Chevrolet engineers like to say that their new Tahoe lives larger inside but drives smaller outside. By that they mean that while the vehicle feels big inside, but has a taut feeling on the road so the driver doesn't necessarily feel like he or she is at the wheel of a full-size SUV.

That taut feeling starts with the new ladder-style frame that is nearly 50 percent stiffer overall and 90 percent stiffer in its forward section. As one GM engineer put it, although the new front end is only two inches longer, it provides the equivalent of 17 more inches of crush capacity in the event of a collision. Standard StabiliTrak should enhance the driver's ability to avoid many accidents, but should they happen, side curtain airbags are available. The new Tahoes are equipped with front seatbelt pretensioners that activate to hold the driver and front-seat passenger in proper position not only in a frontal crash, but also in a severe rear impact. GM says the Tahoe is the first vehicle to use this new rear-impact safety system.

The 2007 Chevy Tahoe rides on a new coil-over front suspension geometry and has a revised five-link rear suspension. The Tahoe is available with its standard (ZW7) Smooth Ride suspension, with its Autoride (Z55) air suspension providing real-time dampening on the LTZ. A special off-road (Z71) suspension package will also be available.

All new Tahoes have four-wheel disc brakes with 55 more square inches of swept area and 50 percent stiffer calipers. It used to be that when you stepped on the brakes of a Tahoe you got a swoosh sound but didn't feel the brakes grabbing until the pedal had traveled well down toward the floorboard. Now, on the new Tahoe, the brakes not only are silent, but you feel them as they begin to slow the vehicle immediately.

This is just one aspect of the Tahoe's improved responsiveness that instills a new sense of confidence in the driver. A new rack-and-pinion steering system, with its rack mounted on an engine cross member, provides more immediate and precise response when you turn the steering wheel.

The Tahoe we tested was an LT-3 with the larger V8 engine and four-wheel drive. We would have preferred more than four gears in the transmission, especially when climbing some long mountain grades northwest of Phoenix, but we liked the fact that we couldn't feel the transitions when the Displacement on Demand shut off or turned back on four cylinders as needed during highway cruising. The system even works in normal city driving, though the only way we could tell was to see the indicator lights change on the driver information panel on the dashboard.

We drove on regular gasoline, but a flexible-fuel version of the Vortec 5300 is available that operates on either gasoline or on E85 ethanol fuel while providing the same horsepower, torque and fuel economy figures. Both versions of the Vortec 5300 meet GM's new 200,000-mile durability requirements (compared to 150,000 for earlier engines).

Our test truck was equipped with the standard 17-inch wheels and tires. The ride was comfortable but not at all soft or spongy. The 20-inch wheels might look nice, but they come with tires with nearly three inches less sidewall area and thus provide much less cushion for absorbing bumps along the way.