…as long as you can stomach the fuel economy.
When I mentioned to Chevrolet that I was planning a road trip from SoCal to Berkley for my kid's graduation and bringing back all her stuff, the idea of taking a Suburban with the Super Cruise came up. I had planned to take something less thirsty for the trip – not a 6.2-liter V8-powered body-on-frame SUV – but I was convinced when it was pointed out that this is exactly the kind of thing the Suburban is designed for. And with an update to GM's Super Cruise driving system, the Pacific Coast Highway would now be covered, too.
I'm not going to lie, the idea of not having to pack the kid's stuff into a smaller vehicle was massively appealing, and the idea of an eight-hour drive being mitigated by Super Cruise sounded fantastic – if it was going to be consistent. My previous experience with it on a trip to Las Vegas in 2022 wasn't. Also, the High Country trim is pretty luxurious, and my wife was going on the trip as well.
On the downside, an eight-hour drive with a colossal Chevy SUV that's powered by a 420-horsepower 6.2 liter V8 wasn't going to be cheap at the pumps – and the price of gas is high in California.
Still, we picked up a Suburban in High Country specification and set off on our journey, wondering if Super Cruise was up to the 900-mile round trip. I had my doubts about whether a cruise down Northern California's Pacific Coast Highway (PCH) would result in bankruptcy, how comfortable the Suburban would be on a long freeway ride, and how it would handle the tight streets of Berkley. Also, it was hard to tell whether the kid's assertion that “It will all fit” would be accurate.
Riding Out
The Suburban is huge. It measures just over 18 feet in length and almost seven feet in width. Opening the rear tailgate and looking in, it's cavernous inside. In fact, comically so for two people with a weekend's worth of luggage. Hopefully, the maximum cargo space of 144.7 cubic feet would be enough for the trip home.
The High Country trim comes with Chevrolet Infotainment 3 Premium System with Google built-in, and it lives on a 10.2-inch screen. We didn't need to use CarPlay or Android Auto to get music and navigation going. The system is intuitive and quick to respond, so we were hooked up and ready to go in a matter of moments. On suburban streets, the Suburban isn't too big, and the ride is smooth and comfortable. The challenge would come when we needed to make our way through LA traffic to reach the I-5 freeway, so the mind-numbing part of the journey could start.
In traffic, the Suburban is about as comfortable as you can get without spending way more than its $77,400 starting price. It'll cost even more if you opt for 4WD and tick some options boxes.
The Bose system included with the High Country isn't anything special compared to other premium systems, but it kept us entertained while inching along in the absurdity of LA freeway traffic. Thankfully, it wasn't the worst LA had to offer, and we made it up to the I-5, which, if you're not familiar, is the two-lane freeway running between LA and San Fransisco – an incredibly frustrating piece of road. As it's the direct link between LA and San Fran, it's a major truck route, and two lanes aren't enough when they decide to overtake each other at infuriatingly low speeds. The result on a weekday is long lines of traffic stuck at 55-60 mph every couple of miles or so.
For the ride up, we started with Super Cruise, but the issue with the 5 freeway is cars always running up the inside when traffic is queued behind a car or truck overtaking a slow-moving vehicle, and then cutting in. The issue is that, like any advanced driver aid, Super Cruise is reactive, whereas a driver can be predictive. While Super Cruise reacts quickly, it leads to sudden braking when you get an idiot cutting in front of you – and there's a lot of that on the 5. It was more comfortable in terms of smooth driving to take charge myself.
Another hallmark of the I-5 is a lot of bad pavement, thanks to the consistent battering the road takes by those trucks. Having done this drive in various cars, we quickly became thankful for the Four Corner Air Ride adaptive suspension with magnetic ride control. On the Chevrolet Corvette, optioning the magnetic ride control delivers something sublime. On the Suburban, it isn't quite so eyebrow-raising, but it's still a remarkably smooth ride for an SUV built like a tank and weighing north of 6,000 pounds when loaded with the 6.2-liter engine and all-wheel-drive.
While we were in the Bay Area, we wanted to take a long ride down the PCH, and as part of the continuous map updating necessary for Super Cruise, this stretch of road is now covered. There was little traffic on the PCH coming down to Santa Cruz, and Super Cruise started to shine. As the driver, I still needed to be alert, but it became an easy, pleasant drive taking in the scenery. Well, as much as we could see with the marine layer heavy over the coastline. On the way back, as the marine layer thickened, the sun dropped, and rain started to appear. The sensors started having a little trouble with seeing lane markings which, again, is a common limitation with any form of automation.
The transition back to full control of the steering is smooth, and the car communicates excellently through the light bar on the top of the steering wheel. Super Cruise is happy to take over again when it's confident after short periods of manual control.
Unsurprisingly, the Suburban became a handful to drive on the tight streets of Berkeley due to its size, particularly with all the graduation traffic. Still, it was maneuverable enough when you get used to it, and visibility is excellent. The 360-degree camera system showed its value in parking structures, and managing the Suburban would have been a nightmare without it.
Something we didn't expect to experience was the rear seat screens and infotainment, but we couldn't leave the parking structure for an hour after the graduation ceremony. Without too much of a learning curve, we were able to watch the same shows on YouTube on our screens from the middle row captain's chairs through the car's audio system rather than the provided headphones. The chairs are comfortable enough to watch a full movie back there, and the screen is excellent for short-form video consumption.
We had to get into one of the tighter areas of Berkely to load up the kid's stuff and suffered, as you would imagine, for the size of the Suburban. Adding to this is the fact that it was a busy day with other students moving out as well. However, any worries that we should have hired a moving truck were quickly quashed. With the rear and center row seats folded flat, there wasn't a real need to plan the packing as there was so much space. The amount of space is almost laughable; you can imagine using it to move a small household in just a few trips and only needing one hired truck to move all the big furniture.
Then it was back on the road to SoCal, and that's where Super Cruise showed its real value.
Although we came back on a Monday, there were much fewer trucks on the road, which meant traffic flowed a lot more naturally. This is where Super Cruise justified its name. It was happy to take care of steering as long as hands are on the wheel (just in case), cruise control kept things smooth coming up on traffic, automatic lane change took us around slower-moving traffic, and lane change on demand put us back in the right lane when needed with a flick of the indicator. Super Cruise genuinely made it easy to put in longer stints without needing a break.
While there is a choice of three engines in the Suburban range, the High Country we tested came with a 6.2-liter V8, which is both a blessing and a curse. It's a blessing because it makes 420 horsepower and 460 lb-ft of torque and uses a slick 10-speed automatic transmission. But it's a curse because a fuel stop can reveal pumps that limit to a $100 purchase, and at 14 mpg in the city and 18 mpg on the highway in this configuration, they come around often. Those who want the most frugal engine in the Chevy will need to opt for the diesel for around 21 mpg city and 27 mpg on the highway.
It's a serious price you pay to run a big V8 in 2023, particularly running on premium gas, and it's the only downside we can find with the Suburban High Country. The upside is the ability of that engine to pull just about anything a family could want to pull, and a huge SUV that doesn't sweat getting up to freeway speeds and delivers the excess of power sought in luxury cars so passengers never need to hear the engine strain.
We handed the keys back after our weekend with a newfound respect for the Suburban. We've driven Suburbans before and towed with them, but laying down a serious road trip with a need for loads of cargo space was an eye-opener. As a family car, it may be excessive for many, but for those with the means and who will use it as intended – a do-it-all family hauler – it's worth its weight in gasoline, which is a lot now.
We also found a new level of appreciation for Super Cruise. The last time we used it was on a trip to Las Vegas, a mere eight-hour drive there and back on a similar type of freeway. It can frustrate in traffic when people are irritable and are the star of their own story. But, until artificial intelligence can see those small cues from a car in traffic that a driver is about to do something thoughtless, careless, or reckless, adaptive cruise control isn't going to be as smooth as a human driver can be. However, in traffic that isn't heavy, it's an excellent tool for road trippers and road warriors – as long as they use any of the 400,000 miles of road currently supported.
Keyword: Driven: 2023 Chevrolet Suburban High Country Is The Ultimate Family Hauler