Fobulous

HI all,

We are planning to have another child and that is a great excuse for me to get a suburban!

I am planning to get one used and i know that the trouble years are 2007 and 2008.. (check carcomplaints.com)

I'd love to get the rare view camera as an option but it's not a killer.

which year do you guys recommend or prefer?

Thanks in advance!

Joe In NY

2002 LT Auto Ride. The best burb we have ever owned or driven/ridden in. Never let us down like our 07 and was always a dream to drive.

intheburbs

I have an 01 and an 08. The 01 has been a bit of a money pit regarding maintenance (~$9k in the last 3 1/2 years), but it's never left us stranded; except for the two times the rear end blew up due to overloading/towing.

I've only had the 08 for 8 months, but I've already racked up 2000 miles towing my 7,000-lb trailer with no issues.

Personally, I prefer the newer features of the 07+ models - remote start, rear camera, rear park sensors, stability/traction control, four heated seats, power liftgate, six-speed transmission - which simply aren't available on the 2000-2006 models.

Carcomplaints.com shows exactly what I would expect - spikes in complaints for 2007 and 2004. 2004 was a mild platform upgrade, and 2007 was a completely new platform. Not seeing why you lump 2008 with 2007.

Joe In NY

2008 goes with 2008-2010 era, budget cuts and bail outs. Seriously, do you think a company that is falling to its demise is going to make sure it keeps the same quality as it did when it was prospering? And right after the bail out they laid off tens of thousands of workers. I would not go for anything newer than 08. Ours was one of the first 2007's to be made as it was December 2006 custom pre-order build.

But the 2007 does not even begin to compare in the luxury feeling and comfort of the 2002. The 2002 absolutely with out a doubt blows the 2007 out of the water. If you were in our shoes you would be extremely disappointed with the 2007, we still wish our 2002 had 4X4, if it did, we'd still have it...

intheburbs

And as disappointed as you are with your 07 compared to your 02, I love my 08 compared to my 01. Look at all of the features I listed in my previous post - even a few more I forgot - power tumbling middle row seats and a more powerful audio system. None of that was even available on the GMT800s.

Obviously, from your posts, you're unhappy with your 07. It's pretty common knowledge that one should avoid the first year of a new platform, and the carcomplaints.com bears that out. My 08 has been flawless.

Joe In NY

Ummm, take a check on the sound system.

The bose in our 07 really BLOWS! The 2002 had a 10" bose sub in the back, and even though it was still only bose, it sounded pretty good. The 07 is just pathetic! It really is a laughing stock. Its a $2,500 option. I'd be pissed if I bought this new and thats what I got. The bose system only has the front two 6.5" PAPER woofers, and a 4.5" sub under the center consul! what a joke! The rear door speakers are mid-range only, and the rear pillars are tweeters...

Our 2014 Kia Optima with Infinity sounds way better! Its not even broke in yet, instantly want the Kia system in the burb.

To top it off, we did a $300 budget build for our boat, it gets much louder and sounds much nicer than the $2,500 blose option for a burb...

And, yes the newer burbs have more features, but, way more problems. Our 2002 went to 100K just fine. The 07, hit 96K and hit many problems... I have a HUGE list of work that the 07 has needed and still needs to get done. I would be broke if I paid a shop to do all the work...

titantn24

We have an '07 Burb LTZ and love it. Never had any major issues with it. Fuel pump went out a couple of years ago, but that was the most expensive repair we've had. But it had around 100k on it at that time. It's never left us stranded and the 4x4 has got us out of some places we probably shouldn't have gone into in the first place. I perform routine maintenance according to manufacturer's schedule and always use Mobil1 full synthetic 5W-30 at oil changes. Getting close to 130k now and still going strong.

trainwreck91

IMO I like the newer body. Its all up to the discretion of the buyer. There are some points made that are good. I don't like the fact that gm went bankrupt in 08. Especially since I had money in stocks with them. I purchased last minute thinking they were gonna pull thru! Boy was I wrong. And the fact that they took the bail out money and now their stock is around $36!!!! But that's a whole other argument that I can go days.
I had an 01 Silverado. Pretty much the same everything as that gen Tahoe and burb. Gm was way behind on interior design and still are if you ask me. The '15's are greatly improved but I'm not ready to dish out $70k on one. I dont really like the older style the headlights look like theyre from the 80's. The dash was very bland. The 07 and up look a lot nicer. Headlights more up to date. The body and lines more chiseled and a lot more features. and with anything that has a lot of features, the more chance of things going wrong. Which is why joes opinion is against it. I've had my 07 for almost a year now with no major issues so far. (Knock on faux woodgrain). But the things I've had to do, the parts have been cheap, and the blurb is fairly easy to work on. For instance I had to change one of the transmissionoil cooler lines. $15 for the part. I got a knock sensor code that hasn't come back. But I picked up a sensor just in case, $13. And these are OEM acdelco parts. I have no cracked dash. No excessive oil consumption. Cleaned out the throttle body, tuned it up and so far so good. My only complaint is the gas mileage

Joe In NY

you guys are lucky. You should see my list of problems with the 07...

intheburbs

My 08 has 118K. No issues.

I spent ~$9k in repairs on the 01, starting around 150K. Now it has 188k. Granted, part of that is to replace the rear end I blew up from overloading it.