New York loves Thanksgiving, a fact that reflects both the city’s appreciation for a big party and its strange desire to involve Al Roker in everything. It’s why, on most Thanksgivings, my brother-in-law packs his family of four into a seven-passenger crossover and drives from Michigan to New York. In years past, he’s also driven my family of three into the city for post-Thanksgiving revery. He clearly does not love doing this.
If you asked him if he’d rather drive the 14 hours from Grand Rapids three times or the 14 miles from my place into Manhattan once, he’d probably take the former. I love my Brother-in-Law. I got a good one. As a surprise for him, I asked to borrow the car I secretly always suspected was the best vehicle for going into the city: A Chevrolet Tahoe.
While my BIL has lived in cities and is totally capable of driving anywhere, the weight that vanished from his shoulders when I handed him a beer and told him he wouldn’t need to drive us into Manhattan can only be measured in megatons.
I’ve been trapped enough in gridlock to not always love the prospect of driving in Manhattan, but at the same time, I’ve adopted that gruff nonchalance that most native New Yorkers naturally exude when faced with any obstacle. Plus, it would let me test my little theory.
As Brian can tell you, actually owning a car in the city is one nonstop hassle after another. The roads have the durability of a three-day-old, pigeon-pecked Zaro’s bagel. The remaining yellow cabs are driven with a deep-seated anger that’s usually reserved for World Cup soccer fans. Tourists, unaware that the city’s terrible street design exists mostly to remove them from the population, dart into traffic with the reckless abandon of a wide receiver for the Tennessee Titans.
It sucks. And, to some degree, it should suck. There’s not enough space in the city for everyone to have a car. Making it expensive (via parking rules, tolls, or congestion charges) is fair. I once met a guy who lived on the west side of Central Park and would drive his Mercedes to visit his girlfriend on the opposite side of the park. That guy should have to pay out of his nose for the privilege; otherwise, the city would become unlivable.
Living in and around New York City for more than a decade, my preferred form of transit into and around Manhattan is a train. It’s mostly safe, cheap, convenient, and even fun. If you watch or read certain news outlets, you’d get the impression that Escape From New York is a documentary, but the reality is that this is just part of a vast and elaborate conspiracy to confine visitors from North Dakota to a narrow triangle bounded by the Empire State Building, Rockefeller Plaza, and the Times Square M&M Store.
If I had my druthers, we’d have headed into the city on the day after Thanksgiving via public transit. Having your druthers and having a family are often mutually exclusive concepts, so I drove.
GM is great at certain aspects of engineering. The company can design a heater that produces hot air at a rate that would make James Dolan look like a mime, a suspension that can absorb as much abuse as a J-Train conductor, and a V8 with a punch that would make Sugar Ray Robinson proud.
All of these are bare minimums when transporting your family into the city. The company’s SuperCruise hands-free driving system isn’t exactly a requirement, although it’s the ADAS I trust most to deal with Bronx drivers.
The particular Tahoe I borrowed was a 2026 4WD RST with a not-quite-Uber black Dark Ash Metallic exterior and Jet Black leather interior with Victory Red contrast stitching. It had all of the packages you’d want for city driving, including the one that brings SuperCruise, the one that brings magnetic ride control and the air ride adaptive suspension, and the one with the heated steering wheel.
They’re rugged vehicles with enough power and grit for a place that respects both, which is probably why I saw so many in the city on our trip.
You might suspect that a truck that imbibes like Babe Ruth, stands taller than Aaron Judge, and weighs more than a bullpen full of CC Sabathias isn’t the right choice for a modern metropolis. You would be wrong. No worries, though, as New Yorkers regularly elect people who are inveterately wrong to be mayor.
The anti-car urbanists like to point to the elevated hood height as a reason why having these in the city should be outlawed, and, as this photo shows, your seating position is quite elevated. If Spike Lee had managed to sneak in front of the hood as I drove around Manhattan, I wouldn’t have seen him.
However, this vehicle also comes equipped with front pedestrian and bicyclist braking and alerts, as well as rear pedestrian alert, HD surround vision, and a whole suite of sensors that let me know the second anyone ventures too close to the vehicle. All of that’s standard.
The big truck is also incredibly maneuverable. We went to the Metropolitan Museum of Art (The Met) to walk off all the turkey. And the ice cream cake that was shaped like a turkey. Weaving in and out of Midtown traffic was easy, and parking in the narrow underground Met parking garage was a piece of cake… shaped like a turkey.
We were supposed to meet up with a cousin who lives in an apartment near Columbus Circle, but we had an awkward amount of time to kill. The family walked to check out the Guggenheim while I darted off to retrieve the Tahoe.
Though I like the Guggenheim, it’s honestly not my favorite museum, and I was happy to climb into the warm Tahoe and swing around and pick them up on the other corner of Central Park. This little sidequest didn’t quite eat up enough time, so I thought I’d take my family where you’re supposed to take family: Times Square.
I like the Guggenheim more than I like Times Square, and driving there is always a pain. Even walking there is a pain. It is Disney-fied New York at its most commercial and unappealing. The lights are cool, though.
A Tahoe might be the perfect way to experience Times Square, as none of us ever had to avoid being accosted by a mostly naked man with a guitar. No cops yelled at us. And we ran into exactly zero Al Rokers.
I am not competitive with my BIL. I have nothing to prove to him, and he has nothing to prove to me, other than that we’re taking care of our respective wives and godchildren lest we hear from our shared MIL.
It doesn’t mean it’s not fun to impress him. After calmly driving through the Bronx around Manhattan for the day, we finally arrived at my cousin’s place. I assumed I’d have to fork over $40 to park the Tahoe in a nearby garage. As luck would have it, a Tahoe-sized spot appeared.
With the grace of Misty Copeland and the unearned confidence of Eric Adams, I executed a perfect parallel parking maneuver. Seeing as last Christmas I got a frisbee stuck in a tree outside his house while trying to remove a different frisbee, the impressed nod of approval felt pretty good.

As a final testament to the prowess of the Tahoe, I stuffed the thing with cousins, groceries, and turkey-shaped ice cream cakes, and it came out looking basically brand new.
If you can drive it here, you can drive it anywhere. And you can definitely drive it here.
Top photo: Matt Hardigree/DepositPhotos.com
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The Chevy Suburban and it’s siblings have been, and always will be, my vote for the best American made vehicle.
NYC is vastly overrated in terms of driving difficulty, it’s actually one of the easier major cities I’ve driven in. London and Paris are far worse, and Rome is… gladatorial.
In my area, police have switched to Tahoes for patrol cruisers, so I find myself paying more attention to Tahoes now, just like I did for Crown Vics, Dodge Chargers, and Ford Explorers.
Tahoes could end up enjoying the “cruiser effect” as people are a bit extra careful driving around them, just in case.
“Having your druthers and having a family are often mutually exclusive concepts, so I drove.”
Ain’t that the truth
I think Jerry Seinfeld remarked on one of the SCR podcasts that a G-wagen was his preferred Manhattan vehicle due to the combination of height, relatively narrow width, and reasonable length. Excluding the girth consideration here, could see some parallels.
That said, I’m thankful that I’ve never had to drive into the city, and not sure I’d want to (even if there was a G550 involved).
As a midwesterner, driving in Manhattan wasn’t as bad as people said it would be. The traffic there makes sense; everyone has someplace to be, and you will get there eventually, but I was never in a rush. Admittedly, I did get a taste for real traffic and it made me appreciate rush hour in Minneapolis.
I’ve had a similar discussion with folks about new Broncos. I have a base 2 door and it’s PERFECT for cities. 33’s mean no issues with street conditions – 2 door is actually quite short/about same length as a BRZ(albeit a bit wide), plastic front and rear bumpers are cheap to replace and no parking sensors. Sits up high enough to spot any crazies but not enough to cause issues in parking garages.
I really don’t want to depend on sensors to tell me if there’s a person in front of my car, and I don’t think I should have to. This trend of shoulder-high hoods is gross.
I had a Yukon recently as a rental on a family trip to the Pacific Northwest, which included a few days in Seattle. I was legitimately surprised at how well suited it was to getting around, even in very narrow neighborhoods while we looked for a place to stash it to watch the Blue Angels out over Lake Washington. The only real issue was one you won’t find in Manhattan…. Driving up Seattle’s hills was an experience that I imagine is a lot like driving a squatted truck on flat ground. But overall I gave it a 10/10 as a family truckster that served well hauling all of my people and crap around the city, on the beach, and in the Olympic rain forest.
As a weekday Manhattanite, I can attest to Matt’s description of behind the wheel life here. If you’re not lucky enough to find a spot on the street to park however, you’ll enter the land of parking structure hell. It took us only 8 months to realize that an attendant had set up house in our car between 6 pm and 7 am weekdays. His indiscriminate tossing of a Dunkin munchkin box and a well used blanket behind the third seat was our first clue.
Matt’s trying to get all his references, metaphors, and similes out by the end of the year, respect. Fun read as usual. Like many in the comments, I’ve not driven in NYC. But I have driven in Turin and Milan multiple times, and would advise against either. And that’s in a Renault Clio or Seat Leon and the like, quite small cars.
A new car is never the right car for NYC.
Let’s be honest, any car outside of a taxi or similar livery vehicle is never the right choice.
I’ve never driven in NYC (although I have been there in summer, when it’s far too hot, and winter, when it’s far too cold) but I have driven in London a lot, and never in anything smaller than a LWB Ford Transit. It was fine, even with my passenger throwing Haribo at the guy next to us in a convertible Aston. Battered rental vans fit everywhere, sometimes with a bit noise.
“If you can drive it here, you can drive it anywhere. And you can definitely drive it here.”
The town I live in has a main street narrow enough that it’s only really a two way street if both cars are Smarts.
I really enjoyed this article.
I took my F150 (a bit longer but similar foortprint overall) to NYC a couple weeks ago for a weekend with the Mrs. (Her Odyssey was being cranky and I didn’t want to risk it on the 3 hour drive) Yes, driving a large vehicle in the city has advantages (espeiclaly on the weekend with less traffic, as others have noted). But parking? Thats a whole other animal. Oversize vehicle fee? Of course, extra $15 a night please. Oh, actually a full size truck is a SUPER Size vehicle, that’s another $15 on top of the other fee. That’s assuming the garage will take you at all. Also, if you’re street parking, assuming you can find a large enough spot, remeber to fold the giant mirrors every time or you may regret it. We’re taking her Odyssey next time.
I own a Yukon. It has the BEST turning radius of any car I think I’ve ever driven outside my focus ST. Everytime I take it from the wife and have to go park somewhere it blows me away I don’t need to fix my park like I need to in my truck sometimes. We love it. The size is phenomenal for long road trips with the family, super comfortable etc… No regrets going bigger than we “need”.
I drove my Lexus GX460 across Manhattan a couple of times, and it was pretty good for the job, just like the Tahoe, but the best vehicle for driving *IN* Manhattan was definitely a Smart Crossblade.
With no roof or windshield and only the bare minimum of doors, you find yourself striking up conversations with strangers at lights and while making turns. It was a surreal outing.
Let’s not talk about falling into a pothole on FDR so big it caused the car to shut down a, thinkingt had been in a crash. Thankfully, no damage was done.
Oh yeah, it’s not great for carrying a family either.
I found a motorcycle to be the best way into the city when I lived in Westchester and my girlfriend was in Park Slope. A bike can lane split and at the time the cops generally didn’t care if you parked on the sidewalk. Of course you’re limited to one passenger and it’s no fun in bad weather but it’s great the rest of the time.
I still try not to drive in cities, although Portland is a much lower degree of difficulty. It’s still easier to park in Beaverton and take the MAX.
That sounds super fun for the 6 months a year NYC is a dreary cold shithole.
Visted NYC a couple of years ago, stayed in Brooklyn and rode the (excellent) subway system daily. Had to drive into Manhaten on our final day, rented Pacifica minvan. Nowhere near as perilous as rumored. Great place to visit, but no real desire to live there long term.
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