On the way to Tempe and to spring training baseball, the Tahoe, up to now a beauty of a ride, showed its gas-sucking Beastly side. With the gauge on E and a long stretch I-10 to go, we stopped, popped the top on the gas tank and watched as the machine rang up 60 bucks.

It was worse than playing the slots at the Spotlight 29.

Sixty bucks. And that was before the recent gas price increase. For all the good the Tahoe brings to the driver, it brings a lot of bad in the amount of cash it takes to fill up the tank. Throughout the trip, from E to F ran $60 or more, a whopping amount of money to hand over at the pump. That’s okay, though, if the gas that goes in lasts a good long time. Sadly for Chevrolet, so far the average fuel economy from the 2007 Tahoe registered 13.9 miles – after a complete tank of fuel. Somehow, that special cylinder deactivation technology wasn’t working for us. On the road again, I tried a variety of different techniques, even though we were on a highway, and the Tahoe is designed to be most efficient during this type of driving. I set the cruise control at 75 mph. I slowed down to 70 mph. I stayed in one lane. I tried to grab the draft off a big truck. Finally, I took my foot off the accelerator. That worked. Unfortunately, I had to place it back on the accelerator a few seconds later, which poses a slight problem for Tahoe owners.