2018 Chevy Tahoe Custom: The Ultimate Tow Vehicle
Here’s a full-size Chevy SUV that’ll leave you with enough money to work on your project Camaro.
There I am ripping across the desert floor in the Polaris RZR XP Turbo Dynamix Edition. My foot is suffocating the throttle pedal as I traverse ill-complected desert vastness. I’d be lucky to hit 25 mph in a Z71-spec Chevy truck, but in this two-seat, turbo side-by-side, I’m climbing past 65 mph.
The rear tires are clamoring for every ounce of traction as the suspension jiggles over the uneven, arid terrain. Polaris’ RZR is being a great sport, but as I climb past 70 mph, the UTV’s drift angle increases from seven to 12 degrees. At this point, I encounter a fascinating area of my bravery’s bandwidth. I can continue caning this $25,999 UTV and eke out a few more degrees of drift angle, but doing so increases the likelihood of three things: flipping, followed by pain and embarrassment.
But that’s what’s beautiful about exploring the limits of the 168-horsepower, 1,500-pound RZR side-by-side. Between those seven and 12 degrees of opposite-lock, you must conjure all your driving skill to hit the thrilling spot between being within degrees of death, and actually risking an all-expense-paid voyage through the pearly gates. The Polaris RZR XP Turbo is one of the planet’s few legal permission slips that can plop you close enough to the Grim Reaper that you can feel the moistness of his breath. However, only when you’re within his scythe’s striking distance can you truly feel alive.
What does this all have to do with the 2018 Chevy Tahoe Custom? It boils down to money, really. Nowadays, three hiccups can send a Tahoe slingshotting north of $70,000. Really, all you have to do is click three option boxes on the Chevrolet Tahoe configurator to see “$70,610” and get your eyes to escape their sockets.
One of the great things about 2018 is that with $44,995 in your bank account,
it’s impossible to buy a new Tahoe that will embarrass your kids.
In spite of that Corvette-level priciness, Tahoes are zooming off dealer lots. Get a load of these statistics. For every two full-size SUVs sold in the United States, one is a Chevy Tahoe. Moreover, four out of five full-size SUVs sold in America is a GM product (Chevy Tahoe, Suburban; GMC Yukon, Yukon XL). As you can see, high prices aren’t enough to make folks scram out of showrooms. Automotive News has data to back this up. As of October of last year, the year-to-date average transaction price of full-size GM SUVs was $59,100.
So if people are spending so much on big GM offroaders, why is Chevrolet introducing a $44,995 Tahoe? Because there are loads of people out there who want affordable, well-equipped, full-size SUVs. Until 2017, you had to fork over $48,510 to get a base Tahoe LS. Yes, it came equipped with niceties like a 355-horsepower, 5.3L V8; Chevrolet MyLink audio with eight-inch touchscreen; SiriusXM satellite radio; OnStar with 4G LTE and a built-in Wi-Fi hotspot, but still, you were paying close to $50,000 for a stripper Chevy Tahoe.
And that’s where the Tahoe Custom arrives to save the day. The 2018 Tahoe’s new base trim level undercuts last year’s starting price by $3,515, yet it still comes well-equipped, offering all of the LS’s standard features, plus 18-inch painted aluminum wheels and a chrome grille … because who wants downtrodden steelies and black plastic exterior bits to tell the world they’re driving the base model? But you have to give up something to arrive at that lower price, right? Actually, you only have to sacrifice one thing: the third-row seat … that’s it. While that’s unfortunate news for people who need three rows, it’s great for buyers who need extra cargo space.
Thankfully the Tahoe Custom’s interior loses nothing more than the third row of seats. Eschewing a penalty box ambiance, the cabin’s look and feel is commensurate of a mid-$40,000 vehicle. No Chevy Silverado work truck interior here. The Tahoe Custom offers a quiet and comfortable driving experience. Poke around a little further, though, and you’ll notice the scratchy seat upholstery. It looks OK at first glance, but as soon as your skin slides across it, you’ll be reminded of a sub-$15,000 subcompact.
Scratchiness aside, the complete Tahoe Custom package is a stark contrast to how things were when I was a kid growing up in the ’90s. Back in the day, if you wanted to save your hard-earned cash on a full-size GM SUV, you were forced to stomach the bitterness of roll-up windows and manual door locks. Twenty years ago, full-size, stripper SUVs were nothing more than farm trucks with integrated camper shells.
Fully equipped, $70,000-plus Tahoes are terrific, but what’s even better is saving $25,000, buying a base Tahoe, and then spending that savings on your project Camaro.
When I was in the seventh grade, I remember kids would poke fun at one of my friends because her parents drove a stripper Suburban. I felt kind of bad for her, but peer pressure meant I had to laugh along with the chiding. If that girl were growing up today, and her folks had bought one of these, she’d be envied. One of the great things about 2018 is that with $44,995 in your bank account, it’s impossible to buy a new Tahoe that will embarrass your kids.
Luckily for kids keeping up appearances, their prospective SUV-buying parents are also image-conscious. The good news for those SUV-buyers is that the 2018 Chevy Tahoe Custom passes the “head-turner” test. With two Polaris RZR UTVs in tow, this SUV will still turn heads on the Las Vegas strip. As I was driving underneath one of Las Vegas’ innumerable pedestrian overpasses, I spotted a guy enviously locking eyes on my RZR-saddled sport-utility. That bit of head turning made me feel wealthy even though I was driving the “cheap” Tahoe. Even better, it made me feel smart because if I were shopping for a Chevrolet Tahoe, this is the one I’d buy, and not necessarily to save money, either.
Fully equipped, $70,000-plus Tahoes are terrific, but what’s even better is saving $25,000, buying a base, but still well-equipped Tahoe Custom, and then spending that savings on a RZR so you can practice inching your way as close as possible to death in order to feel the most alive. If that doesn’t appeal to you, imagine how far $25,000 could propel you toward perfecting that fourth-gen Camaro project you’ve been working on. When you think of it that way, it turns out the most economy-minded Tahoe is actually the nicest one the smart money can buy.
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