Looking at new tow vehicle

[nipper]

Just got off the phone with my mechanic and my wife's 1998 chevy Suburban 4WD needs another $1000 of repairs. I love that truck, but lately, it has been killing us on repair costs. I really do not want to break down and buy a new tow vehicle, but at the rate the repair costs are draining us, I am considering purchasing a new tow vehicle. I have always purchased used vehicles, but I am considering a brand new one given some of the deals out there.

So, any recommendations on tow vehicle would be greatly appreciated. If possible, I would like to have a 7 seater, which limits us to not that many vehicles.

Any comments on your towing experiences would be appreciated. Thanks.

[Stinky_Hooker]

((POP))


*can of worms opens*

[THEFERMANATOR]

What's wrong with the current one that requires a $1000 worth the repairs? Are you sure your mechanic isn't trying to pay his lease with just you? For a 7 passenger vehicle that can tow, you don't have alot of options. Maybe a newer TAHOE as they came with a 3rd row seat in them.

[nipper]

It needs new U joints in the rear, new steering arms, alignment and fix of an oil leak on the manifold intake. I do not mind paying for repairs on an older vehicle, but my wife told me this morning that we spent almost $3000 in repairs on that suburban last year. Bulk of that was complete air conditioning overhaul. The suburban has 2 compressors (one front and one back), so I think that repair was $1500 alone.

[THEFERMANATOR]

One compressor 2 evaporators, and the evaporator's rarely fail. Sounds to me like you've getting screwed on prices of repairs. I know good mechanics are hard to find though. For the U-joints, a driveshaft shop is the ONLY option. The driveshaft will need to be rebalnced as GM glued the original U-joints in place, the replacements will not be centered like the originals and will vibrate if you do just the joints. That normally runs about $80-$100 down here where I am. The 2 steering arms that go bad are the idler and pitman, those 2 arms with the idler bracket normally cost me $65 at autozone, and it pays about 2.5 hours book time to do them(so if your guy charges $80 an hour that's $200). An alignment shouldn't cost more than $80. As for the oil leak at the manifold, that one I would question. The only place it could be leaking is at the end gaskets, but those are silicone and rarely leak enough to notice. The intake gaskets do fail and leak coolant, but never seen many oil leaks up there.

It looks like I have been screwing myself as I normally do the front end stuff for people for under $150 and they have to take it in for an alignment afterwards if it needs it. Most of the time they don't need one though. I personally would have him point out the intake leak as that one sounds fishy to me. As for the steering, the idler and pitman are the weak link in ALL of the GM front end's and tend to fail at 125K miles or so. The compressors on em are a piss poor design, but there are revised ones that don't fail that often(SANDEN makes one, GM and the major parts stores still sell the POS one).

[nipper]

Thanks Ferm. I will check out that oil leak. I have been using these guys for several years, and I generally find them to be pretty good, but lately they seem to be shafting me with the costs.