My journey so far with the new body style Tahoe

[affliction4]

So in July 2015, we purchased a Tahoe LT that has previously been a rental and had 14k miles on it. Still looked brand new and was what we needed for a soon to be family of 5.

Now this was my wife's car and primary family shuttle, but I added a few things here and there....level kit, morimoto hid's, tinted the windows, and BFG KO2's. Then this year the AC stopped working in April, so we have it diagnosed and there is a leak in the condenser. Well we purchased the car through CarMax and we added the extended warranty. So I took it to them and the determined the same thing. However there is a national back order on this condenser as apparently this is a major issue. So i tried to contact GM which they blew me off as a GM dealership had not diagnosed it. So I then take it a GM dealership where i find out more about this issue with this condenser.

Apparently it was a poor design from Engineering and when they first discovered it they tried to re-tool the machine but that didn't work either and so they had to go back to R&D to figure it out. Needless to say this stopped production on the part and thus created this back order. So the GM dealership told me they had people that had already been waiting a month and a half and we had already had ours charged twice and the first charge lasted about a 2 weeks.

At this point i had no other answers and even after speaking to a supervisor with GM from the warranty claims department GM was not offering any ETA other than dealers will get the part based on when they placed their order for it. On top of that the guy from GM said that the average time he is seeing on this is 60 - 120 days. So as we live in South Carolina, i cant have my family vehicle go that long without AC and to charge the system costs about $250 if its completely empty.

So this past Friday my wife went with her father to look at vehicles (I was working) and there was literally nothing out there she liked and all other full size SUV's did not compare to the Tahoe/Yukon. Friday we went back to a dealer ship where she had found one she liked. Specs below.

2017 Tahoe LT - 4WD - 3300 miles
Sun and Destination Package
Luxury Package

This truck has everything an LTZ does except for the wheels, cooled seats and the chrome trim on bumpers and grill. It literally never had its first oil change, so thanks to whoever took the depreciation hit on it. So we got everything worked out and traded her 2015 in, which had 40k miles on it. Oh and i forgot to mention while it was at Carmax they called me to say that the lower front ball joints needed to be replaced. Which they replaced them but i was shocked they needed to be replaced at 40K miles.

Anyways...now to the point of my story....

I have always heard that its never good to buy a vehicle the first year of a body style change. Well i think i personally finally found that out. This new one rides so much better and its a 4WD compared to our 2015 which was a 2WD. It gets better gas mileage and yes im basing that on before i leveled the other one and before i put the bfg's on there (which i lost 1 mpg after the bfgs) but this one easily got 24 MPG on our trip to NC this past weekend. The 2015 barely ever saw 21.

We also extended the warranty from GM so the whole truck is covered for 6 years 103k miles. For me personally every time i have purchased extended warranty it has always paid for itself and then some, so im hedging my bets on this one as it seems GM is playing the game of buy low sell high and the hell with the quality these days.

Thanks for reading my ramblings....im interested to see if anyone else has anything similar to what we experienced.

2015 - LT



2017-LT

 

[EzSkAnKeN]

Good deal!

 

[WillCO]

There's almost no good reason for someone to sell their car to Carmax when it's next to new and has 14K on it. Carmax is for people who want to unload their cars with minimum hassle and are willing to accept a less than optimal price in return. If you have a premium condition car to sell, there are simply better options. No telling what issues may have afflicted your first one that led it there.

I'm glad you stuck around though. These are awesome trucks; I'm sure you'll be happy with the new one.

 

[affliction4]

There's almost no good reason for someone to sell their car to Carmax when it's next to new and has 14K on it. Carmax is for people who want to unload their cars with minimum hassle and are willing to accept a less than optimal price in return. If you have a premium condition car to sell, there are simply better options. No telling what issues may have afflicted your first one that led it there.

I'm glad you stick around though. These are awesome trucks; I'm sure you'll be happy with the new one.

Well im not sure if i stated but our '15 was previously a rental. I have noticed a lot of cars that CarMax has with low miles and brand new were previously rentals. I assume they buy a ton of them cheap and then move them fast.

 

[ajs800]

nice! Hopefully, this will treat you well for many years.

yep, our 15 supposedly has bad upper and lower control arms and was told by dealer that it's common with these trucks. I find it ludicrous but who really knows if it's a widespread issue. It's just one of many things... We've had a lot of issues with our 15 XL but when I see some of the same stuff with the 16s and some 17s it makes me not want to even consider a 17. I am still considering trading in for a 17 or maybe 18 as well as look at the new Ford Expedition/naivgator, but we'll see if we can hold out until late summer when those become available. I have a handful of things that need repaired and cringe at forking over $$$ to repair (unnecessary) a 3yr old vehicle with 50k miles on it.

 

[Goodinblack]

Carmax deals with auctions and gets rentals there

Sent from my SM-N910V using Tapatalk

 

[affliction4]

nice! Hopefully, this will treat you well for many years.

yep, our 15 supposedly has bad upper and lower control arms and was told by dealer that it's common with these trucks. I find it ludicrous but who really knows if it's a widespread issue. It's just one of many things... We've had a lot of issues with our 15 XL but when I see some of the same stuff with the 16s and some 17s it makes me not want to even consider a 17. I am still considering trading in for a 17 or maybe 18 as well as look at the new Ford Expedition/naivgator, but we'll see if we can hold out until late summer when those become available. I have a handful of things that need repaired and cringe at forking over $$$ to repair (unnecessary) a 3yr old vehicle with 50k miles on it.

I went through the NHSTA site and compared the 2015-2016-2017 and there was a definite lower number of reports from 2016 than 2015 and so far even fewer with the 2017's. There are is also another site called carcomplaints.com i think and they pull info from the NHSTA as well as reviews directly from people registered to the site and you will see the same lower number of issues there as well.

But fingers crossed and that's why i did extended the warranty.

Oh and i would definitely wait to see what for does as the current expedition is the same thing they have had for years and the materials and finish of a brand new 2017 expedition (even platinum) doesnt come close to an LT.

 

[Tahoe14]

Only complaint on the LT, it does not come with HID headlights not even as an option. Only the LTZ(premier) which I can't believe GM does this. Other wise the LT is a very nice package. Enjoy.

 

[affliction4]

Only complaint on the LT, it does not come with HID headlights not even as an option. Only the LTZ(premier) which I can't believe GM does this. Other wise the LT is a very nice package. Enjoy.

Yeah but the housings are nice and the aftermarket HID systems work well.

 

[ajs800]

I went through the NHSTA site and compared the 2015-2016-2017 and there was a definite lower number of reports from 2016 than 2015 and so far even fewer with the 2017's. There are is also another site called carcomplaints.com i think and they pull info from the NHSTA as well as reviews directly from people registered to the site and you will see the same lower number of issues there as well.

But fingers crossed and that's why i did extended the warranty.

Oh and i would definitely wait to see what for does as the current expedition is the same thing they have had for years and the materials and finish of a brand new 2017 expedition (even platinum) doesnt come close to an LT.

oh yea, I wouldn't even think about a pre 18 expedition/navigator. 2018 is what I'm waiting for and will then decide what to do. I've seen masked 18 navigators on the road and they appear nice, but until I see both in person and drive, I will wait to see what we go with.

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