I have a friend that needs a nice sized SUV for his family and is considering the Tahoe. He is worried about it's reliability though. I tried to reassure him that the Tahoe is a quality vehicle but he mentioned rumored ball joint/suspension problems.

The Tahoe would be for his wife and would never be driven offroad or on the racetrack. He is looking to get the 5.3L V8.

So how reliable is the Tahoe? Any specific problem areas?

How many miles would one expect the engine and tranny to last? Could it last at least 160,000 or more?

I would appreciate any information you all good provide. My friend has a family with 3 kids so doesn't want to spend 30K+ on a vehicle that's gonna give him
problems.

 

Ive got an 01 and I love it. It sees more usage than either of our 01 corvettes and it will also be the first to be supercharged (hopefully by the end of this month when I have some time and someone will be home to receive it). Ive never had a problem to speak of. I have roughly 65,000 miles and it is in excellent shape. My brake pads arent even showing much wear, theyll be getting the baer +1 after the S/C.
It all depends on how it is driven and maintained. I couldnt be happier with mine.

 

if you look at consumer reports they have renked the tahoe/ suburban very hightly. I even think they are their recommended buys

 

I have an 01 Yukon (better looking grille IMHO) with 60,000 mile of that 33,000 were towing a 24ft enclosed trailer around the countryside. My hot idle oil pressure is still 50 lbs and it does not burn any oil between changes. The secret to most of these trucks it to change oil an and filter and service it every 3K mile. With all that towing, I bought a set of pads and rotors at 45,000 miles but the originals were so good, I still have that set on the bench. With all that towing, if the front suspension was a problem, I think it would have surfaced by now

 

Traded our '01 Z71 Tahoe 2 months ago for an '04 Tahoe LT. Can say nothing but good things about them. We had no trouble at all with the '01, it had over 40K miles on it. Some of which were pulling my brother's 22' enclosed trailer.

 

Hey guys thanks for all the good info! I gave my friend the link to this post and I think he is now planning to get a Tahoe (as he had originally planned).

Oh yea I noticed at www.edmunds.com the average consumer review of the Tahoe was 9.2 out of 10!

 

Yukon's grilles do look better. The only redeeming factor that the tahoe has is that the sylvania HID system is available for them, but not the yukon. Yukons have to go with a fab job. Doubt that has any relevance though.

 

My wife and I have the Escalade version of the Tahoe/Yukon and even with all the additional electronic goodies(NAV system, suspension, air leveling) that are standard on it and optional on the others, it has been wonderful. I was worried about it as GM used to have a pretty bad rep in the Caddy line for the new "electronic goodies" being incredibly hard to service sometimes. I like the Caddy so far as we get better treatment at the Caddy dealer than we have at a Chevy or GMC/Pontiac dealership.

Todd