2025 Chevrolet Suburban Review: Excellence in Excess

What’s New With the 2025 Chevrolet Suburban? 

• The Suburban enters the 2025 model year with slightly revised styling, a reworked front cabin, a newly standard 17.7-inch infotainment screen, an updated optional Duramax diesel engine, and revised suspension and steering tuning.

How Does the 2025 Chevrolet Suburban Compare With Other Full-Size SUVs? 

• For the most part, the Suburban is one of the best full-size SUVs in the segment. From a feature and capability perspective, there’s not much the Ford Expedition or Jeep Wagoneer can do significantly better, but thanks to GM’s stratified GMC and Cadillac hierarchy, top-level Suburbans aren’t quite as kitted out as a Jeep Grand Wagoneer or Ford Expedition Platinum.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Few motoring experiences are more satisfying than loading up a full-size SUV with friends and family and hittin’ the road. In 2024, I declared the Chevrolet Suburban High Country was “better than some luxury SUVs” — and that model was on the precipice of a refresh. Just over a year later, a week in the updated 2025 Suburban had my whole family smitten.

Related: Face-Lifted 2025 Chevrolet Tahoe Priced From $60,495, Suburban Starts at $63,495

Machinery is at its best when you engage its raison d’etre: An empty race circuit and a Porsche 911 GT3 RS; a dually pickup and a full horse trailer; Moab and a Jeep Wrangler; a family outing and a Chevy Suburban — and you best believe I made every excuse to drag my fam around Dallas in this sprawling, leather-lined continental cruiser. In the refreshed Chevy, the same principles apply as before: Space is more luxurious than materials, and the vehicle’s bones lend solidity and capability. There’s perhaps no better long-distance road tripper than a GM full sizer.

What’s Refreshed on the 2025 Chevrolet Suburban?

The 2025 Suburban is refreshed, but not much has changed about the driving experience. It’s big — big big — and it drives like it, but an available air suspension, magnetic ride control shocks, updated multilink rear suspension and purposeful chassis engineering wick away nearly every ounce of “truck.” It delivers a driving experience that’s closer to a very large, very heavy crossover than it is to a Silverado pickup — except, of course, when it comes to the drivetrain. Along with the standard 5.3-liter and available 6.2-liter V-8 engines, Chevy’s updated Duramax turbo-diesel 3.0-liter inline-six-cylinder engine is also available.

With no yachts to haul or folks to shuttle beyond my mom, dad and grandmother, the diesel’s roughly 4-ton towing capacity was as unused as the third row, but that didn’t stop me from greatly enjoying the engine’s tenacious torque, particularly when facing down an on-ramp.

It’s far from quick, but the balance of power and torque is wide enough to hustle this roughly 3-ton behemoth from stoplight to highway speeds before you even get a chance to merge. The turbo-diesel’s 305 horsepower and 495 pounds-feet of torque are up 28 hp and 35 pounds-feet versus the last Duramax six-cylinder. The updated engine works with a 10-speed automatic transmission backed by available four-wheel drive.

As was the case in the 2025 Chevrolet Silverado I tested, this updated Duramax is one of the smoothest operators available in any SUV. It’s also one of the most efficient in terms of output and capability: My lead foot averaged a computer-indicated 16.7 mpg over 314 miles. That’s decent when you consider the Suburban’s size and weight, but nonmaniacs can expect to see figures closer to the EPA’s 22 mpg combined rating with the diesel engine.

How Big Is the Display in the 2025 Chevrolet Suburban?

While the driving experience is all mostly carried over from the last model, the biggest changes for 2025 have been levied onto the interior. Specifically, the new, massive 17.7-inch infotainment touchscreen is a jumbotron compared with the prior 8- or 10.2-inch screen. Its operation is as high-fidelity and reactive as the massive screens in other recent Chevys, including the Blazer EV and Traverse, and it incorporates Apple CarPlay and Android Auto connectivity as part of its Google Built-In-based interface. The only downside I could find was the relatively long reach for some features — but that’s a happy trade-off for prime digital real estate.

This new screen necessitated a redesigned dashboard layout, leading to new positions for the climate vents and wireless charging pad. There’s a new steering wheel, too, but the overwhelming majority of physical controls remain immediately familiar for those who have operated a full-size Chevrolet in the past decade.

A few things to note: Though my High Country test vehicle rode beautifully, your comfort will vary depending on how you equip your Suburban. Lower trims arrive with a traditional “fixed” suspension setup, with both an air suspension and magnetic ride control optional. There’s also a 6-inch delta between the Suburban’s available wheel sizes, with the smallest being 18-inch wheels and top-end models getting big, blingy 24-inch rims.

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How Does the 2025 Chevrolet Suburban Compare With the GMC Yukon?

The brakes are strong, but they also channel some of the final vestiges of this vehicle’s truck genes. It takes a comparatively strong push of the brake pedal to slow the Suburban and keep it stationary at stoplights; even the mighty High Country trim doesn’t come with auto hold, which isn’t even available on the modestly bougier GMC Yukon Denali. Materials are also slightly underwhelming; the Suburban’s trim and tinsel feel somewhat intentionally held back to leave space for its higher-end GMC and Cadillac siblings.

That said, the High Country’s materials are nice enough for your passengers to never, ever complain. Ditto for its expansive list of creature features, which lacks only massaging seats and auto-up windows for rear passengers. For maximum surprise and delight, make sure you nab the Technology and Entertainment Package, which fits a pair of 12.6-inch seatback screens with corresponding headsets to keep your kiddos (or fidgety adults) distracted long enough for you to get some peace and quiet.

Really, there ain’t much more to say. Unless you lease ‘n’ release your full-size SUV, these updates won’t be quite substantial enough to justify ditching a 2023 or 2024 model, but the 2025 Chevrolet Suburban High Country remains one of the best ways to move a whole lotta anything and anybody with ease — and in leather-lined comfort.

Big ‘Burbs for life.

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