Thinking about buying a Tahoe

[5030]

Just get a Burb......lol Why go half way... My wife did. Looking at the Burb and my little Focus RS, I believe my Focus would fit in the back quite nicely.

 

[5030]

Couple things Bravo...

One, You didn't say which trans you have. My wife's LTZ came with the OEM GM trans (the Allison was optional) and you need to stick to the GM recommended service interval on it. I was very adamant with my wife about that and no 'flushing it', full fluid change and a new filter. GM's recommendation is 60K miles, If you have the Allison (you can the code on the drivers door) and by looking underneath as the Allison looks much different than the GM slush box, the Allison requires a fluid change and new external filter as well.

The other thing I'm not fond of is the lack of grease fittings on hers. The front end has grease fittings but the driveline don't and she just had to have the back universal joint replaced because it had a dry cup and started making a growling sound. Her dealer replace that, like I said, I don't work on it other than adding windshield washer fluid and checking the engine oil. BTW, her windshield washer fluid is heated below freezing (nice touch) and hers actually came with 2 AC compressors, one for the front and another for the back which is independently controlled. Has the optional (I guess) second starting battery as well. Probably not a bad idea considering all the electronic / electrical stuff on it. Hers also has the 3 row seating and the second row has it's own 'entertainment center' in the roof behind the sun roof (that I've never activated, not sure how actually) and of course it has the 'On Star' and the Sirrius radio as well as the built in GPS in the dash.

I'm not overly fond of the GM IFS front suspension with the 4wd but it's not mine so I don't say anything. Front end is very complex with the rigid mount front differential and half shafts and the air suspension all in one package. Glad the dealer maintains it, not me. Looks to me like a real pizzer to work on...

I do know the air suspension components are very expensive to replace, like almost 500 bucks a shock assembly. I priced them for kicks and grins.

Still, it's an impressive vehicle and GM has had years to perfect them (and make them complex), but what vehicle today isn't complex??

Best thing is, she bought it outright (robbed the piggy bank) so no vehicle payment. Both of us are allergic to car payments anyway.

 

[BravoXray]

5030, it has the GM six speed transmission, but the Carfax report shows that was serviced at ~70K miles, and only has 97K on it now. Once it gets another 10K or so on it, I'm going to take it to a local shop and have it gone over to make sure everything is up to date on maintenance.
Everyone remarks how big it is, but it's the same length as my '04 Town Car and '06 F150, so it's not a big deal to me.

 

[Panik]

I finally found a vehicle, and ended up buying a 2019 Suburban Premier. I couldn't find a Tahoe that suited me, so I widened my search to include Suburbans. Still, 75-80% pf them were either black or white, which I didn't want. I had a couple of false starts, one I liked was priced right, called the salesman to tell him I was coming over to test drive it and make a deal, he called me back 30 minutes later when I was 5 minutes from the dealer and said someone else had just driven it and bought it. I had a check for it in my pocket.
The other one had a price listed online, but after I drove 70 miles to look at it, took it for a test drive, the price went up $4K. I said no thanks and left. They called me back a few times over the last two weeks with a little better deals, but I told them I couldn't trust them at that point. I did like that truck though.
I had a friend drive me down to the dealer 110 miles south of here and the truck was just what they advertised it as, and drove well. So I made a deal with a warranty, and wrote a check. One plus was that it was a northern Florida car, so it hasn't been on the salty roads so far.
With all the options and features, it's going to take a few weeks to learn how to use all of them, but I have a few of the basic ones figured out.
This truck should last me for as long I keep driving.

I also sold my 2004 Town Car, listed it on Craig's list Monday night and sold it to the first email responder, a local guy and his wife, for my asking price.
Next to go is my 2006 F150, and my former boss from when I worked at his freight brokerage says he wants it. I have a little work to do on it first, but then it's going down the road too. One less vehicle to maintain, license and insure.

View attachment 1925111

Nice rig! Like others have mentioned stay current on the service intervals. While it was a new model year, I had a '14 GMC 1/2 ton. Loved it while it was actually on the road and miss it a lot. However, it ate its first transmission at ~96K miles, a second at ~160K, and then a third after my mechanic bought it.

If you have the disposable income I would strongly recommend physically deleting/de-activating the AFM system as a long-term preventative maintenance thing. The reason I finally sold the truck to my mechanic was because of the dreaded AFM/Lifter sticking issue that cropped up after 160K miles. I'm certain costs have changed but in hindsight it would have been much more affordable for my to physically delete that system that pay for the estimated cost of repairs from the AFM system committing suicide. There's also an OBDII plugin module that deactivates the AFM and places the truck in full-time V8 mode, but I'm no longer in the know enough to say if that plugin might cause other issues down the road. For whatever reason the one I had originally played havoc with some of the electrical systems in my truck.

In hindsight it would have been much more affordable to physically deactivate that system than the estimate cost of repairs from the AFM system committing suicide.

 

[BravoXray]

Yes, the AFM was one thing that concerns me, but as long as it works, I'll probably let it function. I did see the devices that attach to the OBDII port to disable it, and I might try one of those, as long as it doesn't interfere with anything else in the system. If it didn't require removing the heads to replace the cam followers, I might attempt to do it myself.

 

[MossRoad]

I finally found a vehicle, and ended up buying a 2019 Suburban Premier. I couldn't find a Tahoe that suited me, so I widened my search to include Suburbans. Still, 75-80% pf them were either black or white, which I didn't want. I had a couple of false starts, one I liked was priced right, called the salesman to tell him I was coming over to test drive it and make a deal, he called me back 30 minutes later when I was 5 minutes from the dealer and said someone else had just driven it and bought it. I had a check for it in my pocket.
The other one had a price listed online, but after I drove 70 miles to look at it, took it for a test drive, the price went up $4K. I said no thanks and left. They called me back a few times over the last two weeks with a little better deals, but I told them I couldn't trust them at that point. I did like that truck though.
I had a friend drive me down to the dealer 110 miles south of here and the truck was just what they advertised it as, and drove well. So I made a deal with a warranty, and wrote a check. One plus was that it was a northern Florida car, so it hasn't been on the salty roads so far.
With all the options and features, it's going to take a few weeks to learn how to use all of them, but I have a few of the basic ones figured out.
This truck should last me for as long I keep driving.

I also sold my 2004 Town Car, listed it on Craig's list Monday night and sold it to the first email responder, a local guy and his wife, for my asking price.
Next to go is my 2006 F150, and my former boss from when I worked at his freight brokerage says he wants it. I have a little work to do on it first, but then it's going down the road too. One less vehicle to maintain, license and insure.

View attachment 1925111

Nice!

 

[lincmercguy]

We have a 2016 Tahoe that we've had about a year. I like it so far. I think it's my favorite generation for styling and rides better than the previous generation. One thing I didn't like was the front lower air dam being really low to the ground. I was trying to order the police version of that, but it was never in stock. I bought a standard one, trimmed it up with a jigsaw, then installed it to replace the beat up one.

I'm sure I'll have to do some work on it over time, it had 109k miles when we bought it. But the price was good and they seem to last a long time.

I don't like the look of the current new ones. They look "bloated".

 

[BravoXray]

Got to put the Suburban to the test this week, my daughter and her family were here to visit for Christmas, and the five of us went a few places in it. They have a '19 Tahoe Premier, and other than the extra 2 feet of the Suburban, the interiors are identical. The more I drive it, the more I like it.

 

[MossRoad]

My wife prefers our 2003 Suburban for long trips. She says it's very comfortable. Happy wife, happy life.

Pretty much anyone I give a ride to in it says within the first 5 minutes "This thing rides pretty nice!".

I'm still surprised how nice the ride is for 195,000 miles.

 

[bigtiller]

My wife prefers our 2003 Suburban for long trips. She says it's very comfortable. Happy wife, happy life.

Pretty much anyone I give a ride to in it says within the first 5 minutes "This thing rides pretty nice!".

I'm still surprised how nice the ride is for 195,000 miles.

Is it a 1500 or 2500?
Or is there any difference in the comfortable ride?