Is $100,000 worth it for a comfortable tow vehicle? | Chevrolet Suburban

The value proposition of the Chevrolet Suburban has traditionally been that of a utilitarian workhorse–a truck for people who needed a little more weather protection for whatever they were hauling, or additional seating for kids who weren’t cool enough to sit in the back of an open pickup like we used to before all our friends died.

In a lot of ways, I guess that’s still the value proposition, but the modern expression of it is way more bougie than the Suburbans of even a decade ago.

I mean, this is not an altogether bad thing–the current 2026 Suburban is feature-rich, highly capable and a great place to sit for long periods of time. But that utility with the added luxury is going to set you back a few bucks. Our test vehicle stickered at $100,800.

We found a few similarly equipped examples at Florida dealerships for slightly below MSRP, but that still meant you were paying more than $90,000 for a new utility vehicle, which is a scary phrase to say out loud.

And I don’t want this to turn into a “cars are too expensive” rant, but six figures at a Chevy dealership feels like it should buy something that holds a Nürburgring lap record.

Anyway, let’s judge the Suburban on its capabilities, not its price, because in a world where the average price of a new car in the U.S. has now topped $50,000, nothing matters anymore and money is just a made-up abstraction that we chase until we die penniless and insane, still trying to play a phonograph record with a peanut.

All snark aside, the capabilities of the Suburban are impressive, although it feels like the factory towing capacity is underrated. Chevy quotes an 8200-pound tow capacity for 6.2-liter-powered 2WD Suburbans, while that number drops to 7900 pounds for 4WD versions like our tester.

After strapping down our Club Spec Mustang to an aluminum trailer–probably 5500 pounds or so of total mass behind the big Chevy–that number feels extremely conservative. With our Mustang behind, the Suburban barely noticed, easily keeping up at highway speeds, passing when necessary, and being simple to work through dense traffic.

This is also a good spot to shout out to GM’s Super Cruise, which, as of this moment, is still the only hands-free driving aid offered by an OEM that’s suitable for towing.

Super Cruise–a $25 monthly add-on to the OnStar functionality–now has more than 600,000 miles of approved North American roads in its database. Super Cruise can take us the 85 miles from our Ormond Beach home to the Florida International Rally & Motorsport Park with just a brief, 20-mile gap near the city of Palatka.

This is even more impressive when you realize that only about 8 miles of that drive is on interstate highways. The rest take place on state roads–and not ones with limited access, either.

Super Cruise can be a bit picky about the driver maintaining attention–the sensors want to see your eyes on the road and not your phone–but it goes a long way toward removing some of the drudgery of boring drives while maintaining a level of engagement that doesn’t make you feel like a helpless passenger.

Sure, it’s probably bad that robots are taking over, but if they want to do the most boring jobs, like towing through rural Florida, who am I to stop them? Not that I could considering their metal hands.

Fuel economy while towing wasn’t as good as we expected. I saw 13 mpg in the Suburban versus 12.5 on the same route with the same load in my 2010 Toyota Tundra, which is a notoriously inefficient vehicle.

The Suburban seemed to deliver better unladen economy than the Tundra, however–21 versus 17 for the Toyota on similar mixed loops–so we were hoping for a little more efficient tow.

Still, even though it goes through gas with a load on the back, it’s doing it while making you comfortable. Trucks and SUVs may have gotten less utilitarian, but for a vehicle that tends to be used for longer periods of time than most cars between towing and road trips, the comfort isn’t exactly unwelcome.

The High Country trim level on our tester also gives you access to some cool features, like remote power rear seat stowing and deployment, which is a nice touch when you’re slipping long or bulky stuff into the ample cargo area.

And maybe that ample needs a capital A, because with the seats stowed, the secure cargo area truly is cavernous. Chevy quotes 144.7 cubic feet of space behind the front seats, and with the second and third rows stowed, that space is flat and square, just ready to swallow whatever bad decision you choose to bring home on a whim.

So yeah, when you drop nearly a hundo on a truck, you get a nice truck. That feels like it should be a fairly automatic proposition, but it’s still refreshing to see value in the marketplace, unattainable as it is for most of us.

GM’s option and spec catalog, however, continues to be a source of frustration. Yes, there are lots of nice options available, but the combination of packages and standalone options, some triggering others automatically, can be tedious to navigate.

Like, we figured out that adding the factory option 24-inch wheel package (not a typo, these are some big baller kicks) seems to automatically add the Advanced Trailering Package, which includes stuff like blind zone assist with trailering, but doesn’t automatically add the Max Trailering Package, which gets you upgraded cooling and stuff like that.

But at that point, Max Trailering becomes a zero-cost option–I think?

Honestly, I couldn’t tell exactly, and then I lost interest in trying to figure it out because this shouldn’t be the kind of thing you have to do deep research on.

Look, the modern version of the Chevy Suburban is expensive. Like, objectively so.

But it returns a lot of utility for that cost, and it lets you access that utility in a high level of comfort with lots of bells and whistles, most of which are useful and add value and function to the package. So, I salute the execution, even if my bank statement says someone else will have to enjoy it.

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