looking to buy my first ever GMT800

[HACK BLOCK]

since my family is starting to get bigger with my third child on the way i'm finally in need of something with a 3rd row. so me and the wife agreed on a tahoe/yukon but since this is my first time ever looking to buy 1 or even own an american car in general i have lots of questions. i'm buying this car as a family car for the fall/winter so about the next 6 months, after that ill buy a brand new car and i'm not sure if ill sell it after or keep it

i've always had the mindset that you should buy the newest model possible within your budget. so that puts me in the range of 00-06. i was told by some that that i shouldn't even consider anything older than a 2004. i could find some 07+ but its mostly old taxi/ubers over 200k. so would it be worth it to spend all my money and get a 07+ with that kind of mileage (i always run a carfax and have it inspected) and hope nothing expensive happens or get something older and keep the change to fix anything wrong with it?

right now im looking at 05-06 tahoes and yukons. i prefer the yukon for the bigger engine but like the exterior of the tahoe better. am i beating myself up for only looking at 05-06 or the differences in the years not that big of a deal? couple of car i been looking at are

2005 red z71 with 205k asking $3500 1 owner car

2005 white denali with 165k asking $5300 but says it needs front suspension links and front right axle

2006 black yukon with 223k asking $4900 1 owner car

2009 tahoe lt with 238k asking $7500

couple things i know for sure i want is leather, rear entertainment and rear bench seats instead of rear captains so should i expand my search, just stick with a 2005-2006 , or press my luck with a 07+

 

[HiHoeSilver]

http://www.tahoeyukonforum.com/thre...g-a-00-06-nbs-tahoe-suburban-look-here.61834/

 

[PNWMuseumman]

One thought, although you may have considered it. with a second row bench, if you leave the carseat on the passenger side of the car as recommended, that means you will have to either have your third row passengers climb of the middle row, or your ingress/egress point is now the 70 side of the 70/30 split. Maybe you don't care about that, but at least for me, that is a little bit of a hassle since the release cable for the back of the seat broke, making things a little tricky. Having only the one baby plus a fur baby (golden retriever) and after having seen how nice the captains chairs are in my in-laws suburban, I would totally go captains chairs. All that being said, now I'm curious what makes you want the bench.

Also, for my money, I wouldn't mess with an 07+ in the price range you look to be in. They just make me a little uncomfortable. That and there seem to be a lot of people on here that comment how they regret swapping their NBS (00-06) for the NNBS(07-14). I don't know if this is them being nastolgic or if the NBS were actually built better, I own two 2002's (a tahoe and a denali) and I freaking love them. Best of luck with your choice!

Also, you came to a great place to have your questions answered, the people on here are extremely knowledgeable and very nice.

 

[HACK BLOCK]

my reasoning for wanting a bench seat is that I already have 2 small kids still in booster car seats and now with a newborn. my plan was to stick the 2 kids in the 3rd row and my wife sit with the newborn on the bench. so with the newborn, I'm gonna be carrying a stroller all over and the kids like to go to the park and ride bikes or scooters. so I figured if I need the trunk space I could either fold up the third row or remove it and could have all 3 sit on the bench together and my wife in front. but if I had the captain chairs and I folded the 3rd row for space that leaves me a 4 seater and there is now 5 of us

 

[HACK BLOCK]

my wife is not a fan of the nbs interior always complaining how old it looks but she loves the nnbs. her way of thinking is if I'm gonna buy a car close to 200k I might as well buy a nnbs

 

[PNWMuseumman]

my reasoning for wanting a bench seat is that I already have 2 small kids still in booster car seats and now with a newborn. my plan was to stick the 2 kids in the 3rd row and my wife sit with the newborn on the bench. so with the newborn, I'm gonna be carrying a stroller all over and the kids like to go to the park and ride bikes or scooters. so I figured if I need the trunk space I could either fold up the third row or remove it and could have all 3 sit on the bench together and my wife in front. but if I had the captain chairs and I folded the 3rd row for space that leaves me a 4 seater and there is now 5 of us

Yeah, it becoming a designated 4 seater without the third row is a bummer.

Have you thought about a suburban? I would really suggest that if you are going to need more space than enough for just the stroller. You may even be hard pressed to get a folded up stroller in the back when the third row is up. I haven't tried it in ours, but I really don't think it would fit. I would've definitely gone that route if I could've gotten one in the garage, but too many toys and tools has my garage space at a premium. Luckily for us, our tahoe doesn't have a third row, or even the mount points to put one in. So when we haul people, we take the wife's car, when we haul stuff, we take mine... But with a suburban... People+Stuff = One Car

Just a thought though.

That's a fair point on the NNBS, I like the nbs interior, but there is a few things that I really love about the NNBS. It's hard to get over that styling, they did some damn good looking things on that restyle.

 

[HiHoeSilver]

my wife is not a fan of the nbs interior always complaining how old it looks but she loves the nnbs. her way of thinking is if I'm gonna buy a car close to 200k I might as well buy a nnbs

I think you are right on target with an 05-6. Find a well maintained one and you are good beyond 200k.

 

[aces-n-eights]

As you know the '07 is the new model year for the NNBS, and personally i would not buy a new model year - too many growing pains. If you want a NNBS i'd look at '09 or newer. I'm quite happy with my '06. I think you're right on track with finding a good '05 or '06.

 

[mizzouguy]

The 05-06 have a few upgrades compared to my 04, but in my opinion ANY 01-06 that has been maintained well is going to be a good vehicle for you. If you expect to carry a lot of luggage/strollers/etc I'd try to find a suburban/yukon xl. There is about 12" behind the third row on my tahoe.
I'd be more interested in say....an 04 with 200k and maintenance records from a chevy dealer its whole life compared to an 06 with 150k that you don't know the history on. Just the normal fluid changes/filters alone if they are all due or overdue can ring up quite a bill. Let alone front end parts and other items that tend to fail between 150-200k.
Don't let a $200 detail fool you. It may look clean but be falling apart underneath. A well maintained vehicle probably wouldnt need an expensive detail right before they sell it unless it was neglected.
Do you expect to tow any? Tow package is a plus. Or just a family hauler?
Even if you don't live where it snows, i'd try to get 4wd. You never know when you may need it, and you don't wanna be stuck in the ditch in the middle of nowhere with 2wd with kids in the truck.
Just my $.02

 

[Rangel]

IMO with 3 kids a Tahoe/Yukon isn't enough room. I'd opt for a suburban/Yukon XL. Still plenty of room in the suburban with the 3rd row.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G891A using Tapatalk

 

[HACK BLOCK]

my problem with the suburban/XL is that l live in ny so i park in the street and parking is already a ***** thats why my focus was on a tahoe/yukon but i will look more into cause u guys make great points

 

[HiHoeSilver]

my problem with the suburban/XL is that l live in ny so i park in the street and parking is already a ***** thats why my focus was on a tahoe/yukon but i will look more into cause u guys make great points

Once you get that bad girl up about 4.5", you will be able to just park ON other cars, so... No problem there. Lol. On a serious note, your are getting some really good advice here. I agree with pretty much all that's being said. The NBS trucks are just plain solid.

 

[mdnitedrftr]

I would take a 00-06 over a 07+.

Don't forget to factor in cost of maintenance. An 07+ is gonna cost more to repair, and the higher mileage ones can get expensive.

A maintained 00-06 is gonna be cheaper all around.

For a family with 3 kids, I would go with the Burb/XL. If you ever go on a road trip, you'll appreciate the extra room.

 

[whymeintrouble]

I have a 05 chevy suburban Z71 and would agree with the suburban/Yukon xl option. I have twin girls, and was very happy to have the extra room the suburban provided, we had a Tahoe before. If you do lots of driving during the holidays, presents and stuff take up a lot of room lol. If you can get a southern truck, well maintained, it would be a good deal even if you have to do some traveling to purchase it. These trucks aren't perfect, emergency brake design is useless, and the knock sensor area is badly designed. Rear A/C lines will go bad sooner than later as well. Front and rear bumpers like to rust to pieces, but occasionally you will find them in good shape. Bumpers are expensive FYI. I would suggest a custom tune on your new(to you) truck. I used Blackbear Performance, it made a ton of difference. I could do 75@2k RPM, after the tune I was doing 84. Plus he was able to tighten up the shifting, which was really needed. I would suggest at least weekly washes during salt season, especially under carriage. My 12 year old truck has 188k on it now, and I've owned it since it had 45k (3 years old).I couldn't be happier with it and it's reliability.

With the early years of the NNBS models I've heard they leak/burn oil. I'm not sure how much validity there is to that, but I've seen it in some forums.
Best of luck to you

 

[HACK BLOCK]

parking is already kind of hard with my bmw x5 and a a suburban/XL is about 3 feet longer so it would be very difficult for me but I haven't completed ruled it out yet cause I'm just looking for something to last me till next spring

 

[HACK BLOCK]

another question I have is what part of the country should have the best condition used cars?

 

[DeucesAllin]

Do a suburban.

You will never regret it. Buy a used cloth seat on CL for the back, as the leather 3rd seats are made out of gold.

And if you get an DoD or AFM motor, budget in the $2k cam job when those lifters fail.

You could apply that to your budget, and get a Suburban with the LM7 5.3 that is routinely making 350k miles on this forum.

And before you throw money at the wornT Bar setup consider some bolt in cookies from Viking.

Sent from my SM-J700P using Tapatalk

 

[HACK BLOCK]

Back searching for a nbs and got 2 quick questions... 1- Is it a big deal of one has a manual climate controls vs the auto? I have an auto climate control in my bmw and love it and 2- how can I tell if a tahoe I'm looking at has a 4.8 or 5.3?

 

[HACK BLOCK]

Another thing is I'm looking at 2 tahoe's. One is a 2003 and the other is 2006, both appear to be in the same condition and same amount of miles but the 06 is about $2500 more. Would having the 2006 worth the extra money.?

 

[PNWMuseumman]

In my experience, I came a across a 4.8 when I was in the market and the only I could tell from the exterior was because it did not have a hitch receiver, but I don't know if that is specific to the 4.8 or not. Other than that it would just be looking at the engine. Another thing I always asked about when considering buying was how much towing the vehicle has done. I'm sure these make great tow vehicles, but I don't like the extra wear and tear on the driveline, especially the tranny. So I always pose the question of how much towing it's done in a way that sounds like I'm doubting if it could handle what I want to tow (I don't actually own anything to tow...). This usually triggers the seller to start bragging about all the things they've towed, how much it weighs, and how well the truck has done with it... Things I'm sure I wouldn't have heard if I had asked the question point blank "How much towing have you done with this?". I've walked away from a few after finding out the towing history.

For my money, all things being equal, I don't think that $2500.00 is worth 3 years newer. But it's hard to say that definitively without seeing both trucks.

Sorry for the long post, just somethings that popped into my head while reading your questions.