How truly great the day will be when I finally drive my first truck home. I've wanted one for years now, but being the tight a&! that I am I haven't let myself spend the money. Now I've got a little business going where I need to haul a trailer, and have 8-10k to spend on a used half-ton. I'm not too familiar with older truck models, but the first ones that come to mind are the Silverado and Sierra 1500s before 2007, when they started to have the fuel management system problem.

Are there any other issues the 2006 and previous models have that I should be aware of before I go test driving? I'll end up poking all over the thing before I go handing over that much money, so if I know what issues to look out for hopefully I'll be able to save myself a lot of headache. After doing a 500 mile search here in the Midwest I'm seeing plenty under 150k miles, and some upwards of 250k, so I'm feeling good about finding one with some life left in it.

 

I've got a 2006 Silverado, and its been a good truck - I bought it as a used work truck from my former employer at 90k miles in 2014, and it currently has 138k 11 years later. I just drive it around town and to haul stuff a couple of miles around town.

I think some of the early year models of the GMT800 like the 1999 and 2000 can be problematic to find parts for, and they made some changes on the 2003 year model that also affect parts compatibility between 1999-2002 versus 2003-2006. Personally, I would shop for one in the 2003-2006 range, for best availability of parts. It seems most of the parts I buy say they work on the 2003-2006 year models.

Just my 2 cents and probably not worth more than that...