Review Chevrolet Suburban Price

Review Chevrolet Suburban Price

Boxy, useful, and straightforward, the Suburban continues to perform its duties for American families like it has ever since its debut in 1935. With a 355-hp 5.3-liter V-8 and a six-speed automatic transmission, it has enough muscle to tow up to 8300 pounds while the optional four-wheel drive delivers all-road confidence. With seating for up to nine and vast storage space with the rear seats up or down, the Suburban is perfect for large families who need to haul their gear to distant locales.

2015 Chevrolet Suburban 4WD

Now in its 12th generation, Chevrolet’s Suburban has been a constant on the automotive scene since long before marketing lexes such as “SUV” and “crossover” were but a gleam in the eye of an ambitious marketing executive. Competitors have come and gone, but the Suburban has remained on course, offering body-on-frame construction, scads of interior space, and proficient towing skills for families with lots of stuff and the need to move it.

Truck Guts

Based on many of the same mechanical underpinnings as those on the latest Chevrolet Silverado, the Suburban hierarchy consists of three levels: LS, LT, and LTZ, and four-wheel drive is a $3000 option across the board. A fully boxed frame serves as a stout foundation for upgraded body mounts, aluminum front control arms, and a relocated rear axle with a slightly wider rear track. GM’s new direct-injected, gen-five 5.3-liter V-8 provides 355 horsepower and 383 lb-ft of torque, an increase of 35 horsepower and 48 lb-ft over the outgoing Suburban’s port-injected 5.3-liter V-8. The V-8 backs up to a six-speed automatic transmission and is the only powertrain combo available. Standard on 4WD Suburbans is Autotrac 4WD with a single-speed transfer case.

On the outside, the newly invigorated fascia gets the swept-back, wraparound-headlamp look similar to that of the 2015 Chevrolet Tahoe, the treatment giving way to slab-sided minimalism in its slightly creased profile. It’s an honest look, one that impresses without trying too hard. In basic black as was our LTZ test truck, it has the same understated look of power displayed by the convoy of Suburbans that accompany the nation’s president when he’s on the move. Unfortunately, the optional power running boards ($1750) retract automatically when the doors are closed, which prevented us from getting our junior G-man moves on.

Room to Roam

The formula for the Suburban’s interior is largely the same as before: comfortably accommodate as many people and as much stuff as possible. Fitted with the second-row buckets and a 60/40 folding third-row bench seat, our test truck was configured in seven-seat format, but if you don’t mind trading buckets for benches, seating arrangements for eight or nine are still available. We love the handy controls Chevy added this year just inside the rear tailgate that fold the second and third rows flat, eliminating the need for crawling in and searching for the manual releases. LTZ trim brings heated-and-cooled front leather seats, heated seats in the second row, a heated and leather-wrapped steering wheel, keyless start, remote start, power-adjustable pedals, and MyLink infotainment with an eight-inch touch screen. Our test example had the $3305 Sun, Entertainment, and Destination package, which adds a sunroof, rear-seat DVD, and navigation, plus an additional nine months of SiriusXM listening to the MyLink radio. The Suburban’s control layout follows that of the new Silverado, still with a few too many tiny buttons, although they have been corralled into groups focused on their respective functions. And the Suburban’s seating position, although comfortable, is slightly outboard of the steering wheel. These traits are annoying at first, less so with familiarity.


Safety plays a part in the 2015 refresh, our LTZ test truck arriving with a backup camera plus forward-collision, lane-departure, blind-zone, and rear-cross-traffic warning systems. A center-mounted airbag protects front-seat passengers in far-side impacts. Adaptable cruise control added $1695 to the bottom line. Improved security measures were also part of the plan for the Suburban update, and our test vehicle included a $395 theft-deterrent system. Sensors for interior movement, inclination, glass breakage, and more are tied in with the vehicle’s alarm system, which can shut down key-control systems to make the vehicle almost impossible to start or move for the unauthorized.

Run Silent, Run Deep

As seasoned Suburban-philes know, most traffic yields in the presence of Chevrolet’s largest SUV, leaving a clear berth that it might not for, say, a minivan. The electric power-assisted steering is a light touch at any speed, and at 3.4 turns lock-to-lock makes maneuvering about as pain-free as possible. At nearly 19 feet stem to stern, however, it does take a whopping 43 feet to turn the Suburban around, and drivers will need to experience only one five-point turn before learning to select parking spaces accordingly. The feeling is the same at highways speeds, with steering direct but tiller-like, devoid of any useful feel or feedback. Even so, the ’Burban requires little correction on the highway, devouring miles effortlessly when the need for interior volume trumps sporting performance. Sure, there’s some body lean—less with our LTZ because of the included magnetic ride control dampers—but when pressed, our test drivers pushed the Suburban to 0.77 g on our 300-foot skidpad, reporting moderate understeer.

Weighing just over the mighty three-ton mark—6015 pounds on our scales, even with the aluminum hood and tailgate Chevy added for 2015—the Suburban posted a surprising 15.5-second sprint in the quarter-mile, hitting 91 mph in the process. Our tester did have the $500 Max Trailering package that, in addition to upgrading the transfer case from a single- to a two-speed unit and adding dash-mounted trailer-brake controls, swaps the stock 3.08:1 rear axle for a shorter 3.42:1 ratio.

What the 5.3 V-8 lacks in raw power it makes up for in smooth competence, responding instantly and eagerly to inputs. (Customers in need of more grunt will want to scoot over to a GMC dealership and check out the Suburban’s cousin, the Yukon Denali XL with the 420-hp, 6.2-liter V-8.) GM’s cylinder-deactivation feature is nearly seamless in operation, any millisecond delays in operation offset by the increased efficiency. We saw 15 mpg in mixed driving, at the low end of the EPA’s 15 city and 22 highway mpg estimates. Braking follows the same formula, hauling the Suburban down from 70 mph in 190 feet. Chevrolet tells us it tweaked the brakes for 2015 and when combined with the new 18-inch standard wheels—our tester wore the LTZ-spec 20-inch polished aluminum spinners with Continental CrossContact 275/55 tires—would result in improved braking and handling. (Fun fact: A 2007 Suburban LTZ with 20-inch wheels we tested also stopped in 190 feet.)

The company’s latest numbers indicate 65 percent of Suburban buyers opt for LTZ trim, which means most examples of Chevrolet’s largest SUV are going out the door well equipped. In an age of downsizing, the Suburban remains the one Chevrolet that will accommodate up to nine passengers and their gear with 39.3 cubic feet of cargo room behind the third-row seats and 121.1 with the second and third rows folded. In a constantly changing world, it’s comforting to know the Suburban’s depot hack mission has stayed the same.

Review Mercedes-Benz GLS-class Price

Review Mercedes-Benz GLS-class Price

Mercedes calls the GLS the S-class among SUVs—its rich appointments and power earn it a 2017 10Best award. Its three rows offer room for seven; the interior has leather, wood, and options such as an air-ionization system. The GLS450 has a 362-hp twin-turbo V-6; the GLS550 has a 449-hp twin-turbo V-8. For economy, the GLS350d has a 255-hp diesel V-6. Each model has all-wheel drive and a nine-speed automatic. Safety tech includes cross-wind assist, collision-prevention assist, and brake assist.

2017 Mercedes-Benz GLS450 4MATIC

 Normally, stating that a new or updated car is just like its predecessor kind of saps the life out of its “newness.” Take the 2017 Mercedes-Benz GLS450, for example. Its close kinship with last year’s GL450 may not be exciting, but it is a good thing, as that model represented the ideal intersection of price, performance, and fuel economy in the four-model GL-class lineup. For 2017, that family stays the same aside from a minor name change to GLS-class and subtle cosmetic updates inside and out.


Sharing its 362-hp 3.0-liter twin-turbocharged V-6 with the pre-refresh, S-less GL450, the GLS450 again slots into the lineup above the diesel-powered GLS350d and below the high-powered, high-priced, eight-cylinder GLS550 and GLS63 AMG variants. Make that way, way below the V-8-powered GLS550 and GLS63 AMG, which start at $94,775 and $125,025. They play in a different arena than the $69,625 GLS450.

The GLS450 comes in $1650 over a GLS350d, and for that extra scratch you get 107 more horsepower at the expense of a few mpg. (The EPA, however, has yet to certify the ’17 GLS350d—likely the result of a federal investigation into possible emissions-test irregularities—making the GLS450 look like an even better proposition.) We have yet to test the 2017-model GLS350d or GLS550, but against the (slightly less powerful, pre-refresh) GL350 diesel and the GL550, the GLS450 compares favorably. The GL350 BlueTec reached 60 mph in 7.5 seconds and returned 22 mpg, while the GL550 accelerated to 60 mph in 5.4 seconds but delivered a dismal 14 mpg. Aside from their new nine-speed automatic transmission shared with the GLS450, the ’17 GLS350d and GLS550 aren’t expected to perform much differently. For its part, the new GLS450 smoked to 60 mph in 5.7 seconds—just a tick behind the 550—while its observed 18 mpg was much closer to the diesel than to the V-8. Those in slightly less of a hurry could argue a strong case for the diesel, as well.

 Receiving Transmission!

The GLS450’s new transmission is dubbed 9G-Tronic. Its first seven gears sport shorter ratios than all seven speeds in the old transmission. Compared with a 2015 GL450 we tested last year, the GLS450’s spicier gearing enabled it to reach 60 mph 0.2 second quicker and post snappier 30-to-50-mph and 50-to-70-mph passing times. Some credit for this specific GLS450’s extra zip could be attributed to its lack of optional extras, which made it weigh 207 pounds less than that 2015 GL450.

A straighter line can be drawn between the new transmission and the GLS450’s enhanced fuel economy. The two extra gears, both of which are taller than seventh gear in the old transmission, are responsible for nudging the GLS450’s EPA highway fuel-economy estimate northward by 1 mpg, to 22 mpg. (The city estimate remains 17 mpg.) We saw a bigger improvement, as the 18 mpg our GLS450 notched over a few hundred miles topped the 2015 version by 2 mpg. Better still, the 9G-Tronic’s tall gearing keeps engine revs low at highway speeds, and it behaves nearly flawlessly in the default Comfort mode, save for a tendency to select too high a gear when downshifting unless the throttle is really booted. There is a Sport mode, but it’s slightly too eager, waking up the transmission as though one of those jitter-inducing energy drinks often found at minimarts were poured into the electronics. Lower gears are feverishly held, even at a steady cruise, and first gear is used when accelerating from a stop (second is used in Comfort mode in the interest of smoothness). If you absolutely have to make it to soccer practice on time, use this setting.

The only other new feature vying for attention is a touchpad controller for the updated COMAND infotainment display. The touchpad, which operates via finger swipes and taps like a smartphone’s screen, works as well here as it does in other Benz products. But mostly it presents yet another choice for manipulating the COMAND menus in addition to a knob, steering-wheel controls, and voice commands.

The Dynamic Story

All else being pretty much equal to the GL450, it’s little wonder that this model’s core competencies carry over. The interior seats up to seven in comfort, and although adults will fit in the third row, those chairs will seem most accommodating to children or teenagers. Air springs are standard, and while this suspension dulls the SUV’s initial responses—there is some body roll in corners—it also makes any road surface feel as if it’s made of memory foam. And despite the body lean, the GLS posted 0.79 g of cornering grip on our skidpad, which is above average for something 72.8 inches tall and weighing nearly 5400 pounds.

The rest of the big Benz’s dynamic qualities are to be expected, with the steering tracking well on the highway but otherwise being numb and with slow, vague responses to driver inputs. The brakes earn similar marks; the pedal feels reassuring after you pass through a brief squishy zone at the top of its travel, but the GLS450’s 186-foot stop from 70 mph is merely okay for this class. Really, though, the only dynamics that matter are the GLS450’s highway manners. We took it on a half-day trip from Ann Arbor to the west side of Michigan and back, and the most grueling part of the journey was the sunburn we got at the beach. Fill the GLS450 with people, cargo (up to 94 cubic feet with the second- and third-row seats folded), or both and you can schlep them far and wide in soft-riding quietude.

It’s particularly telling that this fairly sparsely optioned GLS450 seemed so luxurious and relaxing to drive. Outside of a few individual bits such as a trailer hitch ($575), temperature-controlled cupholders ($180), illuminated running boards ($670), a heated steering wheel ($250), and power-flipping second-row seats ($400), our test car’s biggest addition was the $3830 Premium package that brought SiriusXM satellite radio, Apple CarPlay, a proximity key, lane-keeping assist, ambient interior lighting, and a power passenger seat. A $1290 Parking Assist package (a self-parking system and a surround-view camera) and the rather droll combination of Iridium Silver paint ($720) and dark Anthracite Poplar wood trim ($160) that barely stood out in the all-black MB-Tex pseudo-leather cabin brought the total to $78,550.

Nearly $80,000 is slightly richer than a base, four-wheel-drive Cadillac Escalade—a rig that’s closer to the GLS450 in size and general SUV-ness than the more carlike Audi Q7 and Volvo XC90. The body-on-frame Escalade also happens to be slower, worse to drive, less fuel-efficient, and less roomy for people and cargo, which sets up an opportunity for the GLS450. In our current editorial rankings, the GLS-class (the whole family) trails the Audi and the Volvo, mostly because those tall wagons are more athletic and exquisitely appointed across the breadth of their ranges, but neither can tow more than 5000 pounds or fit adults in their third-row seats. If you need a practical and well-rounded luxury SUV, the GLS450’s 7500-pound tow rating and ability to actually fit seven humans in its boxy body mark it as not only the sweet spot in the GLS lineup, but in its class.

Review Ford Expedition EL Price

Review Ford Expedition EL Price

The lane-hogging Expedition and the even-longer Expedition EL provide room for eight adults and acres of cargo space. The 3.5-liter twin-turbo V-6 makes 365 hp; a six-speed automatic with rear-wheel drive is standard and four-wheel drive is optional. Some may scoff at a V-6 in a rig of this size, but its 9200-lb towing capacity (when properly equipped) should silence naysayers. An all-new Expedition goes on sale in fall 2017.

2018 Ford Expedition: Bigger, Aluminumier, EcoBoostier

The Ford Expedition has been around since the late 1990s, and despite an overhaul for 2003, the company itself characterizes this all-new model as only the second generation of its biggest SUV. No matter how you count the versions, the Expedition’s revamp is long overdue, and it brings wholesale changes that are significant.

Like its pickup sibling, the Ford F-150, the 2018 Expedition has switched to an aluminum-intensive architecture for weight reduction. With its aluminum body panels attached to a redesigned steel frame, the new vehicle is said to be up to 300 pounds lighter than the outgoing model. And yet the Expedition is bigger—the 2018 short-wheelbase version is four inches longer than before, while the extended-wheelbase Expedition L is one inch longer than the previous model.

Tech Turnup

Ford also added a lot of safety and convenience technology to the Expedition, including Sync 3 and Sync Connect with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto capabilities, wireless device charging in the center console, and an available Wi-Fi hotspot with a 50-foot range. Six USB ports (two per row), four 12-volt power sources, and a 110-volt AC outlet are standard, while a 12-speaker Bang & Olufsen audio system and a second-row headrest-mounted entertainment system is optional.

Ford claims the 2018 Expedition has 40 new-to-the-model features and optional driver-assist technologies. Maneuvering is made easier with a 360-degree camera, parking sensors, and trailer backup assist. It also will offer lane-keeping assist, adaptive cruise control, pre-collision warning with automatic braking, and blind-spot monitoring.

One Engine Fits All

The Expedition retains Ford’s EcoBoost-branded turbocharging and direct fuel-injection technologies, but the old twin-turbocharged 3.5-liter V-6 has been replaced with an updated, second-gen version found in the 2017 F-150, equipped with both port and direct fuel injection. In the F-series it makes 375 horsepower at 5000 rpm and 470 lb-ft of torque at 3500 rpm, but no output has been confirmed for the Expedition yet. Given that Ford says the engine was tuned differently here, the peak ratings may change.

 In place of the outgoing truck’s six-speed automatic transmission, the redesigned version uses the new 10-speed automatic also found in the F-150 and co-developed by Ford and General Motors. Ford ditched the traditional shift lever for a rotary gear selector. Just below it is a drive-mode switch that offers Normal, Sport, Tow/Haul, Eco, Grass/Gravel/Snow, Sand, and Mud/Rut settings. An available electronic limited-slip differential also is new.

Both the 2018 Expedition and the extended-wheelbase Expedition L will be available in three trim levels—XLT, Limited, and Platinum (there’s also an XL for fleets). The new model goes on sale this fall; pricing should be announced by the end of summer, but don’t look for the new truck to move too far away from the current range, which spans from roughly $48,000 to $72,000.

Volkswagen purchases PayByPhone for parking

PayByPhone, the app that lets you pay for parking (and parking tickets) with a smartphone, has been acquired by Volkswagen Financial Services. PayByPhone is based in Vancouver, British Columbia, and operates in Canada, the US, France, Great Britain, Switzerland, and Australia. In 2016, company processed $250 million in parking payments from 12.5 million users.

Volkswagen Financial Services had already bought Sunhill Technologies, the largest cashless payment solution in Germany, last year, so PayByPhone expands the company’s parking payment possibilities.

“It is important to make the distinction that it is Volkswagen Financial Services (VWFS) who acquired us, and they have a charter to focus on general mobility services,” said PayByPhone CEO Kush Parikh in an email interview. “Outside of being the largest parking payment provider, the key asset we bring to the table is the relationship we have via our flagship mobile applications with our users. The mobile relationship is a one to one relationship that can extend into a myriad of additional services.”

PayByPhone is focusing on parking payments first before branching into other mobility technology spaces, like car sharing or ride hailing applications for this service. “Our plans are focused on making the parking payment experience as seamless and easy as possible for users,” Kush wrote. The company already has a program in London where license plates are coordinated with a user account when the car arrives in a lot, and then the user is charged for her parking time when she leaves. “[This] can quite easily be extended into the autonomous vehicle movement,” Kush said.

PayByPhone’s expansion hasn’t been hindered so much by its ability to scale as by an entrenched parking industry “that continues to hold on to archaic cash and credit card based systems, which are very capital intensive,” as Kush put it. PayByPhone does expect that VWFS’s investment will help the company expand into new countries.

Kush noted that while the company will be focused on making parking payments as seamless as possible, they do have an eye on the future. “Parking is a great way to attract users where their identities can be used for a myriad of additional services, including movement around cities (aka smart cities) and distributing our service into any application, such as mapping and travel applications.”

Volkswagen teases a self-driving EV concept with retractable steering wheel

Volkswagen is extending the I.D. concept family it debuted at the Paris Motor Show earlier this year with a new concept car in the same line to be fully revealed at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit in January. The carmaker teased the concept today, revealing a few details about the car, including that it’s designed to be fully self-driving in the future.

The new addition to the I.D. family will also be a fully electric vehicles, based on Volkswagen’s new Modular Electric Drive (MEB) base, which is the new platform Volvo is using as the anchor for its plan to diversify and expand its EV line to over 30 models introduces over the coming decade.

This new concept looks like it’ll be much more future-focused than the I.D. unveiled at the Paris Motor Show, which Volkswagen said will eventually become the first production vehicle based on its MEB. It’s truly designed for autonomy – there’s a steering wheel on board, but it vanishes when the user pushes the VW logo buttoning its center, retracting into the dash to provide more room for the driver to stretch out.

It sounds like a design that’s truly looking to articulate a real vision of how we might use our vehicles in a post-driving world. No doubt it’ll also be a long time before we see anything like this on the road, but watching how VW’s thinking about incorporating autonomous tech into  consumer vehicles is still interesting.

BMW to open a new autonomous driving development center near Munich

BMW has already staked its claim in the self-driving production timeline, with plans to release an autonomous electric car by 2021. To help meet that goal, the carmaker is opening a dedicated facility aimed at developing connected and automated driving tech in Unterschleissheim, Germany near Munich. The facility is designed to begin operations in mid-2017, and will host more than 2,000 employees once it’s fully completed.

All aspects of development, all the way up to road tests, are planned for the new facility. The talent team at the location will pool a number of different groups from around the world, bringing together software engineers, machine learning specialists and more under one roof. BMW notes that this will make it possible to streamline the development process for its vehicles, allowing engineers to write code and then put it live in a test vehicle on location for instant trial and feedback.

BMW’s focus here appears to be on making its tech-focused development teams nimbler and more responsive.

Other automakers and suppliers have already taken similar steps, with many choosing to open engineering facilities in Silicon Valley in order to be closer to software development talent pools. Meanwhile, North American car companies like GM, which has a few different venues for its work on self-driving, including Detroit and Oshawa, are sticking closer to home.

BMW’s testing of its automated driving tech is currently set to begin near its new facility in Munich, with a target kick-off date of sometime in 2017.

Here’s how Montréal is turning to Bluetooth to address traffic congestion

Connected city infrastructure and cars that talk back could potentially do a lot to help ease traffic conditions, but in the meantime, the city of Montréal in Quebec, Canada is using a more immediately available tech to try to address its urban traffic problem: Bluetooth. The city has installed over a hundred Bluetooth signal detectors over the past couple of months, with the aim of being able to monitor and analyze traffic patterns in real-time daily, instead of just once a year during an annual traffic study.

The new project, described by Radio-Canada, will track Bluetooth devices being used by people in vehicles, tagging their unique MAC address and then looking for it again at other sites to judge how quickly cars are moving through traffic. The data gathered isn’t tied to any specific individuals, but can help the city keep an eye on how the flow of cars are moving through a city.

Keeping a closer eye on traffic patterns is definitely helpful in terms of city planning, making it possible to do stuff that could positively impact congestion throughout the year, instead of just as the result of a once-annual review. And Bluetooth tracking hardware is relatively cheap to install, and doesn’t require any special vehicle-to-infrastructure communications tech to be built-in to cars on the road.

Montréal has another plan to put Bluetooth to use in helping with roadway traffic, too – it hopes to install hockey puck-sized sensors in street spaces starting in 2018, so that it can know when a spot is empty and direct drivers to those locations. City transportation officials have found that a significant percentage of congestion results from drivers circling looking for a spot, so being able to guide them directly could potentially cut down on a lot of unnecessary cars on the road.