To Buy or Not to Buy? '97 Suburban

I am looking at the possibility of purchasing a '97 Chevy Suburban 4x4 LT 1500. It currently has 170,000 one owner miles on it. I normally wouldn't be looking for a vehicle with this many miles but the vehicles belongs to family friend and they are willing to let it go for somewhere around $1000. My family has owned 4 Suburbans but never one in the 1996-1999 range. Besides the interior/exterior being very dirty, it drives and runs really well. The brakes squeak but my understanding is these rigs need new brakes almost anually (big difference from my parents 2000. we got 55,000 miles on the OEM brake pads and tires!!). The serpentine belt also squeaks a little at first start up (no bad.. just a little noisey). The transmission shifts strong and the fluid doesn't look to dirty (I'm guessing its been rebuilt by now?). I also noticed some oily build up on the driver side valve cover but there were no visible oil drips on the ground (the Suburban had been sitting in the same spot for 2 weeks). A $1000 dollars for a solid driving vehicle with good tags and tires seems like a pretty easy decision to me. What are your guys thoughts?

I've had a 72 and 79 and now have both a 94 and an 06. Why do you assume transmission has been rebuilt? I generally keep mine around 200,000 miles and have never worked on any of the transmissions. Maybe because I've never had any use for a 4 x 4 ? I dunno. Sounds like a good deal.

I have owned my 97 GMC Suburban K1500 for 4 yrs. now and my wife drives it everday and likes it. Mine had a new transmission 1 yr. before we bought it. It's got 136K on the clock and other than dripping a little oil on the floor, it's been a darn good truck. Mine has the 5.7L Vortec and if I drive it the speed limit it will get 16.5 mpg on the highway. Sounds like a heck of a deal to me for $1,000 if it's not too rusty. :smile: BTW, welcome to the Board.

Dave

Good point. They used the Suburban to tow their ski boat alot and the transmission shifts so well I kinda figured it had to of been rebuilt at sometime.

by the way.. its an oregon vehicle.. NO RUST :)