Thanks much! I think I'll screenshot this response and give it to my husband as my laundry list haha.
I'm so appreciative of all of the assistance; it makes me feel better about keeping it. With this old of a vehicle, I was really hesitant to begin with, but I now know that not as many things could go wrong (beyond the normal wear and tear of an older vehicle) than I thought. Was getting red flags from reading the doom and gloom about the 2007, but sounds like worth it in the long run to get a reliable vehicle on the cheap.
Heck my husband's coworker got a brand new GM truck in 2016 and has already had to replace the transmission last year and had all kinds of problems and that's with a $50000 truck! I know it was under warranty, but still I think I'd rather invest a thousand into this one than wondering if my new vehicle is going to crap out AFTER warranty.
I think there's so much negativity more specific to the '07 since that was the first year for the new design and for AFM, so everyone put it under a microscope and heavily criticized it.
My opinion is that the Gen 3 engine ('99-'07.5, the '07.5+ is a Gen 4) is the most reliable GM small block ever. The Gen 4 has upgraded components for durability, power output and efficiency, but AFM counters this. Take AFM outta the equation and you'll have a better engine than the Gen 3, as it should be. I believe the reliability of the vehicles as a whole has gotten worse since.
Mine is an '08, so it's virtually identical to your '07. I bought it with 146K miles, had AFM turned off around 160K-170K (estimating) to solve a shuddering problem and beat on it from there on. At 200K, after a night at the racetrack to get some baselines, I pulled the engine to refresh it since I didn't plan on keeping it forever but I wanted to delete AFM and have a good look at the internals. Compression was great, cylinder walls and bearing surfaces looked great and there wasn't a speck of sludge to be found. I replaced the critical wear items (oil pump, timing chain, etc.) along with the AFM delete. This turned into a performance cam, higher compression and a few other small mods. Not long after it was back on the road, I took the family on an 1,800+ mile trip to Tampa, averaging 19 MPG at 70 MPH, fully loaded and towing a small trailer. Coming back from Tampa, I towed a 1,000 lb. golf cart on that trailer and even more on board and averaged 17 MPG cruising at 70 MPH.
My point is that if you adhere to maintenance, take a few proactive measures and keep clean oil in it, you'll see that these are strong and reliable rigs and the internet negativity is blown out of proportion.
