I have driven Suburbans since l99l. MX is peanuts, dependability has been near-perfect, versatility and hauling flexibility second-to-none. Mileage is slightly less than some others, but I encourage anyone who is considering a car to calculate annual fuel cost differential rather than MPG differential to obtain a more-useful number for budgeting and selection purposes.
I would have to agree with one post that most GM's are junk, but the trucks and specifically the Tahoe, Yukon, Suburban line-up for this particular application are pretty solid.
I get 16.5-17.0 MPG consistently in my 2004 GMC Yukon 4WD with regular gas, and it'll burn E85 if you can find it somewhere. (By the way, it gets 13 on E85, so it's not worth it. But if you're dying to burn corn, I'm just sayin' it'll do it.) It has the mid-sized E85 capable V8 engine.
It's not quite as long as the Suburban/GMC Yukon XL, so not super-difficult to park if in tight quarters like a parking garage, but otherwise has a great load-hauling and people-comfort mix.
They're littering car lots nationwide CHEAP, as people freak out about MPG, and being "green", who buy Prius' that are three times the price even with tax rebates.
It's a head vs. heart thing, when instead of doing the actual cost analysis, as mentioned here already, they go for the MPG sticker.
I picked this thing up for a song this February. And now I have leather seats, butt-warmers (ha!), Bose stereo system with XM, an enormous amount of "personal space" in the driver's seat (haha!), unparalleled forward visibility over the top of most other cars, automatic two-zone heating/cooling, power everything -- including a seat with more adjustments than I'll ever need, automatic 4WD mode (don't like it... I'll handle the shifting, thank you!), and well... it's loaded. Some of these things are truck characteristics, and I've owned three different trucks, but adding on the fancy interior adds something to the whole deal.
Very posh. And, wicked cheap on the used market.
My dad has owned a late-90's Tahoe (too short for my tastes... back end gets squirrelly in snow/ice, but of course, that can be wicked fun in an empty parking lot... especially since his also has glass-packs on the straight exhaust pipes that came with it... it barks and spins donuts, so it's just GRAND in snow, but for most folks, that's not the goal... heh...) and a massive early 90's Suburban with the heavy-duty 3/4 ton axles and frame, and tow-package on it -- which has the 5.8L V8 engine.
Now THAT beast only gets 13 MPG no matter how fast or slow you drive it, and you can watch the gas gauge going down, and also hit your check-card's single-purchase authorization limit filling its oversized gas tank, but it'll also crawl over anything in its path in 4WD-LOW, and I've had to use it on USFS Service Roads taking radio gear to mountaintops... it hauled two complete 19" rack cabinets with solid doors, all the radio gear, all the test gear and tower-climbing gear and tools, plus two of us, up there to work, in mud so slippery I almost fell down getting out of it.
So, there is a limit to how far back in years you can go before you get into the V8 engines without any computers really assisting them to get up into the 16-18 MPG range.
Anyway... just thoughts. Do some math on how much money can you save for buying extra gas for one, by finding a wicked deal on a big fat cushy "out of vogue with the kids" Yukon or Suburban. Might be worth shopping around.
The systems on the thing are relatively simple, and there's actually enough room under the hood to get at the stuff that needs done, if you're a do-it-yourself mechanic of any sort. Try finding the oil filter on an MDX without a lift.
Big-ass cushy gas-guzzlin' truck for driving around town... and a big-ass cushy 4-place single gas-guzzling truck for bombin' through the sky! Now y'all know why I'm a 182 driver... I suppose. And why I'm jealous of a friend who's workin' on buying a 206. :wink2:
but I fail to see any cost analysis that would put a Chevy Suburban/Excursion/similar on top of most of the other options mentioned In this thread unless that analysis was performed by a salesman trying to send you off the lot with one. 
