Ford Expedition Vs. Chevrolet Tahoe: 3-Row SUVs, Compared

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Families often use vehicles like the Ford Expedition and the Chevrolet Tahoe. These are big SUVs with pickups as their base, allowing them to offer seating for three rows of people and impressive towing capabilities, rivaling that of full-size trucks. Are you looking for a vehicle that can accommodate a larger family and also handle the task of towing a boat on your summer vacation? These vehicles are an excellent place to begin your search.

These family-friendly vehicles have been thoroughly updated for 2025, featuring extensive lists of standard features, fresh new exterior designs, and impressive performance capabilities. But which of these two family haulers is the best fit for your needs? Which one offers the most efficiency? Which family vehicle provides the most towing power when you need to haul a trailer? And which one offers the most space for your family members who can't help but overpack? Let's take a closer look and see how these two compare.

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Pricing for Large Family SUVs

With all the capabilities offered by these two three-row SUVs, their price tags are certainly significant. The new 2025 Tahoe starts at $60,495 (including a $1,995 destination charge) for a base LS model with rear-wheel drive. The LS comes with Chevy's robust 5.3-liter V8 and a decent list of standard features, including smartphone connectivity and a six-speaker stereo, but it's not particularly luxurious. It has cloth upholstery, second- and third-row seats with manual adjustments, and a manually-adjustable steering column. Top-of-the-line models like the Tahoe High Country include a long list of luxury features, such as the upgraded 6.2-liter V8, magnetic ride control suspension, and a Bose 10-speaker stereo, but you'll have to pay a premium. The MSRP for a rear-drive Tahoe High Country is $78,695, not accounting for any optional features.

The Expedition has its own line of models. The base model, known as the Expedition Active, starts at $63,695, including a $1,995 destination charge. It features cloth upholstery, rear-wheel drive, a six-speaker sound system, and the base engine, which is a turbocharged 3.5-liter V6. At the high end of the lineup is the King Ranch trim, a strong competitor to the Tahoe High Country, but it comes with a significant price increase. The King Ranch has a sticker price of $85,650, including the destination charge, and in addition to the Expedition Active features, it also includes luxury leather upholstery, a 22-speaker sound system by B&O, and BlueCruise, a hands-free driver aid system.

What power options are available?

As I mentioned earlier, the Chevrolet Tahoe comes equipped with a variety of powerful engines. The base option is a 5.3-liter V8, a workhorse engine commonly used in Chevy trucks, producing 355 horsepower and 383 pound-feet of torque. It's included as standard on most Tahoe trims, including LS, LT, RST, Z71, and Premier. If you're looking for more oomph, a 6.2-liter V8 engine is also available, churning out 420 horsepower and 460 pound-feet of torque, and it's standard on the High Country trim. It can also be optioned on the RST, Z71, and Premier trims. Alternatively, the Tahoe can be equipped with a turbocharged 3.0-liter Duramax diesel inline-six cylinder engine, producing 305 horsepower and 495 pound-feet of torque. Regardless of the engine choice, all options are available with rear-wheel drive or four-wheel drive, and are paired with a smooth 10-speed automatic transmission.

Some shippers might gripe about the shortage of a V8 engine option, but the turbocharged 3.5-liter V6 engine produces 400 horsepower and 480 lb-ft of torque in the Active, King Ranch, and Platinum trim levels - actually more than Chevrolet's entry-level V8 engine develops. A higher-output version of Ford's turbocharged V6 engine boosts power to 440 horsepower and 510 lb-ft. This high-performance engine is standard on the off-road focused Tremor model and the luxurious Platinum model. If you're looking for a range of options, the Chevrolet comes out on top, but the Ford's turbocharged V6 is still incredibly powerful.

Fuel Economy Ratings

We expect the 2025 Expedition to have a similar fuel efficiency rating of 17 miles per gallon in the city and 23 miles per gallon on the highway.

The 2025 Tahoe has estimated fuel economy of 17 miles per gallon (15 city/20 highway) with the 5.3-liter V8 and rear-wheel drive. If it comes with four-wheel drive, the highway estimate drops by 1 mpg. With the 6.2-liter V8 and rear-wheel drive, the estimated fuel economy is 17 miles per gallon combined (15 city/20 highway), while with four-wheel drive, it's 16 miles per gallon combined (14 city/18 highway). However, the diesel engine, which is known as the Duramax, is expected to be much more fuel-efficient.

The diesel engine in the Tahoe is not yet officially rated by the EPA for 2025, but the 2024 model gets a relatively good rating of 24 miles per gallon combined (21 city/28 highway) with two-wheel drive and 22 mpg combined (20 city/26 highway) with four-wheel drive. The 2025 diesel engine is actually more powerful, so the official EPA ratings for those numbers might be slightly different, but for now, it remains the top choice among these powertrains.

Towing And Payload

The 2025 Tahoe with the available diesel engine and the right features can tow up to 8,400 pounds, which is more than what's needed to tow a typical car trailer or a medium-sized boat. The maximum payload capacity for the Tahoe is 1,834 pounds. The Tahoe comes with various advanced technologies to make towing simpler, including a tire pressure monitor for trailers, blind-zone steering assist that takes into account the trailer, and a specialized route planning feature within the trailering app to help you navigate with your trailer.

The Expedition can tow a maximum of 7,000 pounds, but if you add a load-leveling bar and a weight-distributing hitch, that limit increases to 9,600 pounds. The maximum capacity for cargo and occupants in the Expedition is 1,756 pounds. Ford's Pro Trailer Backup Assist feature provides a simpler way for new trailer tow operators to steer their trailer when reversing. A dashboard knob can be used as an auxiliary steering wheel, guiding the trailer into the desired spot without requiring the calculations often experienced when backing up a trailer without assistance.

Space And Cargo Capacity

You can purchase the Chrysler, as well as the Ford and the Chevy, which share similar features with their smaller models, but offer more rear space for increased storage capacity.

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As you would probably expect from two modern SUVs like the Expedition and Tahoe, these vehicles are packed with the latest technology. Both offer large infotainment displays, big digital driver displays, and many places to charge your devices. Ford offers a huge new 24-inch panoramic display in place of the standard gauge cluster (and slightly above the center touchscreen), while Chevy offers a large 17.7-inch center infotainment touchscreen alongside the 11-inch driver display.

Both SUVs also have systems that allow hands-free driving, which can greatly reduce driver fatigue on long car rides and daily commutes. The Chevy has something called Super Cruise. On highways across America that Chevy has mapped (they've mapped over 400,000 miles so far), Super Cruise lets you drive hands-free – the vehicle can change lanes on command, stay centered in its lane, and maintain speed and following distance using adaptive cruise control. Ford's BlueCruise offers similar features, and by 2025, they're making BlueCruise available on all Expedition models.

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