091500ltz

I bought a 2009 Suburban 1500 LTZ in September 2013 with about 56,000 miles on it, it has about 77,000 now. Primarily driven by my wife to shuttle kids around, grocery shop, etc. It had one owner, clean Carfax and appeared to be in very good condition. Within the first 3 months the door handles fell off of both the front driver and passenger sides. A couple months after that the “service suspension” light started coming on because the compressor has failed (have chosen not to fix it at this point). Within the first year the passenger side motor for the side mirror stopped working so that mirror will not come in when using the button inside the driver’s side door (haven’t fixed it either). This month the evap valve went bad (had to fix it) and I found out the 4-wheel drive doesn’t work due to a suspected electrical problem (not sure if it ever worked since never really needed it until one snow storm this past winter when it wouldn’t kick in, haven’t fixed it). Other minor things like, the Chevy emblems on the front and back look like a lighter was held to them and melted part of them, the silver “paint” on the inside door handles is flaking off, I think it’s ridiculous that you need to take it in to get the driving light bulbs replaced, and a couple seat parts have fallen off the inside. The front brakes will need to be replaced at the next state inspection coming up in August. If the brakes were one of the only “major” type things I’ve had to deal with I would think that was normal. However, with all of the other issues noted I’m wondering if this is common for this vehicle or if I just ended up with a really bad one. I have fixed the things that I had to fix in order to drive it but at this point, I’m not sure I even want to replace the brakes and just get rid of it. It’s the first American car I have ever bought and really wanted to only own American cars. However, this experience has made me want to avoid, at least Chevy’s, in the future.
Any suggestions or thoughts on whether I should get rid of it now or deal w/ the problems and give Chevy, or any other American car, another chance would be appreciated.

blueinterceptor

I think it's a little unfair to judge the car based in your second hand experience.
You don't know what the previous owner did as far as using the car and maintenance. The 4wd drive system could be a broken wire or actuator. Fairly simple repair. The compressor for the air shocks, that's a little expensive but I don't think it has to be repaired. The door handles are plastic and are subject to stress. You don't know for sure if somebody pulled on them.
When you buy a used car you buy a potential headache. Even with the repairs you listed above fixed at the dealer. You are still well below the price of a new one.
If you repair the above, you should have a pretty enjoyable vehicle

KChevy75

2007 Suburban LTZ here with 205,000 miles. The compressor is a known issue. Mine failed after 6 years. I didn't know it so the air bags on the rear shock absorbers ended up damaged. No problem with the door handles here except for a recall for the peeling interior chrome. The coating on the steering wheel and the hvac buttons is scratched off. It's because my wife uses her nails to use them but she denies she does. I took a video of her using the controls with her fingernails several times and said "Told you so!"


I've only replaced the headlights on mine because one blew last year. Never had to replace any other lights.


Sprag broke in the forward sprag assembly. I rebuilt the tans myself when I replaced the sprag.


In all, for such a heavy truck, with a slightly too small of a trans, it's held up extremely well.


If you have kids, guaranteed most of the problems are because of them. I've observed mine standing on the running board and leaning back while holding the door handle to open the door. Once I saw that, I got on them and they don't do that anymore. They are plastic and not meant to take that force.


Check for the recall on the chrome inside door handles. There's one for the 2007 but I don't know if it was ever extended through 2009.


Mirror won't auto fold? Someone probably manually pushed it breaking it.