My wife is constantly hauling the grandkids places and for the last year or so, she's been using my XJ. Not that big of a deal, but the XJ is a little too small and young kids are hard on a vehicle. In the interest of causing fewer "discussions" about care of my vehicles, I bought her something I wouldn't care about.
Enter the Urban Assult Vehicle. A 2000 Chevy Suburban, 5.3, 4WD, 3rd row seating. It has a billion miles on it and has a few dings and scuffs, but still looks pretty good and runs perfectly. It will be the perfect beater for hauling the crowd around town.
I have done a little work to it to bring it up to snuff. A dead fuel gauge necessitated changing the fuel pump assembly. The float arm had actually broken off the sending unit. Both front windows were dead or dying so it got a couple of regulator assemblies. I also have a drivers bottom seat cover and foam coming for it as well as a set of tires. I also still need to figure out the cruise control issue but that's pretty much all it needed to be 100%.
Come Thursday, we will see if it will make a 2500 mile trip to Maine and back.
I will say, these are probably the best $2500 you can spend on a vehicle. It looks and drives like new which is amazing considering almost 300K miles and 19 years.
I'm considering a suburban or Tahoe, but also looking at Sequoias.
Enjoy Maine, just got home from there today! Ticks are much less serious than the last two years, so that's good.
OTOH, it's been raining almost daily since the last snow in April, so the mosquitoes are terrible.
Bug repellant is already loaded. Might throw the Thermocell in the truck as well.
Nice buy!
also thermocells scare the crap out of me..
New tires mounted today. Falken Wildpeak AT3W. I run these on the XJ and have been super happy with them.
nice. There's just something that looks "right" about that particular trim/headlight combination. It all flows.
In reply to irish44j :
I agree, certainly is a good looking truck.
Vigo
MegaDork
7/15/19 10:19 p.m.
Newer wheels look good on it, and i like the color. Congrats!
I put 400 miles on it today. It's a cruising machine. Not as quick as my truck, but much smoother and it rides better.
Tomorrow it gets another 600+-. Today was all back roads at a slow cruise. Tomorrow is all interstate.
Almost 3000 miles into this trip and so far so good. Still another 500-600 to get home.
TJL
Reader
7/30/19 8:37 p.m.
Nice. My brother has a yukon of similar vintage. Great vehicle really. He returned home today from weeks of touring the country towing a camper. Even with the 4.8, truck was flawless the whole time. Id much rather get something like your ‘burban for 2500$ than a new vehicle for stupid money.
And considering how the new chevys look, this one is just that much more attractive.
This is a good path. Purchase $5k or less vehicle from down south drive to Minnesota. Drive for 3-5 years. Replace with same methodology when I am done.
My one-owner, dealer-maintained 05 Yukon Denali was the biggest POS I've owned, and I've had a supercharged Range Rover. Seeing other GMT800s is a lil' trigger-y even though they're not all bad.
Hopefully this one treats y'all right, it looks nice from the photos. If it has nearly 300k miles, I'd think things have been maintained to allow it to hold together that long. When everything works, they are comfy highway cruisers with good AC, nice seats, and do tow pretty well if need be. Check your brake lines, they rust even in non-rusty climates, and GM weaseled out of a class-action suit to replace them. Installing new, coated lines requires dropping the gas tank on the SUVs.
Brake_L8 said:
My one-owner, dealer-maintained 05 Yukon Denali was the biggest POS I've owned, and I've had a supercharged Range Rover. Seeing other GMT800s is a lil' trigger-y even though they're not all bad.
Hopefully this one treats y'all right, it looks nice from the photos. If it has nearly 300k miles, I'd think things have been maintained to allow it to hold together that long. When everything works, they are comfy highway cruisers with good AC, nice seats, and do tow pretty well if need be. Check your brake lines, they rust even in non-rusty climates, and GM weaseled out of a class-action suit to replace them. Installing new, coated lines requires dropping the gas tank on the SUVs.
Not necessary to drop the gas tank. I did them on my Tahoe without dropping anything, and there's a video that explains how to do it perfectly on YouTube.
MINIzguy said:
Brake_L8 said:
My one-owner, dealer-maintained 05 Yukon Denali was the biggest POS I've owned, and I've had a supercharged Range Rover. Seeing other GMT800s is a lil' trigger-y even though they're not all bad.
Hopefully this one treats y'all right, it looks nice from the photos. If it has nearly 300k miles, I'd think things have been maintained to allow it to hold together that long. When everything works, they are comfy highway cruisers with good AC, nice seats, and do tow pretty well if need be. Check your brake lines, they rust even in non-rusty climates, and GM weaseled out of a class-action suit to replace them. Installing new, coated lines requires dropping the gas tank on the SUVs.
Not necessary to drop the gas tank. I did them on my Tahoe without dropping anything, and there's a video that explains how to do it perfectly on YouTube.
Interesting, my research led me to believe otherwise.
For as much as I am not a fan of "un-colors" on cars... the various golds/beiges that GM sprayed on these throughout their run look really good. And the newer model year wheels keep it current. This is the last Suburban-and-twins design that will look relatively timeless, IMO. Clean lines, un-fussy, and a very well-laid-out interior. The GMT900s that followed were a letdown.
Total mileage in the last two weeks, 3470. It used one quart of oil, a can of R134, 3/4 gallon of water, and about 216 gallons of fuel. It never missed a lick. From hauling freight down the interstate to creeping up a rock road in 4 low, it never complained. It just did the job.
The water leak was tracked down to an o-ring at the heater core connection. It wasn't bad enough to repair on the road, I just kept an eye on the levels.
It also develop a fuel leak if the tank was topped off. Probably due to something I did when I changed the fuel pump assembly. Also not bad enough to repair on the road, I just under-filled it by 1/8th of a tank and that solved the issue.
All in, it was a great trip. I'll do a write up in the adventure forum after I sort through all the photos.
Here's one to tide you over. Shot in the middle of a thunderstorm while hiking the last mile out of the woods.
Did it do 300K miles on a dyno? The body is so darn clean! Great expedition vehicle, enjoy many more trips.
In reply to pinchvalve :
The body isn't perfect. It has its share of dings and scrapes. They just don't show until you get up close.
Nice acquisition. Whenever I think of Suburbans I think of how my friends Sub was much larger than my old 4-runner yet still had much more power AND got better fuel economy. Yet while living in a very liberal community, people looked down on the Suburbans. Somehow if you were getting 90MPG/person in a Suburban with 6 occupants, you were inferior to someone getting 15MPG/person driving by theirself in a small vehicle.
Vigo
MegaDork
8/3/19 11:50 p.m.
I guess that makes a Prius about 200-250mpg/person? Why do they even bother electrifying city buses when their ratio must be tremendous!
At least someone now makes a hybrid people mover of equal capacity to a Suburban. For a long time there just wasn't one, although of course there have always been efficient large people-movers throughout the world, just without the particular American sense of still being a semi-luxury car that can bash over rocks and go 120mph if you want it to.
Being in the deep south and you being as aware and meticulous as your other posts suggest, I’m sure you’re ok. But around here a 2000 Burb could look every bit as good on the outside as that one while the frame and suspension look as if they’ve been laying side by side with the Titanic for the past 100 years.
I guess I’m just warning others who might be looking at these. I’ve never seen any other vehicle whose body bellies its true condition like a late ‘90’s early ‘00’s GM truck