2025 Chevrolet Tahoe First Test: Last V-8 Standing

• Chevrolet

Nearly all of the Tahoe’s 3-row full-size SUV competitors have turned to twin-turbo sixes. Should the V-8 endure?

2025 Chevrolet Tahoe First Test: Last V-8 Standing

Pros

1. Fantastic soundtrack and low-end power
2. Magnetic ride suspension quells big-rim maladies
3. Strong towing performance

Cons

1. Ungainly size
2. Still rides like a truck
3. V-8 is slower and thirstier than newer-tech powerplants

You’re looking at an endangered species: Chevrolet’s hulking Tahoe, freshly refreshed for the 2025 model year, is the last full-size SUV you can buy with a V-8 engine. (Provided we use GM’s standard marketing disclaimer, “Excludes vehicles from other General Motors divisions,” as the GMC Yukon is the same basic truck.) How did this happen? Competing SUVs from Ford, Jeep, Toyota, Nissan, and even Lincoln now use turbocharged six-cylinder engines. Yeah, we saw it coming, but it’s still kind of surprising.

The SUV of Future Past, or Past Future, or What?

Honestly, with two V-8s and a diesel, and nary a hybrid or twin-turbo V-6 to be found, the Tahoe does feel like it has one tire planted firmly in the 1990s. But the sharp, new-for-2025 styling, 10-speed automatic transmission, 24-inch wheels, and newly refined independent suspension (with optional air springs on our test truck) put at least one of its wheels in the here and now. Philosophy aside, the big 6.2-liter V-8 in this top-of-the-line High Country model always puts a grin on our faces no matter what vehicle it’s mounted in, so we hot-footed it out to the test track to see what the refreshed Tahoe could do.

By now, Chevy fans should know the facts and figures on this engine by rote: 420 hp, 460 lb-ft, 16 overhead valves, and a single camshaft in the valley of the block, just where god decreed it should be located back in 1954. While you can still get all Tahoes save the Z71 model with rear-wheel drive, our test SUV had four-wheel drive with an automatic setting, although its two-speed transfer case was (and is) an extra-cost option.

035 2025 Chevrolet Tahoe High Country engine

Let’s See Some Numbers

How fast did she go? The new Tahoe hit 60 in 6.3 seconds and ran the quarter mile in 14.8 seconds at 93.7 mph. For those keeping track, these are 0.4 and 0.5 second slower than the last Tahoe we tested, a ’23 almost-cop-spec Tahoe RST, which is pretty much what we’d expect given the RST’s 13 extra horsepower and 250-pound lighter weight. More important, it’s a full second slower than the last twin-turbo-V-6-powered Expedition we tested, 0.9 second slower than our long-term Jeep Wagoneer (with the 420-hp Hurricane I-6; a long-wheelbase Grand Wagoneer with the 510-hp version was 1.3 sec quicker than the Tahoe), and 0.7 second slower than the six-cylinder Toyota Sequoia. We haven’t tested Nissan’s new Armada yet, but the mechanically related Infiniti QX80 V-6 was half a second slower than the Tahoe, so the Chevy might not come dead last in a family-hauler drag race.

What these other giants lacked, though, was big-V-8 drama, which makes the Tahoe feel a lot quicker than it is. And we’re not just talking about the soundtrack. On the starting line, the brakes could barely contain the engine: With feet firmly on both pedals, the Tahoe built up so much torque that it kept inching ahead, as if fighting the forces that were holding it back. That’s unusual (and amusing) behavior for a torque-converter automatic, at least in a showroom-stock vehicle.

Speaking of brakes, you’re going to want those in a three-ton SUV. Behind the High Country’s big 24-inch wheels, the rotors looked so small they could have had Jefferson’s head embossed on the front and Montecello on the back. Still, they did a fine job, pulling the Tahoe down from 60 mph in a tidy and largely drama-free 116 feet. Pedal travel and feel are good, and the braking distances were consistent, although after repeated (moderate) stops from our 100-mph-plus acceleration runs, we got a dash warning to reduce brake use lest the binders overheat. We didn’t feel any sensation of hot brakes in the pedal, so perhaps the warnings come very early, but we complied with the request rather than seeing how long it took to boil the fluid.

007 2025 Chevrolet Tahoe High Country side view

Fighting Big Brother—and Losing

Running the Tahoe through our figure-eight handling course proved frustrating, and not just because of the relatively slow steering. Lights on the dashboard indicate that traction and stability control were turned off, but ESC seemed to reactivate once we passed a predetermined (relatively low) speed. We found we could get the tires howling exactly for the count of “one Mississippi” before Big Electronic Brother yanked the needle off the record. Storming into the turns triggered his ire, so we tried sneaking up on him, turning in well below the tires’ limits and using that big V-8 to accelerate to max cornering speed. No dice; turns out that approach wakes him up, as well, and once he cuts the power, it’s not coming back until the steering wheel returns to the straight-ahead position. 

Now, we can understand the engineers being dynamically conservative in a three-ton vehicle with a high center of gravity, but we felt like there was plenty of grip being left on the table and that with more aggressive programming the Tahoe could have made it around the course faster than 29.4 seconds without capsizing. All of the aforementioned SUVs were quicker around the figure-eight, and all demonstrated more than the Tahoe’s 0.70g of lateral skidpad grip.

Yeah, yeah, we know—few buyers of super-size SUVs are buying these things to careen around the racetrack. It makes sense to tune the Tahoe for predictable behavior in worst-case, panic-swerve scenarios, rather than to please juvenile delinquents like us. Fair enough. So, let's answer a more reasonable question: What’s the Tahoe like in the real world?

012 2025 Chevrolet Tahoe High Country front view

Presence Is the Name of the Game

Answer: Pretty darn nice. While the Babylonian-tech V-8 can’t match the acceleration of the more modern twin-turbo V-6s—let alone their EPA fuel economy, and remember that at this level of thirst, a gain of one measly mpg is a 6 percent increase, which is better than the raise most of us got last year—it sure is a nice way to go down the road. The 10-speed automatic seems tuned to show off the V-8’s low-end torque, and the Tahoe always felt like it had guts to spare. 

One of our complaints about the 2021–2024 Tahoe was the truck like ride quality of the independent suspension. As mentioned earlier, our High Country had air springs, as well as standard-fit magnetic ride shocks, which use a fluid that thickens in response to an electromagnet to provide as-good-as-instantaneous changes in damping. Big, heavy 24-inch wheels, with their attendant low-profile tires, present a lot of ride-quality problems, and Magnetic Ride does seem to minimize ill effects, even on the surface-of-the-moon roads of Detroit. Still, this is a big body-on-frame vehicle, and it still rides like a truck, albeit a more comfortable truck than last year. Our best advice, as we determined in our First Drive, is to avoid the temptation to be a slave to fashion and opt for a smaller wheel on your Tahoe. Your kids’ friends may not think you’re as baller, but your spine will thank you.

The Tahoe never lets you forget its giant size, and we’ll spare you any argument about how many buyers actually need a vehicle this big; if you don’t need the Tahoe’s 8,400-pound max towing capacity (or its suite of new-for-2025 towing utilities, primarily camera tricks and map enhancements that don’t hold a candle to what Ford offers), you’ll be asking yourself that same question every time you try to squeeze this dirigible into a parking stall and realize there’s no room to open the doors. We won’t complain about the stretch-out space in the back seat, the sophisticated rear-seat entertainment system, or the prodigious cargo room; we’ll leave it unsaid (or not) that many more sensibly sized crossovers offer those same attributes in a package sized for easier day-to-day livability.

027 2025 Chevrolet Tahoe High Country interior

It Costs How Much???

For all it did well, the 2025 Chevrolet Tahoe High Country’s as-tested price—$92,000—did cause us to do a Vaudeville-style spit take. Granted, you’re getting lots of stuff for that price. The basic High Country 4WD model lists for $83,195. The huge wheels cost $2,225, and our Tahoe had a $4,835 Deluxe package with a panoramic sunroof, retractable sidesteps, the air springs, low range for the transfer case, and a towing package including a brake controller. Last on the list was a $2,495 Tech package (discounted on the sticker to $1,745) consisting of the dual-screen rear-seat entertainment system, a power tailgate, and a security package with a “self-powered horn,” whatever the hell that is. [It has its own power supply so it can still act as an alarm if the main battery is cut or goes dead. C’mon, Gold, the internet exists for reasons other than snack research and ordering dress slacks for mules.—Ed.]

There’s no shortage of features for the money, but when we looked around the interior, nicely trimmed as it was, we were reminded that $92,000 in an Audi, BMW, or Mercedes-Benz buys you more luxurious environs. That said, Tahoe buyers, feel free to gloat that the horn in your neighbors’ X7 is not self-powered.

But we’ve diverged from our original point, which is that the V-8 SUV is now a dying breed. Is the Tahoe worse for not swapping a pair of cylinders for a pair of turbochargers? Our performance testing says yes, but everything else in the driving experience says no. The Tahoe’s V-8 may be slower and thirstier, but it’s still plenty quick, and none of its six-cylinder competitors can be accused of sipping fuel like a Prius, besides. We were fans of the Chevrolet Tahoe before, and we remain so now. If Chevrolet stops offering that self-powered horn, though, we might be forced to reconsider.

016 2025 Chevrolet Tahoe High Country rear view