2012 CHEVROLET Tahoe

Some Good, Some Bad

Comfort Rating: 4 Performance Rating: 3 Interior Rating: 3 Reliability Rating: 3 Safety Rating: 4 Technology Rating: 4 Value Rating: 3

This is the fourth Chevy Tahoe we've owned, with the immediate previous one being a 2004 LTZ. I loved most everything about our 2004, but the 2012...well, it's a love-hate relationship. I love the body style, very sharp looking, and very little metal is visible. However that means lots of plastic, which didn't hold up very well at all in a front end collision a year after getting the vehicle. Radiator busted at low speed impact (about 30 mph) and the truck had to be towed away. Luckily it cost us next to nothing to fix it all, since we were found not-at-fault, otherwise that might have been very costly. This particular iteration of the Tahoe is also a dog in first gear compared to our 2004, but it makes up for that by being a far better towing vehicle than the old one. It powers up the mountain passes while towing our trailer with little trouble whereas with the 2004 we were lucky to do more than 35. Within the first two years, the navigation and entertainment console died and had to be replaced, but that was covered under warranty. The factory tires would squeal when making sharp turns, as if they were rubbing against the lip of the wheel well, but that issue disappeared when we replace those tires with a different brand at 35k miles. And the driver's side of the vehicle sits lower to the ground than the passenger side, though we have yet to investigate the reason. The kids love the rear entertainment system. The fuel economy really sucks, even more so than our 2004, particularly since I use it mostly for taking the kids to and from school. It did very well on our 2k mile camping trip a couple summers ago though, both in gas mileage and reliability.