New guy, not an owner yet, looking for some buying advice...

[Scott in AZ]

My personal experience with a 2001 4WD is that if you find a good 2004-5-6 with less than 130,000 miles on it, and are OK with putting $2-3K in up front plus $1-2K per year (or equivalent self service) then you will have great experience. There is so much aftermarket out there for these trucks. $1000 at Crutchfield will give you Apple CarPlay and back-up camera and all new speakers. LED interior lighting is under $100. New seat cushions and leather surfaces under $400. Cooling system zero time (radiator, water pump, thermostat, hoses) like I did this week is a little more expensive but nothing complicated. Et cetera, et cetera.

And there’s a lot of GMT800s out there to chose from, so be selective. Whenever I see a good GMT800 I ALWAYS introduce myself and ask about the truck. A few weeks ago I ran across a 2005 w 55,000 miles, and yesterday I ran across this GMT400 5.3L 2-door with 95,000 miles. So my advice is stay away from the dealers and put the word out and find a good one for $6-10K, and maybe even keep your Toyota.

Pic below is not a Sasquatch but it’s close. Neighbor’s 2-door, mint, 95K miles, still has the window sticker in the glove box. I told him a lot of people would be interested in buying and he just chuckled and said he’d be ready to sell in ten years or so.

 

[Scott in AZ]

I just bought a Tahoe 2 days ago. I looked at a lot of vehicles, 4Runners, Jeeps, NBS Tahoes/Yukons, etc. I was probably being too picky because I didn't want a project, but it's my money

I didn't want a 10+ year old vehicle with a bunch of gimmicks that had failed or were potentially going to fail and cause me issues down that road as I'm planning on keeping the vehicle for a long time. In most of the leather vehicles I looked at, the seats were destroyed even if the vehicle had ~125k miles on it.

I think I kind of lucked into the vehicle that I bought, it's an 02 with just under 98,000 miles on it. LS package, so it's all cloth with a split bench up front, new tires and AC comp, third row, 4x4, etc. I paid $5,500 for it, which I was pretty comfortable with.

The vehicles are definitely out there, but it's like finding a needle in a haystack. Craigslist is full of morons, and I made a few 100 mile round trips only to find out that the pictures made the vehicle look much nicer. There were a few low miles Tahoes/Yukons at larger big 3 dealerships that were as nice as what I bought, but they were far too proud of them for my taste.

Just in reading around here, there was some mention of a particular cylinder head casting in the 05-06 model year I believe that could cause some trouble.

This.