Loyal readers know me as someone who rejected the SUV religion almost as early and often as I rejected Faucism (saliva-soaked cloth face rags, lockdowns except for liquor and marijuana stores, and school closure as a way of slowing down SARS-CoV-2). Today I have a shameful admission to make… I’m almost in love with the Chevrolet Tahoe.
Our affair began at the Kissimmee, Florida airport. I dropped off the 20-year-old Cirrus SR20 so that it could get a new parachute and rocket at the factory-owned service center there (see Parachute and rocket replacement option for Cirrus owners who love Disney and Harry Potter). I reserved a “car” from Enterprise for the trip back to Stuart, Florida and was dismayed when they gave me what looked like two huge bricks:
By the time I was done with the two-hour trip, though, I marveled at the isolation from road noise. It seemed even quieter than our beloved 2021 Honda Odyssey (not to be confused with the 2025 Honda Odyssey that, thanks to continuous reinvestment and diligent engineering work, is exactly the same as our car). On smooth pavement, the noise level might be similar, but Florida highways have a tremendous amount of texture in the concrete. This is presumably to prevent hydroplaning during the Biblical rains that are common here. The interior noise level of almost every car that I’ve been in goes up dramatically when entering an interstate highway or turnpike from an untextured ramp. Not the Tahoe’s.
The car also drove well and the software design seems slightly better overall than for the typical Japanese car and dramatically better than for the typical European car.
Readers: Who else loves this absurdly oversized/overweight GM vehicle?
(One answer: a neighbor here in Abacoa! Below is a photo of the monster Tahoe in front of an efficiently sized minivan (visitor to the neighborhood? We’re one of the few families that has resisted the SUV craze).)
In other news, “Tested: 2025 Honda Odyssey Still Carries the VTEC Torch” (Car and Driver, December 18, 2024):
The Odyssey is also extraordinarily quiet at speed, which is especially impressive with this much frontal area. We measured 66 decibels at a steady 70-mph cruise, which not only bests all the other minivans—including the ID. Buzz by a wide, four-decibel margin—but also beats some luxury juggernauts, such as the Mercedes-Benz E-class. While the Odyssey is the quietest minivan, put your foot down and it becomes the loudest, with 80 decibels of VTEC fury at wide-open throttle.
The Car and Driver numbers are consistent with what I was able to measure in Maskachusetts, but I’m pretty sure that they’re a lot lower than what we experience when we take the Odyssey out on the textured Florida highways. The Tahoe tested at the same 66 dBA back in 2021, but I think it does a better job of keeping that 66 dBA when the road surface isn’t smooth.
Maybe we could find the perfect tire for the Odyssey and that would help? Car and Driver tested purported noise-killing tires back in 2016 and the results were weak:
If the effect appears small by our sound-meter measurements, it seemed even smaller when measured with our eardrums. We struggled to discern any significant improvement, although it probably didn’t help that our back-to-back drives were separated by a half-hour tire swap.
Continental confusingly claims a 9 dBA reduction in noise, but only at certain frequencies. I thought that the whole point of A weighting was to give a summary that matches human perception. Their ContiSilent tires aren’t available in sizes to fit the Odyssey, unfortunately.
Is it time to get a new vehicle? Our Odyssey is getting a little shabby after 4 years, but it is tough to summon the energy to push through all of the dealer paperwork in order to trade it for a minivan that is identical in all significant respects. It probably wouldn’t be a huge financial hit to buy the new minivan because our existing minivan will start depreciating like a rock soon enough. I don’t feel sufficiently high and mighty to switch allegiance to the Tahoe. Readers: Have you noticed any other car that is especially quiet over textured concrete?
Love driving huge GM suvs and pick-up trucks., their conveniences, software, transmissions and engines. Not crazy about repairing union work mishaps (easy, sometimes all is that needed is a wrench for tightening) electronics and wheels.
Wouldn’t a very soft tire help with the noise at the expense of longevity (the tires’, but maybe their loss is your gain).
The EPA has forced stringent mpg requirements on auto makers. This resulted in new engines with new, more complex designs (that don’t actually get better mpg in real-world driving), which proving to be unreliable. New engines are failing at 0-50k miles, including Chevy, Ford, Ram, even Toyota (lots full of unsold 2024 trucks)?
For Chevy’s, its 5.3 and 6.2 V8 engines are both grenade’ing due to lifters designed to allow cylinder de-activation. Here’s some examples: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=chevy+lifter+engine+problems
The people who are serious about measuring interior noise use much more sophisticated psycho-acoustic loudness models today. A-weighting is actually just the inverse of the equal loudness curve of human hearing. E.G. How high does the sound pressure level of a tone need to be at different frequencies to be perceived as equal loudness by an average human listener.
At the very least, I would prefer to see interior noise ratings as Zwicker loudness in Phons.
A-weighting is only correct for a tone at 40 dBSPL at 1 kHz. It is not the correct weighting function at different sound pressure levels.
Though commonly used this way, an A-weighted sound pressure level is not an appropriate characterization of how a human will perceive the loudness of a non-sinusoidal signal. E.G. Most people “hear” steady state sine waves to be much louder than noise even if they have the same sound pressure level.
Loudness is no indicator of how people will emotionally evaluate a signal.
Finally, almost all measurements of loudness assume a steady state signal. There are many biases in human hearing and one of the big ones is that our perception of loudness is time variant and adaptive.
Odysseys tend to have really crappy OEM tires. Check what Chevy had and what your van has got.
Anon, I drove GM pick-up for 150,000 miles with cylinder – deactivated engine. The engine was never a problem and mileage improvements were real, around 20 mpg on a long trip with quarter of ton of cargo on the bed.
Last year, I rented a mid-size SUV for a 1000-mile round trip from central FL to Columbia, SC. Instead of the mid-size SUV, Budget gave me the monster-sized Chevy Suburban. I almost walked back into the rental office to demand a more reasonable-sized vehicle. After I got the truck out of the parking lot and onto the highway, I quickly settled in and realized I really liked it. Rode well; felt safe; and nice open vision. On the way home, I stopped in a rest area, folded down flat the 2nd and 3rd rows and stretched out fully for a quick, comfortable nap. If I ever drive back to MA for a visit, I wouldn’t hesitate to rent the same vehicle.
I have taken the liberty to build a GMC Denali which a man of your stature surely deserves. Figuring you were not going to go off roading, I selected the 2WD drive option and made sure to include the Super Cruise feature. Where applicable and without impact to the technology package I added additional options so you can “Keep up in Albacoa!” The link is here and comes in at a paltry sum of $94,440. Unlike Tesla, I won’t get a referral bonus, but share for general “paying it forward”. Enjoy!
https://www.gmc.com/byo-vc/tiny/dCFXOfiirJS2
On another note, tragically I am enthralled with all of the “way beyond the size” I need SUV lineup from GM. For a while my “Dream” car was the outrageous Cadillac Escalade, but then I stumbled into the engine “issue” that is quietly plaguing that line up. The “X” post is enclosed below.
I “believe” the higher you you move in the lineup the better the car gets. If you enjoyed the Tahoe, then surely if you “Step” up to the GMC Yukon series you will be a convert.
With the current “Biden-flation” still with us, (I know hard to believe President Trump has not fixed that by today) you may want to wait to see how the car lineup shakes out.
Regardless, if you do go down the GM lineup, please get one with the SuperCruise feature and let us know how it is against the other Tesla FSD posts.
JJD – Gas guzzler….
KyleMatthewsCEO
@kylematthewsceo
Don’t purchase a
@Cadillac
Escalade.
We purchased one for our family car (4 kids) in 2022, brand new. MSRP $100k+.
Was driving over a month ago and the engine seized!!! Didn’t even know that could happen to a new engine. Total loss.
It has now been at dealership in Santa Fe, NM for 5 weeks with zero progress made, and Cadillac has not committed to paying for a comparable replacement rental car.
The customer service has been awful. Corporate has little to no communication with the dealership, and as of today I have no idea when I will get my car back, and how much out of pocket I will be.
Our voicemails to the dealer almost always go unreturned, and if they do they say they are waiting on a part that’s back ordered and cannot give a timeline on when they will receive it let alone when they will start the repair.
The same thing just happened to a friend of my wife’s. Driving in the highway, newer model, engine seized, and it took months to get it back with a new engine. The “X” post on this topic is enclosed below.
I believe there is a class action lawsuit against
@GMC
and Cadillac because of this issue.
Just an overall terrible experience and one I wanted to share to save someone else who might be considering purchasing this type of vehicle.