WHAT WE'RE DRIVING

GM engineers tell me that their latest full-size light-truck program, which most recently spawned the 2021 Chevy Suburban and GMC Yukon, encompassed nearly 10,000 engineering and technical staff during the peak of product development. I don't doubt that, given the deep list of architectural changes and features designed into these all-new 3-row SUVs.

Everything about the 4WD High Country Suburban I tested recently is big, with a 4.1-in. (104-mm) increase in wheelbase and a bit more than 1-inch (25-mm) stretch in overall length that gives second- and third-row seat passengers each an additional 2 inches (51 mm) of leg room. There's also nearly two more cubic feet of cargo volume behind the back row, and those two seating rows now fold completely flat for optimized loading.