Happy new year! I hope 1998 was good to you and that you kept at least a couple of those resolutions you made last January.
What's that? You say '98 isn't even half over yet? Well then how come I've been driving a 1999 Chevrolet Tahoe this past week? Oops, I forgot. There's the regular calendar and then there's the Detroit calendar - sort of a mega-version of daylight savings time.Well, if Chevy says their Tahoe is a '99 model, who am I to argue, even if the only thing new about it are the "next generation" airbags and three new colors: Medium charcoal gray metallic, sunset gold metallic and meadow green metallic. Who dreams up these names anyway?
Normally, with so little changed, I wouldn't waste your time reviewing the new Tahoe, since we last gave it the once-over in May 1997.
But this Tahoe has one big difference over last year's tester, so I thought it might be worth our while to take a look. Here it is: It's got two-wheel drive.
Wait! Wait! Don't stop reading. Hear me out. I know that a sport utility vehicle without four-wheel-drive is like a Cadillac without whitewalls and opera windows but if you can just get past that one thing there are compensations.
Compensation 1: You save about $2,000 on the price of the 4WD option.
Compensation 2: The towing capacity of the 2WD model is actually higher than the 4WD (assuming the same engine in both ve-hi-cles).
Compensation 3: The 2WD model handles and steers better than the 4WD model.
Compensation 4: The vehicle is lighter and gets a bit better fuel mileage and there are fewer components to break and/or need service.
Convinced? No? Well, I tried. But I still don't think you'll ever get stuck in the 2WD Tahoe unless you intend to venture into some serious boondocks, and it's been well established that hardly anyone does.
That means it comes down to marketing, image, all that "Like A Rock" stuff. Which is what it usually comes down to. Two-wheel drive works just fine for almost any terrain a reasonable person would take on.
My brother once had a 2WD Chevy Suburban, Tahoe's older and larger sibling, and we took that big beast into places that required me to get out and hack a path with a machete.
So what do you think? Are you convinced that you don't need to power all four wheels? No? All right, fine. Go ahead and order the 4WD. But remember, your friends and neighbors probably won't know the difference, especially if you can find a 4WD decal someplace to stick on the two-wheeler's tailgate.
As noted, this year's Tahoe is less expensive than last year's, thanks to the 2WD. Base price is a theoretical $29,700, but don't expect to find one for that price. My test car was probably average in having nearly $5,000 worth of options (including destination charge).
Most of those came in two packages, the preferred equipment group 1SC (leather seats, AC, sound system and such) and the comfort and security group, which included heated seats, rear AC, homelink transmitter (gate and garage door openers), heavy duty trailering package and some other items.
The bottom line was $33,553.
Fuel mileage is rated at 14 mpg in city driving and 18 on the highway. That's one mile per gallon better than the four-wheeler but pretty poor by today's automobile standards. Still, it's about on par with its humongous SUV competitors, the Ford Expedition, Lincoln Navigator, Toyota Land Cruiser and a few others.