I happen to get lucky with mine I bought it from a friend of mine who buys and sells older full size vehicles he does not make much on them he does it more as a hobby,the vehicle I bought from him was well kept its whole life synthetics from as far back as he has been servicing it which is at lest 8-9 years he started servicing it when it had about 50k miles on it.It was one of his friends fathers who was ocd about the vehicle the thing is in mint shape not an ounce of rust on the body or underneath you can eat off the engine compartment thats how clean it is,the downside is the mileage 164k but for the way it was maintained it may as well have been 64k.I got a very well maintaine 160k mile vehicle yeah 160k is 160k but it was very well maintained better maintained than alot of vehicles with 1/2 that mileage believe me I looked at some vehicles with half that amount and they wanted double what I got this for and either the body was shot or I would be rolling the dice on the mecahnical side of things no thanks
when I first started looking for a large SUV about a month or so ago and I mentioned it to my friend he mentioned this particular vehicle the mileage worried me because growing up I always looked towards low mileage anything over 100k was taboo not really knowing how long these large trucks last he insisted get the mileage out of my head especially with the 5.3 engine if they are maintained they will run forever.still with that high mileage in my mind I went looking for myself everything I looked at did not hold a candle to this vehicle he was selling either the body's were shot or mechanically they just had too many creeks,rattles and other not normal noises I looked for some time and some of the asking prices were just so high for vehicles that were surely used,abused and on their last legs so I wound up buying the Yukon he had with the 164K and cannot be happier I bought it a the main and only reason I bought a vehicle with this kind of mileage is because who I was buying it from.a friend who I know is very meticulous about the vehicles he buys and sells he wont let it leave his shop unless he knows it wont come back to him,he does not just throw them together he is very particular about what he lets leave his building.He does this as a hobby not to make money sure he makes money but he enjoys doing it.
I've got some minor cosmetic things that he is going to address when he gets freed up when I say minor I mean really minor, little things here and there in the interior which comes with age but the killer of bodies rust is no where to be found it has its little dings but we will address that later its mechanically aces.I know he could have gotten alot more for what I paid I am thinking he could have easily gotten 7k for it even with the 164k for what good shape its in but he hooked me up hes a friend and I am thankfull for that any questions I have I throw them his way and he is more than happy to answer them he's a truck guy he loves driviong them,working on them selling them and most of all talking about them so he jumps at any opportunity to talk about trucks which I am lucky to have someone like this in my corner.
I've never been happier with A vehicle the largest one I've owned and I love it.next largest besides this one I've had was I used to run around in a trailblazer which this just seems so much bigger than before that was more of a sporty 4wd vehicle a dodge dakota that used to be fun to whip around town in but this thing is so comfortable I cant see myself driving anything else yeah the gas mileage sucks it comes with the territory but I knew that going in so I deal with it,I actually find myself driving more civil not to watch the gas gauge take a nose dive towards empty so on the flipside in an attempt to save gas I am driving the vehicle like it was meant to be driven not zipping all over town putting undue stress on the drive train.driving like a human will benefit me and the vehicle in the long run..
so I paid 5K its an 04 Yukon SLT .the brakelines were done all the way around before giving me the truck it was completely serviced and the tranny fluid was pink as pink could be the injectors were just as clean as well.The one thing I was not too keen on was the Full time 4wd but hey as someone mentioned to get a vehicle in this good of shape for this price sometimes you make little sacrafices and the more I think about it having full time 4wd for my lifestyle probably suits me better as I dont do much off roading at all besides the occasional camping trip with the family,I really wont be using it for the beach so for me it suits my lifestyle well especially being from the northeast it should handle the winter with no problem and for some reason if I ever did get stuck which is highly unlikely but if I did or needed it at least I have the ability to drop it into 4lo
I hear you on having alot of garbage out there and not worth the money they are asking I looked at one vehicle before grabbing this one from my buddy.the outside looked clean and nice the engine not bad neither it was an 05 with 130k on it he was asking 6k but then I looked underneath I could not believe the undercarriage it was so rusty the northeast salt will do that to any vehicle up here this one mine that is must have either been garaged during the wintery weather or just cleaned after every storm the undercarriage was and is so darn clean so first order of business is putting an undercoating underneath which my buddy already has in the works as he has two more he is going to coat along with mine at summers end it will protect it from our harsh NE winters and truck killing calcium chloride.
so with that being said I got pretty lucky with my ride you are not alone in your search for a decent vehicle they are hard to come by and anything half way decent you are paying a ransom note for.good luck in your search patience is key!
