Editors' Most Wanted Vehicles for 2001

Large SUV

Winner: Chevrolet Suburban

It's been around for a long time. Since the '30s to be exact. It's no wonder the Suburban has evolved into the best big SUV on the road today. Full-size trucks and SUVs are some of the some of the most successful products to come from The General these days and the Suburban delivers with more towing capacity (10,500 and 9000 pounds for the 2500 and 1500, respectively) than the Ford Excursion (10,000 pounds for the V10 or diesel) and nearly as much interior volume. Sure, the Excursion's bigger, but splitting hairs in that department is futile when considering the overall package. The Gen III V8s available in the Suburban (and its little brother, the Tahoe) are among the best American-made V8s ever with a 5.3-liter that produces 285 horsepower in the 1500 and a 6.0-liter that makes 300 horsepower in the 2500. Furthermore, the interior design is appealing (though we wish they'd improve the quality of the materials and restyle that frumpy-looking steering wheel) and GM transmissions are among the best in the world. While we're discussing the Sub, our praises generally span across the board to GM's other SUVs, too. The GMC Yukon XL twin is comparable in most ways and the standard Yukon and Chevy Tahoe are also very similar. But if we needed a jumbo SUV that could tow just about anything short of a house, we'd go with the original Chevy Suburban and call it a day.