Felt like this was the best thread to respond to but this seems like a good place to send this along. Not that it will help, as I have been told time and time again Ford doesn't look at or care about forums on the web.
I recently spent a full week with a rental 22' Chevy Suburban Premier. It had 25k miles on it and was actually in pretty good shape for a rental. This particular model, was a Premier edition, with HD tow, and a few upgrades. I just thought I'd come on and give my thoughts after a full week with this rig. And I want to preface this with the fact that this barely competes with my Platinum, I would generally consider a Yukon Denali a little more like the Platy, maybe this is more like a Limited. But regardless, I'll give my thoughts.
Interior:
I'm sorry, in many ways this beats the Expy. Far more leather, and less plastic. I do prefer the cluster in the expy, but the controls both physical and digital crush the 22' expy. You don't need a 15" display to make something usable. The seats in this were heated, cooled, and included both massage and the infamous driver alert vibration system. the seats had better lateral control and felt more comfortable. the doors felt far more rigid and the sound they made was more secure. They also seemed to have better weather stripping just about everywhere. The center console was more functional, including the substantially larger bay for wireless phone charging. My phone is pretty small and barely works in the expy, but this was much larger! the software for the touch screens seemed much more responsive than even the latest updates for Sync 3.4.
Driver dynamics, electronics:
I have to say, this is one that makes me the most annoyed. My window sticker literally says "Heads up display" and Ford considers stupid red LED's that flash when you're coming up on a vehicle as a heads up display. I had a better HUD on an 90's Mitsubishi. But the Chevy's HUD was amazing. It had everything from speed, to fuel efficiency, to navigation, to even adaptive cruise info. Fully functional, even better than the Navigators display. This ****** me off, you pay more for the plati and this thing is so much more functional. The stereo (which in this was the Bose upgraded system) was also better. Lower volume and higher volume music was better. I personally think a lot of that has to do with the stage. This system not only has tweeters at the listeners level in the front, but far more. In the dash, there is a center channel as well as at least 4.5" if not 3x5 or 4x7 speaker's in the front. the best mid to high sound for front passengers is what radiates off the windshield and this really helps. The sub was pretty much the same. But the mids and highs were much better. I absolutely hated, hated, hated the gear selection functions. those buttons you have to push and pull were terrible, and on paddle shifters. Hated that SOOO much. Even worse than our dials. I didn't like the location of the trailer brake controller or some of the other knobs to the left of the steering wheel though.
Drivetrain:
This section is a little hard. hte acceleration was no where near as "powerful" as the 3.5ECO. But I will 100% say that the 10SPD seemed to match the V8 a whole lot better. While the acceleration in the 3.5ECO is more dramatic, heavy acceleration in the Suburban wasn't as dramatic but felt much smoother. The tranny responded to shifts during heavy acceleration better, and didn't seem to be searching for gears nearly as badly. I sort of feel like the busrty nature of the turbos causes the tranny to be on edge if you will, where as the V8 was more predictable. I will say, I broke the rears loose several times, was interesting with the very low V8 torque that quickly dropped, vs. the pretty nuts torque after 1500 RPM. In this big rig I managed to get some pretty good MPG, at least 18 at sea level. One thing I thought crushed the expy, was the sound. The low rumble and high RPM sounds coming from the 4 exhaust tips on this were substantially better than stock Expy and even after the thousands I've spent on my exhaust, not only does it look better, but it sounds way better.
Suspension/steering:
The suspension was actually pretty nice. I personally way more prefer an air suspension over the magnetic fluid. My last two vehicles had air suspensions (and were way cheaper than my expy) and rode so much better. I think Ford opting for the mag fluids is a bit of a cheap choice. The Suburban and pretty much the same bobble head experience as my expy pre-upgraded sway bars but riding over rumble strips and cattle guards was way nicer. Potholes, speed humps, etc were way better and it just had less road noise. The steering was pretty equal, although the Suburban seemed to have roughly the same turning radius even though it's larger, that's not a scientific measurement but it felt close. I hated the brakes, they were super squishy and just didn't respond well at all until you pounded on the. The breaks alone were pretty scary.
Overall, I still really like my expy, but I can completely understand why this product family is beating sales and has attracted a lot of folks lately. I know the expy has better towing and better overall stats, but Ford I don't believe is competing on the creature comforts front right now. certainly not when you're comparing the premium Ford (not Lincoln) with the lower class GM.
