This large SUV handles like a smaller vehicle and is packed with safety features.

By Keith Griffin

OK, so it’s impossible to drive a Chevrolet Suburban without feeling like you’re a special agent protecting a high-ranking government official. Or, if you live in West Hartford, you feel like a soccer parent.

It would be great to be a soccer player riding in a Suburban. This full-size SUV comfortably accommodates seven people and can be configured to seat up to nine. Two sets of adults can occupy the first and second rows while the third is best left for those 5’5” and shorter.

The 2024 Suburban is big at 225 inches long. Yet, it manages to be fairly nimble when it comes to driving. It presented no real issues when maneuvering parking spaces (except for my spatial challenges!) This is a big SUV yet it handles more like a midsize vehicle. It has none of the float like that experienced on the Jeep Grand Wagoneer driven a few months back.

A vehicle this big needs big safety features and the Suburban doesn’t disappoint. Chevy Safety Assist is standard. It includes automatic emergency braking, forward collision alert, lane keep assist with lane departure warning, following distance indicator, front pedestrian braking, and IntelliBeam auto high beams. Consider the two most important to be automatic emergency braking and forward collision alert because the Suburban needs a lot of distance to come to a stop.

This may sound counterintuitive but the Suburan succeeds best for its simple interior. Too often, high-end vehicles like this SUV (which has a starting price of $79,900 in the high country trim model loaned to us by Chevrolet) want to design up to the price. It’s a mistake that leads to complicated layouts and distracting features.

The interior controls are knobs and push buttons that just feel easy to use. (Don’t worry, though, the Suburban reminds you on the dashboard that you’re driving the top-of-the-line trim with a short video.) OK, there is one interior flaw but it’s not a design issue: it’s the transmission shifter. It’s a button gear selector, mounted on the dashboard that requires you to pull the D (for drive) and R (for reverse) buttons but push the P (for park) and N (for neutral) buttons. Even after five days behind the wheel, it was not intuitive. Shifting should be thoughtless.

One feature I don’t recall seeing before (and it can only be accomplished on huge doors) is the triple decker driverside door. The top level holds the window controls, the second space for small items, and the bottom for water bottles and items you want to tuck away.

The Suburban High Country trim level comes with surround-view camera system and the rearview mirror camera system, and also offers a head-up display, is packed with features available as optional items on lower trim levels including a heated steering wheel, ventilated front seats, heated second-row captain’s chairs, a power-folding third row, a 10-speaker stereo, blind-spot monitoring, and rear cross-traffic alert.

The model reviewed had the 3.0-liter turbodiesel inline-six. It was slow off the line but cruised along well. It’s also the most fuel-efficient Suburban with an EPA rating of 21 mpg in the city and 27 mpg on the highway.

The 2024 Chevrolet Suburban checks all the boxes for full-size SUVs – as long as you don’t mind looking like a government agent or soccer parent.

THE FACTS

MAKE: Chevrolet

MODEL: Suburban High Country

ENGINE: 3.0-liter turbodiesel inline-six

HORSEPOWER: 277 horsepower

TORQUE: 460 lb.-ft. of torque

FUEL ECONOMY: 21 mpg city/27 mpg highway

PRICE: $79,900 (base)

COMPETITORS: Lincoln Navigator, Cadillac Escalade, Lexus TX

Longtime West Hartford resident Keith Griffin is a veteran auto journalist whose work has been published in U.S. News & World Report, The Boston Globe and online for various New York Times companies. He is a past president of the New England Motor Press Association.

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