2020 Chevy Suburban: The LT Trim

March 20th, 2020 by

A grey 2020 Chevy Suburban is on a light grey background.

When I was a kid, the go-to vehicle for suburban families was the station wagon. No matter where you went in town, there was at least one station wagon in every driveway. It seemed that every family appreciated having room to seat up to six passengers, with plenty of space in the trunk for luggage for those long family road trips. However, there were limits to the station wagon. They didn’t drive well. Most of them had poor fuel efficiency, a big problem during the oil crisis. They only sat six passengers, so you couldn’t bring your kids’ friends. Finally, they lacked any sense of luxury, built as they were for a purely utilitarian task. But that all changed as families moved to the SUV as the vehicle of choice. These were roomier than station wagons, had as good if not better payload capacity, and handled better than the station wagon. In addition, manufacturers made them more fuel-efficient, more luxurious, and some were even built with a third row of seats to accommodate up to 8 passengers. Such is the case with the 2020 Chevy Suburban, one of the roomiest and most luxurious of all three-row SUVs on the market today.

Chevrolet signaled its target market when it gave the name Suburban to this rugged, dependable, and roomy SUV. One of my favorite trim levels is the LT trim, which is the perfect balance of luxury and affordability, an excellent choice for a large family looking for a great SUV that won’t break the bank. At McCluskey Chevrolet in Cincinnati, we have your full lineup of 2020 Chevy Suburban SUVs, including the popular LT trim. Come in today to test drive one for yourself and see why the Chevy Suburban LT is the best choice for your needs.

Roominess and Capacity

The first thing you will notice about the Chevy Suburban LT is the roominess of this model. Sure, plenty of three-row SUVs advertise that they can seat up to 8 passengers, but the Suburban LT is one of the few vehicles that can actually deliver on this promise. Have you ever had the misfortune of drawing the short straw and getting relegated to the third row of an SUV? In many cases, you are left with so little legroom that you wonder why the manufacturer even bothered putting that third row in the vehicle. Not the case with the Suburban. The designers at Chevrolet haven’t forgotten about the third row passengers in the Suburban LT, with 38.5 inches of headroom, 34.5 inches of legroom, 62.6 inches of shoulder room, and 49.3 inches of hip room. The days of squeezing into the third row are over!

The Chevy designers were able to achieve this without compromising on roominess for the first two rows of passengers. Front row passengers enjoy 42.8 inches of headroom, 45.3 inches of legroom, 64.8 inches of shoulder room, and 60.8 inches of hip room, while second-row passengers will appreciate the space afforded by 39.1 inches of headroom, 39.7 inches of legroom, 65.1 inches of shoulder room, and 60.3 inches of 60.3.

The 2020 Chevy Suburban LT is also one of the few three-row SUVs with plenty of cargo space, even with all three rows of seats in use. There is fully 39.3 cubic feet of cargo space behind the third row. Need more space? The easy to fold down seats will provide 76.7 cubic feet of cargo space with the third row folded down, and an amazing 121.7 cubic feet of cargo space with both rear rows folded down. That should be plenty of room when you have to move even your largest loads.

The cargo area of a 2020 Chevy Suburban is shown while parked on a Cincinnati, OH street.

Engine and Performance.

The 2020 Chevy Suburban LT is rear-wheel drive standard with four-wheel drive available for an extra charge, roughly $3,000 over the LT’s base MSRP of $56,500. Both editions are incredibly easy to handle for a full-size SUV with a 130-inch wheelbase. This is due in part to the efficient 5.3-liter EcoTec3 V8 engine. This is paired with a 6-speed automatic transmission and is capable of producing up to 355 horsepower and 383 lb-ft of torque. The Suburban LT features variable valve timing and active fuel management technology to improve the engine’s fuel efficiency.

The EPA estimates fuel economy of 15 MPG in the city and 22 MPG on the highway on the rear-wheel drive Suburban LT. The four-wheel drive Suburban LT is not quite as fuel-efficient, providing an estimated 14 MPG in the city and 21 MPG on the highway. All 2020 Chevy Suburban LT’s come with a 31 gallon fuel tank, giving this SUV a great deal of range.

A Surfeit of Standard Safety Features

Yes, I just used the word surfeit, because there is no other way to describe how many safety features come standard on the 2020 Chevy Suburban LT. This is because unless you know they are there on your Suburban LT, you may not even be aware that they exist. It starts with 4-wheel antilock disc brakes, seven airbags, daytime running lights, OnStar and Chevrolet connected services, a LATCH system for child restraint seats, rear child security door locks, StabiliTrak electronic stability control system with traction control, a tire pressure monitoring system, and warning tones.

In addition, there is a whole group of smart safety technologies that comes on the LT package. There is automatic emergency braking, which alerts you if it detects that a front-end collision is imminent when driving under 50 miles per hour, and can reduce the severity of a collision by automatically applying emergency braking if you have not already engaged the Suburban’s brakes. This is similar to forward collision alert, which alerts you of imminent frontal collisions at higher speeds.

The Suburban LT also comes equipped with lane keep assist with lane departure warning. This helps you avoid collision due to unintentionally drifting out of your lane, and also provides alerts when you cross a lane marker without signaling. Hill start assist will keep the brakes engaged when your vehicle is on an incline, and you have to shift your foot from the brake to the gas pedal, preventing it from a dangerous rollback. Finally, there is a rear vision camera and rear park assist. This provides distance alerts to objects detected behind your Suburban LT when you are moving in reverse. Each of these standard safety features will go a long way to keeping you and your passengers safe.

Luxury Features on the Suburban LT

The interior view of the dashboard and infotainment features are shown.

One of the things that really sets the 2020 Chevy Suburban LT apart from other three-row full-size SUVs is the attention to luxury details in the vehicles. You and your passengers will enjoy leather appointed seats, including heated front bucket seats with memory setting. This helps you avoid the nuisance of constantly adjusting your driver’s seat. Simply set the seat to your favored position, and then the system will automatically go back to that position after the car has been driven by another driver.

For added convenience, the Suburban LT has a power liftgate with programmable height. Instead of having to manually open and close the trunk on the Suburban, you can simply push a button to operate this task. Your back and shoulders will be very grateful.

The 2020 Chevy Suburban also comes equipped with the Chevrolet Infotainment System. This combines the best entertainment and information systems on a convenient and easy-to-use 8-inch color touchscreen. The system includes Bluetooth connectivity, Apple CarPlay and Android Auto capability, voice-activated controls for your phone and radio, and USB ports for charging and audio streaming. There is also a trial subscription to SiriusXM satellite radio, giving you the chance to sample some of the best on-air programming, all commercial-free. This will help you show off the Suburban LT’s standard Bose premium 9-speaker audio system.

Bose is one of the most renowned names in sound engineering, and its high-quality speakers will make you think you are in a concert hall and not an SUV. This Bose system also includes the AudioPilot noise Compensation technology that ingeniously monitors cabin noise level and adjusts volume, to give you a seamless sound experience no matter where you may drive. There is also an HD radio to keep you informed through those specialized channels, and a single-slot CD/MP3 player in case you would prefer to get your music from those formats.

The luxury features on the LT package are not limited to the interior of the SUV. There are a pair of RainSense automatic windshield wipers that turn on automatically when the sensors detect varying degrees of precipitation on the windshield. In addition, there are IntelliBeam headlights that will turn on the Suburban LT’s headlights if the system detects low light in the surrounding area. They will then automatically turn off if the amount of light increases or if the system detects the headlights of an approaching vehicle or the taillights of a vehicle in front of you.

If you want luxury, drivability, and affordability in a three-row full-size SUV, then the 2020 Chevy Suburban LT is the one for you.