2009 hybrid tahoe w/ 140k miles....... or 2014 tahoe lt w/ 170k miles... which would you take?

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TollKeeper

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B-train

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I'd go for the 14 tahoe myself if I had only those 2 to choose from. I'd rather take my chances on an AFM problem or a potential 6L80 replacement. Both are bigger repairs, but very common by now. Nothing on the Hybrid is common. It's overly complex, not worth any of the potential MPG savings whatsoever IMO.

Both trucks look well used on the inside with the white one seeming slightly better(?) Plus, the white looks better in my book.

Or, do a search for 2007,08,09 Escalade or Denali to see what comes up. You might be surprised
 
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This one is a bit of a drive at 150 miles away, but IMHO, a better deal over all.


I will always buy a 2003-2006 GMT before I buy anything newer, or older. Last years of near absolute bullet proof trucks
Well.. long story short.. back to long.. money is tight and I just had my ancient cats tail amputated because she decided to walk over a candle and burn her tail, which never healed, and turned into necrosis of the tail, which temporarily broke me.. and my truck goes kaboink in the same time frame. So I am forced to finance, as I do not have enough money to buy with cash.
 

TollKeeper

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BG1988

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Ok i hear you. So the 2009 hybrid doesn't have a gauge for the alternator, it has a gauge that says "economy" with a green zone in the middle. It stays in the green unless I goose it. Does this make any difference?
it tells you the voltage in the DIC if that is what you're talking about
 

j91z28d1

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I'd buy whatever is a cheapest beater car local to you, say something 500-1000$. fix your truck and then sell the car for what you paid.


if you're stuck on those two trucks, it's a toss up to me. the 14 at 170k the converter in the tranny is about ready to lunch the whole thing if it hasn't already and been replaced (which would be good) .. rebuilds are what these days, $7k at a shop?

the hybrid down side is when it breaks, you'll probably have to fix it yourself. shops are mostly useless, luckily the tranny will probably give you 250k with fluid changes, but unless it's got a fresh battery in it, which it very well might for the year and miles, factor in $3k or so for one. they will come swap it in your drive way for you. if you care to look, fold the middle seat forward, pop the plastic up, it's just clipped in, grab and pull up. look for a stickers from a company. something like green cubes or something marketing green ness haha. on the battery case.


testing the battery is super simple,(or amazingly complex and time consuming as said above) but should have a scanner of some type that can read min and max cell voltage, any decent scanner should. few phone apps will preloaded, some you'll have to add manually but basically pull up min and max cell voltage data. drive it and watch when you load the battery by taking off in electrical mode and when it cranks the engine to start. if you see more than a half a volt different, it's not great. at 1v different it's on its last legs and you'll get the battery code soon enough.

the other none scanner way, just drive it for bit, run both front and back ac on max, stop at a red light for a bit in auto stop (when the engine off) .. when the light turns green take off gently enough it doesn't start the engine instantly, then when it does. is it smooth? you shouldn't even be able to tell it cranks, like my wife drives ours and she never knows if the engine is running or not and she's not completely clueless but it's all seamless to her. if you get a bucking while it's cranking the engine that means the battery is shot and it can't handle the load of accelerating the truck with one electric motor and cranking the engine with the other.

if you find hybrid stuff interesting, it's actually a well built hybrid even by today's standards. you won't find many hybrids that still had a decent tow rating and get almost double the around town mileage of the same non hybrid version.(helped by most of these get 10mpg in socoor mom hell around town lol) Sadly it's also late 1990 early 2000s tech battery limiting it all. it's basically a Gen 1/2 prius hybrid nmhi pack with a few extra cells for higher voltage but no more capacity. most of the fuel mileage savings is from the engines different cam and the tranny that uses it's electric motors to almost mimic a cvt tranny without the reliably issues and zero tow rating of an actual cvt.

my 0.2 is the chance of you buying either of these vehicles and ended up with 2 broken trucks is pretty high. I'd buy a beater and repair what you get. that said, I tend to always keep something around I can use as a back up beater if my daily cars break, makes owning old junk less stressful.
 

JGreene

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I was in a similar predicament years ago and went with the non-hybrid option. As I looked into it, the hybrid has so many parts that are specific to it and not in the normal GM lineup. I didn't want to roll the dice with the hybrid battery, repair unknowns, or the fact that it doesn't have a spare tire.
 

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