Also Consider:
• Non-Hybrid Chevy Tahoe
• Chrysler Aspen / Dodge Durango Hybrid
• Non-Hybrid Chevy Tahoe
• Cadillac Escalade Hybrid
• Non-Hybrid Chevy Tahoe
• Mercedes-Benz GL 320 CDI
• Did we mention the non-hybrid Chevy Tahoe?

Suitability Parameters:
· Speed Merchants: No
· Fashion Victims: Yes
· Treehuggers: No
· Mack Daddies: No
· Tuner Crowd: No
· Hairdressers: No
· Penny Pinchers: No
· Euro Snobs: No
· Working Stiffs: No
· Technogeeks: Yes
· Poseurs: Yes
· Soccer Moms: No
· Nascar Dads: Yes
· Golfing Grandparents: Yes

Vitals:
· Manufacturer: Chevrolet
· Model tested: Tahoe Hybrid 2WD
· Model year: 2008
· Base Price: $49,590
· Price as Tested: $52,780
· Engine type: 6.0-liter Vortec V8 with two-mode gasoline/electric hybrid
· Horsepower: 332 hp @ 5100 rpm
· Torque: 367 ft.-lbs. @ 4100 rpm
· Wheels and Tires: P265/65R-18 all-seasons on 18-inch aluminum wheels
· Drive type: Rear-wheel drive
· 0 - 60: 8.8 seconds
· 1/4 mile: N/A
· Top speed: 118mph
· EPA Fuel economy city/highway: 21/22
· NHTSA crash test rating front/side/rollover: 5/5/Not Rated

Also See:
2008 Chevy Tahoe Hybrid, Part One
2008 Chevy Tahoe Hybrid, Part Two

Acceleration: ***
Six liters and electric assist be damned, this is a huge truck, and it's not in any hurry to get out of its own way. That said, it never felt dangerously slow, but stepping on the gas when decelerating in electric mode sometimes confused the software, resulting in a delay when you really didn't want one — such as while turning left with opposing traffic approaching. When all else fails, the big Vortec can jump when asked — just don't look at the real-time fuel economy indicator while you've got your foot in it. On the other side, it sure is fun trying to keep yourself in all-electric mode.

Braking: ***
The Tahoe Hybrid hauls itself down to a stop in impressive fashion, with four big discs combining with the hybrid system's regenerative assist. Our complaints weren't with stopping prowess, but rather the odd clunks and whirrs that occasionally accompanied it. Another editor noticed the gas engine/motor system does some sort of transfer of power during braking that makes it feel as though the vehicle has been rear-ended.

Ride: ***
You want smooth and floaty? You can't go wrong with body-on-frame. The Tahoe was designed to be a top-shelf SUV, and it rides like one, keeping passengers disconnected from the surface below through the use of soggy rubber bushings, stout shocks and springs, and a few hundred pounds of sound insulation.

Handling: ***
Read the part about ride above and you'll discover everything you need to know about the Tahoe Hybrid's handling. It's a huge, top-heavy truck. The handling is as good as one can hope to expect from this type of vehicle, with slow, overboosted steering and soggy suspension. It was kind of fun on dirt roads, though.

Gearbox: **
The two-mode hybrid autobox is the heart of GM's hybrid SUVs: Essentially, it integrates the automatic transmission and the electric motors needed for hybrid operation. As a pure automatic, the hybrid shifts imperceptibly. But as mentioned earlier the transitions into and out of gas-power and into purely electric mode aren't always subtle.

Audio: ****
As one would expect in a $50k ride, the Tahoe does tunes justice. Thanks to the Bose Premium Speaker System as standard equipment, including sub tucked into a rear-compartment cubby, we were able to kick Willie's Place sky-high on the XM for our entire drive north. Speaking of, like most GM vehicles, XM radio in the Tahoe is free for three months to get you good and hooked; it's hard not to fall in love with it.

Toys: ****
It's all here: The Tahoe Hybrid has OnStar, satnav, XM, heated seats, tri-zone automatic climate control, overhead DVD, a 120-volt outlet, and power everything. The radio system also has an addictive "hybrid power flow display" that graphically shows what the hybrid system is doing at all times, much like other hybrids on the market. In other words, you get most everything you'd get on an Escalade, including the price tag.

Value: *
The Tahoe Hybrid offers a lot of goodies and a powerful, uniquely efficient powertrain (for a full-size SUV). But at a list price of $52,250, we can think of so many better vehicles for the money that the Tahoe can't compete. When big SUVs were fashionable, folks would pay that kind of scratch just to have one in the driveway. Times have changed.

Overall: **
As far as novelties go, the Tahoe Hybrid is one. It's a nice luxury SUV, but no one buys those anymore. Don't get us wrong, it's much more efficient than a standard Tahoe. But if you need the space and towing capacity, buy a diesel Savana van if fuel efficiency is the priority. At the $50k plus price point where the Tahoe Hybrid sits, there's enough really good competition that this thing is a non-starter. On the other hand, viewed as a first application of the two-mode hybrid system and nothing more, the Tahoe Hybrid shows that GM can build a true hybrid with the best of them; we look forward to seeing the system in something more manageable and less expensive.

Also See:
2008 Chevy Tahoe Hybrid, Part One

So a friend and I left for that imaginary line cutting across the middle of the state that heads into the untamed wilderness known as "up north." The Tahoe Hybrid was ostensibly built to make such trips easier. Haul the family to the lake in comfort, all while getting 22 MPG. It made sense two years ago when the GMT900 hybrids were in the design phase, gas was $2.50 a gallon, and credit was cheap. But summer 2008 is shaping up to be one of cottage foreclosures and deferred vacations, a vastly different scenario into which these beasts have been thrust.

On the highway, the Tahoe's manners are impeccable, at least for a nearly three-ton vehicle. It's exactly what we've come to expect from a GMT900 truck: A massive, comfortable cruiser that loafs along at 1,800 RPM requiring only minimal input from the steering wheel and even less from one's brain. The highway manners of the nav system, on the other hand, were awful. The interface was a pain to use, options were difficult to find, and the system's idea of the "fastest" way to and from our destination was laughably wrong.

Encountering a few hundred of the lake faithful in a traffic jam near Saginaw, the hybrid's uniqueness began to show. Puttering bumper-to-bumper at about 20 MPH, the engine drops out with a slight shudder and the Tahoe hums along in pure electric mode, smoothly and silently. Until the brakes are applied, anyway: At that point, the regenerative braking leads to an unexpected off-throttle deceleration effect—kind of like engine braking in a manual transmission vehicle. It's not exactly refined, but one gets used to it and learns to anticipate the effect.

When traffic opens up again, a push on the throttle brings the 6-liter Vortec V8 back into action, with the transition between electric and gas marking itself with another slight shudder. A Prius owner might consider the whole thing obtrusive, but the driveline machinations are reasonably imperceptible. At least to the occupants of the Tahoe, that is — everyone else knows exactly what's going on thanks to no fewer than nine different hybrid badges, stickers, and emblems on our tester.

As we turned off the main highway onto the back roads near Mio, and then onto dirt tracks for the final 20 miles of our journey, the Tahoe continued to impress. The suspension soaked up rough terrain without complaint, the interior remained smooth and quiet, and when the going got slow, we slipped into golf-cart mode, gliding past startled deer while the onboard computer bragged about its nearly 22 MPG average.

Green credentials notwithstanding, the Tahoe Hybrid is truly a mammoth, a soon-to-be-extinct lumbering giant that looks at the same time contemporary and horribly passé. It has no place to go; the market window for a full-size SUV that gets 20 MPG closed somewhere around the $3.50-per-gallon point, leaving the Tahoe Hybrid and its GMC Yukon brother outdated before they ever hit the road.

"But it's a hybrid, so it must be environmentally sound, right?" No. A 50% improvement in mileage vs. the straight gasoline-powered Tahoe is a damn impressive feat, but 21 city/22 highway isn't good enough anymore. Conventional minivans do better than that (combined) and carry just as many people, yet even their sales are sinking because their size and mileage simply doesn't cut it these days.

The real nail in the coffin, though, is the $52,780 sticker price on the Tahoe Hybrid we tested. Yeah, it was outfitted with everything except 4WD, but that's the only way they come. "Base" price for a Tahoe Hybrid is still tickling $50,000. Why didn't Chevy offer a cloth-seat, no-nav basic Tahoe Hybrid for, say, $38k? They would have if volume sales were really what they were interested in.

But they weren't. The Chevy Tahoe Hybrid is a marketing gimmick, both for General Motors and the handful of McMansion dwellers who might actually take one home from a dealership. And, unfortunately for both of them, this particular electric car has already been killed by yet another ebb in the American tide of conspicuous consumption.

(All photos copyright Jalopnik/Andrew Stoy)

Also see:
2008 Chevy Tahoe Hybrid, Part Two