TWard

I'm the proud new owner of a 07 LTZ 'Burb with 104K miles. First Chevy product I've owned in 30 years. While inspecting the vehicle before buying it I noticed some rust, so during a drive I took it to my auto body guys and asked them to give me an estimate. 4 grand.

The hood is rusted through, all the doors have rust bubbling on the lower half and the rust is both outside and inside on the seams. The tailgate is similarly rusted and there's rust around the fuel filler door. I looked inside the engine compartment during my inspection of the vehicle and found one of the two lines running from the radiator to the engine nearly rusted through. And all the brake lines had been previously replaced because they'd rusted through. Thankfully, while up on the rack for a look, the undercarriage is pretty clean and looks normal for the year and the miles.

Now, the folks in northern Michigan & Wisconsin put a lot of salt on the roads during the winter and that salt spray gets everywhere. Still, I rarely see vehicles with this amount of rust penetration in this age class of vehicle. I have a 04 4runner, an 03 BMW and had a 97 Explorer, all run in the same environment with zero rust. But I accept that not everyone cares for their vehicles the same way.

Is anyone else out there experiencing this kind of issue with the 07 class? This kind of deterioration doesn't take place over a few miles.

UNDERSCORE

I have a 2007 and I'm in NJ/NY. Bought it this year. Plenty of surface rust and I'm betting they were boat or water-ski owners as the undercarriage at the back was worse than the rest. The frame seems to have a waxy coating that just turned to crap. It allowed rust to get underneath it and sort of flake off in chunks. I used a wire brush and some rust converter to clean it up. Not sure how it's going to hold up.

Marko5657

Wow, in NE Ohio and we get salt put on our roads, but I’ve seen lots of SUVs for sale, and none that I’ve seen are rusty like that, especially that new.

I suppose depending on what you paid for it, and if it runs well otherwise, it’s worth getting the body fixed, eh?

TWard

You look at what a unit outfitted like this one goes for on a dealers lot and subtract what you think it will cost to make a vehicle "right". I did the math backwards and made an offer. In the end I'll be around 3k under the lot price after repairs. I'm planning to try and keep the vehicle to or over 200K miles and will run it 8K miles/yr, and garage it in the winters. All a long way of saying it was worth it to me based on my calculations.