Those are good suggestions but few rentals other than Uhaul allow or have the capacity to tow. As its mostly used for local travel not like the 500 miles week I used to do the fuel impact wont be as great but yes still a consideration. Still trying to work within the specs given, I have time to make other suggestions as they come up. If she would go with a mini van I could manage the towing issue another way and still make everyone happy.
Only if they have a factory towing package, or the equivalent.
Hereās what the 2015 owners manual says
Gr8 info thank you.
Great to know, I need to update my notes and do some more reading on this.
I put a pin on the vehicle below but havent looked at it yet as its about 80 miles away.
Used 2015 Chevrolet Suburban LTZ $25,500
91k miles, 5.3L 8-Cylinder Flexible Fuel Engine, 6-Speed Automatic Transmission, No accidents, multiple owners. Havent looked at car fax yet so not sure about maintenance history.
Donāt depend on CarFax for an 9 year old truck. Get a prepurchase inspection to determine condition. Base your purchasing decision on the inspection, not an almost certainly incomplete database.
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Carfax WILL NOT tell you if a vehicle has been in a wreck, only if a wreck has been turned into insurance etcā¦ Carfax only knows what has been reported, not what has not been reportedā¦
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Thanks for the input. I use carfax as supplemental to a physical inspection. I was wondering if this vehicle would be considered one of the reliable models or unreliable? Trying to get a cheat sheet created so I can do a quick go-no go as I peruse listings.
The 9 yo Suburban and any of the other trucks can be reliable if they were properly maintained. Maintenance is more important in a nearly 10 yo vehicle.
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Not wanting to seem narrow minded and feeling as though most years in our target range of the GM, GMC and Ford models have so many issues I started looking outside the American makes but still maintain the size specs I ran across the Nissan Armada. The size and interior config caught my eye and the v8 seems like it has plenty of power and pricing offers newer models with lower mileage than the American makes. Anyone ever run across one of these? I am going to do some searching on it and see where things land.
Check carcomplaints.com for reported problems with full size SUVs. The 2015 Armada has no more than one complaint in each category. The 2015 Toyota Sequoia has three complaints total.
Once you decide on a candidate, suggest to secure a pre-purchase inspection by your own mechanic before writing any checks. This is done at your expense, $100-$150 usually. Money well spent. Make sure part of that the testing includes verifying the check engine light behaves correctly, and that all of the computerās readiness monitors are in their 'complete" state. Cars these days test themselves for a lot of potential problems. When the monitors are in the ācompleteā state, this means that the computer has ran all of the self-tests and they all pass. Thatās what you want. The other possibilities for each test are āfailā or āincompleteā. You donāt want either of those. If somebody tells you āthis isnāt a problem, you just have to drive it some more, then it will passā, insist they prove it. Insist they drive it some more until it passes.
But I bet they sold a lot more Sequoias. Thatās the problem with comparing different vehicles on their site.
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I sold a few of them back when the came out. By 2005 standards they were impressive (not incredibly reliable initially) . But Nissan held on to the design for way too long. By 2010 it was pretty outdated compared to the American offerings. And it didnāt see a major redesign until 2017. The current model (2017-up) is modern and has everything youād expect in a full-size SUV. As mentioned before the 2005-2016 model was pretty nice by the standards of 2005, but fell way behind in pretty much every area about halfway through itās production run. Itās not known for the kind of reliability you get out the Toyota overall, but late first gens were pretty good IIRC as they had been making the same vehicle for a decade at that point.
Went out to look at one yesterday and typical low life dealer couldnt produce the vehicle, turned out to be a bait and switch which is why I am a fan of private sales. I hope I can get to see one soon so I can see if an option. I am just not impressed with GM or Fords track records on reliability nor do I find them to be priced reasonably which is why I have now expanded my search.
Anyone watch Scotty Kilmer on YouTube? He is a mechanic with some 50 years experience and besides being a gas to watch he feels that the majority of cars and trucks built today in fact within the last decade are nothing but garbage. In one video he actually commented briefly on the Nissan Armada, needless to say it wasnt comforting and also threw Ford, GM and especially Dodge under the bus as well. It should not be the luck of the draw when buying a vehicle especially given the costs not sure why we, consumers, are putting up with it. PSā¦He also dissed my beloved Volvoās as well but the newer models which wasnt a surprise. My mechanic, who works on models up to 2015, has been telling me for years that he wont touch the newer cars and actually turns away customers because they are nothing but headaches.
Iāve never watched his programs. Just curious, brief summary, what are his main complaints about newer cars? Overly complicated, making them difficult to diagnose & repair? Or something more fundamental, like using questionable bearing materials?
I read an article in a classics-car magazine about repairing an automatic transmission. Vanda-Plus I think is the brand name of the car. It looked like a tough job, but something an intrepid diyāer could almost do in their driveway given enough time. I doubt such a thing is possible with modern automatics.
= āBlowhardā I donāt rely on him for anything.
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Scotty Kilmer is WAY out there and just does stuff for attention, imo
I donāt take guys like him seriously
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Seems his major issues are with complexity, cheap components, lack of quality vs cost, redesigning systems that were previously bullet proof, example is Toyotas v6 twin turbo vs the original v8 for the Tundra, another is Nissans transmissions, seems the front wheel drive tranny is garbage wile the rear wheel drive has been in existence for many years and is considered rock solid. Since I refuse to buy new one of the reasons is and I agree with Scotty is that everything is cheaply made of plastic and resins and doesnt hold up to wear. He had one video where he took Ford to task because the tail light on an f150 truck that was somewhere in the 60k price range leaked and as that wasnt bad enough these leaks caused on board computers to get fried and the cost to repair was estimated at 4k. Whether you like him or not you have to agree with his view that vehicles are made like garbage today and as he says due in part to drive up repair costs later down the line because that is where most of the money is made. For me varied view points are necessary to filter out the nonsense and facts and Scotty has many view points.
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Yes his approach is over the top but not an reason to discount what he has to say especially when much of it is reasonable. You cant say he is full of it when he talks about topics that many here and on other chat boards have actually experienced. A typhoon makes a lot of noise and kicks up a lot of dirt but you wouldnt necessarily ignore it just because one has yet to cross your path. He is just raising awareness in a way that is entertaining, I bet if there was access to the data he would be proven to be spot on for much of his rants.