2016 Yukon SLT. Looking at Buying for first time.

Hi. My name is Dave and I'm looking at a 2016 Yukon SLT. Its $25,700 my cost and has 66k miles. It seems pretty loaded for an SLT (leather, heated/cooled seats, heated wheel, rear entertainment, sunroof). Seem like a fair price? I've never really looked into getting one of these. It needs a few ball joints, rear shocks (air), oil cooler lines and a spoiler. My biggest issue however is the transmission. I didn't notice any transmission issues, but I've been reading on them. Is there any type of "preventative maintenance" that can be done short of an outright rebuild? I'd really not like to spend $26k and then have to rebuild the trans right away. My friend is one of the transmission techs at our dealer and mentioned replacing the converter right away, but I'm curious if that's enough to keep the trans from failing. Any and all help or recommendations is appreciated.

@NickTransmissions

dmar619 said:

Hi. My name is Dave and I'm looking at a 2016 Yukon SLT. Its $25,700 my cost and has 66k miles. Seem like a fair price? I've never really looked into getting one of these. It needs a few ball joints, rear shocks (air), oil cooler lines and a spoiler. My biggest issue however is the transmission. I didn't notice any transmission issues, but I've been reading on them. Is there any type of "preventative maintenance" that can be done short of an outright rebuild? I'd really not like to spend $26k and then have to rebuild the trans right away. My friend is one of the transmission techs at our dealer and mentioned replacing the converter right away, but I'm curious if that's enough to keep the trans from failing. Any and all help or recommendations is appreciated.

@NickTransmissions

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Replacing the converter and doing a service is a good, preventative strategy to keep it healthy for as long as possible. Install a converter with an upgraded clutch. Lots of folks here have used Florida Torque Converters with positive feedback. You can also look for a local converter builder to do the same more cost effectively.

Do you know any history on the vehicle? Single owner who drove it back and forth to church or a hotshot driver who loaded to the max ever weekend and drove it like he/she/it stole it? This would help with some general feedback. Redoing all the fluids is a good place to start if you purchase. Good peace of mind and lets you start from a baseline.

Generally, my personal recommendation is all vehicles have “issues” but they all still start and stop like all others. Some have more known issues but in the end you will likely have similar experience to any other large SUV owner. GM vehicles seem to have a lot of online support and will give you great guidance, just don’t over think the purchase otherwise we might all be riding bikes afraid the chains might snap lol.

Bigburb3500 said:

Do you know any history on the vehicle? Single owner who drove it back and forth to church or a hotshot driver who loaded to the max ever weekend and drove it like he/she/it stole it? This would help with some general feedback. Redoing all the fluids is a good place to start if you purchase. Good peace of mind and lets you start from a baseline.

Generally, my personal recommendation is all vehicles have “issues” but they all still start and stop like all others. Some have more known issues but in the end you will likely have similar experience to any other large SUV owner. GM vehicles seem to have a lot of online support and will give you great guidance, just don’t over think the purchase otherwise we might all be riding bikes afraid the chains might snap lol.

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It had had 2 owners. First was a lease until 2018, then one of our finance managers parents owned it until they traded it in a few weeks ago.

dmar619 said:

It had had 2 owners. First was a lease until 2018, then one of our finance managers parents owned it until they traded it in a few weeks ago.

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Sounds like a general cream puff. You know the fin manager took care of the car for them.

If the price seems inline with market I think you could do worse.

Stay with a 2018-2020 RST, Denali or Escalade luxury. The 2015-2017 had the 6 & 8 speed which lasts 100k. Just look on this or any forum and see how many people changing out threes transmission at 80-100k. No one complaining about the 10 speed.

SpyShops212 said:

Stay with a 2018-2020 RST, Denali or Escalade luxury. The 2015-2017 had the 6 & 8 speed which lasts 100k. Just look on this or any forum and see how many people changing out threes transmission at 80-100k. No one complaining about the 10 speed.

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Agreed. I had a green 2016 SLT (6l80) that had nothing but problems. Had 2 new torque converters, multiple transmission flushes, wheel replacements, and road force balancing. Just to stop the shaking (body and steering wheel) and hard shifting while driving. Part of the problems with the 15-17 is the body mounts were too hard letting vibrations from AFM and suspension movement translate to the body. The frame acts like a tuning fork. Also the torque converter would create so much heat that the fluid would degrade. I remember constantly seeing trans fluid temps over 260 even after the new converters.

AMWWORKS said:

Agreed. I had a green 2016 SLT (6l80) that had nothing but problems. Had 2 new torque converters, multiple transmission flushes, wheel replacements, and road force balancing. Just to stop the shaking (body and steering wheel) and hard shifting while driving. Part of the problems with the 15-17 is the body mounts were too hard letting vibrations from AFM and suspension movement translate to the body. The frame acts like a tuning fork. Also the torque converter would create so much heat that the fluid would degrade. I remember constantly seeing trans fluid temps over 260 even after the new converters.

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Eithrr you got a dud or they did major improvements after that year. We've had no shaking or vibration issues at all with our 2017.

GMCChevy said:

Eithrr you got a dud or they did major improvements after that year. We've had no shaking or vibration issues at all with our 2017.

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It definitely wasn't a dud. I've had multiple friends and family members complain about the vibration and weird shifting behaviours on the K2 platform in general. They've had Chevy and GMC trucks (I was the only one who drove a suv). The only one that didn't shake was the 2018 my father leased. Everyone else including me got out of their trucks early. You got lucky.

AMWWORKS said:

Part of the problems with the 15-17 is the body mounts were too hard letting vibrations from AFM and suspension movement translate to the body.
The frame acts like a tuning fork.
Also the torque converter would create so much heat that the fluid would degrade. I remember constantly seeing trans fluid temps over 260F even after the new converters.

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GMCChevy said:

Either you got a dud or they did major improvements after that year. We've had no shaking or vibration issues at all with our 2017.

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There were also issues with ATF (base stock) quality which have since been addressed and corrected.