"Tahoe," they kept saying. "When ya gonna get a Tahoe?" Everybody kept asking. The folks at work kept asking. The readers kept asking. (I thought I heard my my in-laws' dog Kira ask, but maybe not; she's a wheaten terrier, and they tend to prefer Toyotas.) So when the GM Goddess offered us a Tahoe for three days, we jumped at it. Always give the people what they want, I say. Besides, there was a race to be attended.

The Tahoe is either a four-door K-Blazer or a Suburban that got dried on "high," depending. Dimensions are similar to the USS Suburban except in length, where Tahoe fits neatly between Chevy's Blazer and the big box.

Tahoe's height gives you a commanding view of the road, and it also makes parking attendants nervous. We took it into a 6'4" garage, inspiring quite a bit of nervousness from the staff, but it made it with no height-related problems. You've got to watch out for the width when parking in a narrow space or next to a pillar or something like that. Experimentation proved that you can get the Tahoe into a two-car garage next to a Mercury Capri with plenty of room to spare, if you simply run the left side mirror just a teensy bit through the holly bush.

Jim Creedon was our test driver for the holly phase of our test. His wife Madelyn was the most persistent member of the "When ya gonna get a Tahoe?" brigade; they have two kids, and are looking for a utility vehicle to replace an aging Taurus wagon. They had been looking at the Jeep Grand Cherokee, but noted that for a similar price ($31,000 all loaded up) they could have the much roomier Chevy.

So, from the parking garage, we took the Tahoe to suburbia. Madelyn was pleased to find that with the rear gate open, she could still reach in and get stuff out of the back. Jim, who has driven them all, said that despite its size, the Tahoe's road feel falls between the very carlike Blazer and the more trucky Explorer, an observation with which we concur.

The Creedons also lauded the wide center divider in the rear seat with a tissue dispenser and two cupholders for the rear seat passengers (who also get their own grab handles and reading lights.) They especially liked it as a child separator, noting noted that having a wide, substantial divider left no question as to whose turf was where. The rear seat back is split 60/40 split and releases from the bottom for easy removal.

The Tahoe is made for interior utility. It's got a lot of familiar fitments from the Blazer, the first-ever vehicle to win four Golden Cupholders. The Tahoe even sports the same overhead storage spine as the Blazer. "The preponderance of storage and cupholders is truly amazing and sets all records," said the Splendid Co-Driver. "I think, frankly, this is the 4.5 golden cupholder vehicle."

I demur, noting that the plentiful features are in proportion to the Tahoe's size. For the record, there are:

--An enormous center console, with cassette storage and a flip-up clipboard on top;

--Grab handles everywhere, front and rear;

--An electric photochromic mirror, with a compass set into its top right corner;

--The aforementioned ceiling spine, including storage compartments (with fitted storage for sunglasses), reading lamps, and a slot for your garage remote;

--A slide out bin and two cupholders in the back of the center console for the rear seat passengers to use;

--The rear seat divider with two cupholders and storage;

--Two molded-in in cupholders in front of the front passenger, and two more that pull out. (For those of you keeping score at home, that's eight -- yes, eight-- cupholders, the most we've ever seen on a vehicle not owned by the United States Navy.)

The Tahoe's interior utility didn't overwhelm us as the Blazer did, because the features are spread out over so much more room. But we'll bow to logic and repeat our four Golden Cupholder rating, giving Chevy a monopoly on that tier.

It has a 5.7 liter engine, which is to say the Chevy 350. (It's very interesting to see how a 5.7 liter engine in a vehicle like this with an automatic transmission is so very different from the 5.8 liter we drove in the Mustang Cobra R, but the target markets are probably not the same.)

The neck-snapping acceleration crowd will look elsewhere, but once you get the Tahoe cruising on its Goodrich Long Trail TA's, it goes on effortlessly. The tires seem to be a compromise between on- and off-road, with a little more aggressive tread than usual, but they ride quite quietly, as does the vehicle in general.

Now her Splendidity: the Tahoe "pulls up smoothly and powerfully and when you hit the gas and want to get away, a nice feeling for a vehicle this big. Once again, this vehicle, just like the Blazer, makes an easy transition for a person who is used to driving a much smaller vehicle. Despite being high up, I feel comfortable."

"It's also very easy to go very fast in this vehicle without really thinking about it." We agreed that it could use a lot more brake.

The EPA got 15 mpg on the highway. Running from Washington down to the speedway at South Boston, Virginia, we got 16.6. We also found much to like about the big Chevy. It's tight, it's competent, it's vast.

Build quality seems reasonably good, with no obvious squeaks or rattles. The SC-D liked the solidity, including a resounding klunk from the doors. She doted on the leather seats, calling them "an interesting juxtaposition" with the more rugged features of the Tahoe, like the carpeting, "that still seems like it's not going to go completely trashy in a big hurry."

More people turn to look at the Tahoe than you expect. It was a constant theme of our trip down to South Boston, including four guys in an Olds Cutlass who just goggled and pointed and talked and tried to keep up with it so they could goggle and point some more.

The large flat front of this vehicle means that bugs cannot miss it.

A thoughtful touch, the seat belt fastener anchors are adjustable in back as well as for the front seat. The vast storage space in the back can take just about anything you wish to carry shy of a helicopter. Very impressive.

The Splendid One found it impressive, too. "Chevy really does appear to know how to do trucks and do trucks well. While there are some things I really liked about the Ford Explorer, both the Blazer and the Tahoe are among my favorites for this class of vehicle."

"A very well configured set of instruments in the panel for the driver. Things that are important are large, things that are not tremendously important are small, which is good."

Shift on the fly four-wheel drive is interesting, but the little diagram on the floor that shows you which wheels are engaged doesn't need to be lit at night; it provides something of a distraction.

The air conditioning is rather efficacious. All the windows are tinted except, of course, the windshield and front two. Even leaving the car out on a 95-degree day at South Boston, it didn't heat up appreciably.

The door grip has a cheap-looking insert and shows a pair of hex-head screws. They could have at least put a cap over the screws. We also found some poor fit in the interior trim for a $31,000 vehicle. The plastic moldings that cover the front of the rear seat legs look like they are -- and even feel like they are -- cheap plastic attachments and even with a cheap plastic screw and will start to get kicked, bent, and break and come off easily.

The SC-D found the gear shift stiff to move, but the turn signal stalk in a good place for persons with small hands. "I can reach it very easily from where my hands want to be."

"The seat is very comfortable. I can see that this would be a comfortable seat for a long ride. I like the back support, I like the feeling left, right, and it's got a nice comfortable big seat. All very good. The seat has a whiny little motor which is too bad." I would add that the passenger seat does not have all the power adjustments for tilt and such that the driver seat does. It does have the lumbar support.

Our test Tahoe was dark green with a beige metallic on the bottom and beige leather. It looked like the Ford Eddie Bauer package. And I just about sold it to the Creedons. Madelyn liked it a whole lot, but held out only for a passenger air bag. That alone is the reason she may look at the Lincoln Navigator, and Ford Expedition, the coming competition.

But let's finish with the SC-D: "Overall, in general, the moldings fit well, the pieces fit well. This one, at least, is a very well assembled and well-designed vehicle."

Will it last? When Cal Ripken played game 2,131, his team owner gave him a Tahoe. What more need one say?

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