Rental Review - 2017 Yukon XL

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Oct 27, 2006
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281
Location
Illinois
Received a 2017 Yukon XL from Hertz over the weekend, reserved a full size sedan and they had this to give me. It was a silver SLT model with 27,000 miles. This was a massive vehicle, the size was intimidating at first. The outside design was nice, definitely looks best from the front. The interior is what really surprised me. Full black leather and it was loaded. The drivers seat was extremely comfortable and I really liked the dash. There were physical gauges for most functions and the touch screen was really nice. Also appreciated was blind spot monitoring and lane keep assist. The one unique thing was a column shifter when most are going to knobs or buttons, was nice to see a good old fashioned column shifter still in use! The stereo sounded great and the Apple CarPlay integration was fantastic, worked perfectly.

Driving impressions were great, it felt a lot smaller than it really was and was very easy to drive. Wind/road noise was at a minimum, the ride was absolutely incredible very smooth and compliant. If I had to have any gripe about the way it drove it would be the 8 speed transmission, on light throttle acceleration it seemed to almost hesitate before going. Give it a little gas and it would go with no hesitation. On the highway at 75mph there weren't too many times the cylinder deactivation would kick in, and to be honest if it weren't for the dash indicator I would have never known it was there it was so smooth. Cargo room and a power folding third row was great as we had a lot of stuff to bring home. I was never without plenty of power on hand, there were a couple times when I needed to get 3 lanes over to get to a left hand exit around St Louis and this vehicle has no problem at all speeding up to get over....very impressive and when you can actually hear the engine in the otherwise quiet cabin it has a great sound to it!

After 443 mostly highway miles, this vehicle returned an extremely respectable 22.5mpg average....not far off from my Honda Odyssey! This was a difficult vehicle to return, I really enjoyed driving it, the ride was great and the versatility....the only thing keeping me from buying one would be the price. I would presume this vehicle new would be in the $60,000 range and close to 50K on the used market.
 
I've always loved those big GM SUVs.

Thanks for the review
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As much as I hate the complexity of todays vehicles over all most are so impressive.
 
Even the old ones that have been maintained are impressive vehicles for long trips with the comfort, ride and cargo space. The older ones have poorer gas mileage though.
 
It's my opinion that 1995+ Suburbans (aka Yukon XL) are truly the best vehicles on the road, and it's good to hear the new ones (while very expensive) are still fantastic.
 
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I had a 2017 Suburban Premier last month from Enterprise (for only $40/day with my corporate rate!!!), and I priced it out on Chevy's website. $78,260... for a Chevy that's not a Corvette or ZL1! I have always liked the Tahoes; Suburbans just are monstrous but very manageable if you have any skill whatsoever. However... I could never justify spending that kind of money on an SUV (at least with my current salary
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) As much as I like the Tahoe/Suburban, I wish you could get them with the larger engines. It's quite a downer that Chevy restricts it to the 5.3 in all iterations- the 5.3 was never really "underpowered" but why pass on the 6.2 when there's no reason you shouldn't be able to get it in a Suburban??
 
Originally Posted By: SubieRubyRoo
I had a 2017 Suburban Premier last month from Enterprise (for only $40/day with my corporate rate!!!), and I priced it out on Chevy's website. $78,260... for a Chevy that's not a Corvette or ZL1! I have always liked the Tahoes; Suburbans just are monstrous but very manageable if you have any skill whatsoever. However... I could never justify spending that kind of money on an SUV (at least with my current salary
smile.gif
) As much as I like the Tahoe/Suburban, I wish you could get them with the larger engines. It's quite a downer that Chevy restricts it to the 5.3 in all iterations- the 5.3 was never really "underpowered" but why pass on the 6.2 when there's no reason you shouldn't be able to get it in a Suburban??


I believe the 6.2 is available in the highest trim levels like Denali
 
I haven't driven a new one but had several GMT900 and GMT800 as rentals over the years and they always impressed me. Comfortable, decently powerful, nice looking, handle well and good MPG too.
 
The Enterprise location near me said as soon as Yukon's,Suburban's and Tahoe's come back to the location after a rental run they go right back out immediately. Most have 40K miles on them in less then a year.
 
I think they stick with the column shifter to keep that center console massive for storage and still mount a subwoofer underneath
 
Originally Posted By: Blueskies123
The recent quality on those vehicles has tanked.


Really? I rent them from time to time, and I agree with the OP. They are excellent. They drive quite well. Especially when we consider the crude live rear axle suspension and old school drivetrain, and GASP, pushrods inside the engine. The only thing missing, leaf springs....
 
My son's 02 Yukon has torsion bars up front and coils in the rear. Just hauled the Family of five up to North Carolina and back without a hiccup at just shy of 200k miles.

Runs like a dream, the interior is getting worn but with three kids he isn't worried about that. But no oil consumption and a great family vehicle for sure...
 
We had a 2004 Yukon AWD … many family trips and many of those down to the sandy beaches …
117k trouble free miles and traded in for a car …
 
Originally Posted By: SubieRubyRoo
I had a 2017 Suburban Premier last month from Enterprise (for only $40/day with my corporate rate!!!), and I priced it out on Chevy's website. $78,260...


You can get a pre-owned rental unit for about $40k. A year old and hasn't been abused since most of the people that rent these aren't hot rodding them at all.

2016 Yukon

 
Yep … last time I rented a large SUV (Ford in that case) there were four of us attending a seminar … only thing running fast was Chad’s mouth
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Originally Posted By: Balrog006

I believe the 6.2 is available in the highest trim levels like Denali


It absolutely is... but a Denali is not a Suburban. This is one area where GMC maintains the upper hand even though they are kissing cousins.
 
Originally Posted By: SteveSRT8
My son's 02 Yukon has torsion bars up front and coils in the rear. Just hauled the Family of five up to North Carolina and back without a hiccup at just shy of 200k miles.

Runs like a dream, the interior is getting worn but with three kids he isn't worried about that. But no oil consumption and a great family vehicle for sure...


Not surprised it's purring like a kitten with basic maintenance.
 
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