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. We studiously avoid the tight jam.
Four-wheel steering makes everyone a hero driver. Grown men rush from stores to watch you spin on a dime and reverse out of your parking spot and into one two slots away in one smooth move. Quadrasteer is nothing short of a miracle.
Up to this point, the miracle of Quadrasteer been limited to GM pickups, but the wait is over.... Read full article