The first SUV with four-wheel-steering is a beast, but it sure can dance.
If you care about fuel economy, this most definitely is not the vehicle for you. There is just no way around the fact that GMC's 2500-series Yukon XL, the first of the big-boy SUVs to get four-wheel steering, weighs a ton (three, actually) with all that extra steering hardware along for the ride. Having spent a weekend with it, I can attest to its truly traumatic fuel economy. Make that "lack thereof." Bonus: A new, 37.5-gallon fuel tank.
Our 3/4-ton, four-wheel-drive Yukon XL with Quadrasteer was a behemoth, a big lug, a water buffalo, a veritable tugboat. And to accommodate the extra hardware, it's five inches wider in the rear than a two-wheel-steered Yukon XL. But as Tim Jennings said to me, his wife, "You can bitch about the weight of adding four-wheel steering, you can bitch about its fuel economy, you can bitch about its price, but once you have it, you sure do like it and you're glad you have it. This Yukon XL may be a boat, but it's an awfully nimble boat."
He is so right. We are Chevy Suburban owners, and, as such, think twice before just whipping Big Bertha into any old straight-on spot in a parking garage. We search carefully for the right driveway in which to execute a ponderous, three-point, about-face.... Read full article