarter of a million deliver President Trump and his entourage to GILBERT’S people in the U.S. and sending most of the rest some campaign rally under the guise of official GARAGE of us scurrying for the cover of self-quarantining business? As an auto ourselves and our families. writer, I always look for Restaurants, bars, theaters cars in my television viewing, whether a JOHN and businesses have been shutting down, some for Formula 1 race, or a string of creative commercials GILBERT good, and we can’t even use sports as a normal for the newest creations escape because the teams coming to showrooms are either cancelling near you. But this year, I would games, or seasons, or playing without estimate that there have been more fans. And as if to add another odd on-screen minutes devoted to big, departure, we just had a presidential black Suburbans than all other cars election that had so many twists and combined. turns that if it was only a movie, you

It’s pretty hard to think of anything would quit watching it as being too preposterous.

Reality has been so far-out that nothing should remain unexpected. Next thing you know, I’ll start really liking Suburbans!

For most of my vehicle-testing career I’ve stressed that normal folks should consider what they need in a car or SUV and then buy something using the guide that “anything bigger than big enough is too big.” With that philosophy, I have never had a love affair with a Suburban, or other huge vehicle, with each passing decade. Then I run into people who say they need something huge to haul a housetrailer, or farm equipment, or that they have four (or more) kids and need all the seats. And if you’re getting something huge, you need a huge engine to make it work.

But I must be softening. I just had a 2021 Chevrolet Suburban for a week’s test-drive and evaluation, and, true to the cliche, it came in “black.” With an interior in “jet black.” With Trump, his opponent Joe Biden, and vice president Pence all visiting the Duluth area in this odd campaign season, the presence of Suburbans everywhere has become common. And while I can certainly appreciate the interior room — enough to house or haul a family of six or more — I kept anticipating that the OnStar system might click on at any time and summon me to head for the airport to pick up a roaming politician.

That didn’t happen, which suited us just fine. But in analyzing the Suburban, you have to start with the glossy black exterior and realize that there is something new and more stylish about the 2021 model.

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First, there is a wide-reaching grille of bright chrome horizontal bars that bend around the corners and are well designed to give the car a sporty and luxurious appeal.

The standard big-shot hauling person of the Suburbans over the years takes on a new image with the extra large and flat rear side panels, which take the formal look of its predecessors and makes it extremely formal. It appears Chevrolet designers finally said that the Suburban is big, and will get criticized for being big, but if we want it to be the biggest and baddest family trickster in the neighborhood, why not flaunt it?

On the upper flanks of either side, there is bright chrome lettering that says: “High Country.” The bold silver letters are accompanied by an image depicting a mountain range. Interesting nickname, even if it proves that Suburbans have been around for so long even the executives at General Motors have forgotten that the name has a meaning.

To me, “Suburban” means that area surrounding a big city, mostly filled with residences, but it conjures up the idea of a family hauler and mall-finder — which might be the opposite of what the new nickname suggests. I’ve driven up and over the Continental Divide in the Rocky Mountains, and when you’re up there on those highaltitude roadways, the image you’re seeing in High Country is the exact opposite of Suburban landscape. But nonetheless, here we have a Suburban High Country to occupy our driveways.

The new Suburban and its growthinhibited sibling, the Tahoe, are all new for the 2021 model year, and they are on a new platform that breaks away

from the old truck-oriented body on frame design and is partially unibody. That allows a new suspension, with more sophisticated smoothness assured, and the test truck goes beyond that with the High Country package adding Air-Ride adaptive versatility to the usual magnetic ride control suspension. As big as the previous Suburban is, the new one is lengthened in both overall exterior try-to-park-this exterior, and in wheelbase. The Tahoe is a foot or more shorter, although I haven’t driven one yet to compare agility.

Driving the Suburban is a surprising exercise in agility, though. It corners well and handles smoothly and with flat attitude even in hard turns. And the gigantic 6.2-liter “Ecotec3” V8 has more than enough thrust to propel the huge beast in a manner that makes you think maybe it’s not too big, after all.

The driver’s seat is comfortable and fully adjustable, and gives the driver good command of the cockpit-like instrument pod and keeping you within reach of the center stack and its 10.2-inch screen, which houses the usual rear-vision camera and a new-toSuburban top-down view that shows everything within 360 degrees of your ride. Along with all the imaginative features and connectivity things, you also may need a little time to get used to the gear shifting of the 10-speed automatic transmission.

On the left edge of the center stack there are a series of buttons, and you put your index finger in the one you choose, and pull back to engage reverse, neutral, drive, or low/manual. There is another button with “P” on it to engage park. After decades of training us to use a shifter on the Interior leather and luxury refinement is a large step up.

steering column, then a console shift, we now get a row of what looks like push-buttons, but are actually pullbuttons. The whole interior can be filled with sound from the 10-speaker Bose audio system,

It all works, of course, and guiding it to your daily duties is a snap, with forceful power to accelerate and impressive independent-rear suspension and steering for turns. The second row of two buckets is also comfortable and roomy, and provides 12.6-inch diagonal measure screens hooked onto the rear headrests of the front buckets, with a center console of controls and remotes to spare, for the rear occupants.

The surprise is the third row of seats, which can seat three and comfortably accommodates two adults. The second row flips forward and gets out of your way to enter the third row area, which has remarkable legroom to go with the expanse of headroom. Above, you get the long power-panoramic tilt and slide sunroof, complete with a sunshade — in case you want the sunroof to let in the sunshine, but don’t want too much of it to go unshaded. The second row is heated, and the third is a 60-40 split for folding down to add cargo. The added third-row room and added rear cargo space are what makes the Suburban worth more than the Tahoe.

With a base price of $75,300, you can boost the sticker to the test-vehicle’s $84,045 easily by adding the High Country package, which goes well beyond the standard lane-departure assist, front and rear park assist, collision and pedestrian warning, and adds the assist steps, which we always called running boards, and they each have an imaginative string of LED welcome lights running from front wheel well to rear and offering you a nice greeting every time you approach the Suburban.

The advanced trailering system is another part of High Country, providing your trailer with side blind one alert and gives you a hitch guidance with a video view as well.

The people I came upon while driving around Duluth, Minnesota, and the North Shore had one of two reactions: Boy, is that thing big! compared to, Great truck! And I have to say that while I can’t say I’ve suddenly been persuaded to become a Suburban-lover, I can say that whether you love them, like them, or hate them, this is the best Suburban ever built.