Got a new Z71 Tahoe last night

carguru · February 18, 2004

We just became an all Chevy family. Got rid of my wife's Honda Oddessy last night. I didn't plan on buying, but they gave me a heck of a deal yesterday because it was snowing here. Then got the GM Card bonus on top of that. We got one of the black ones with tan interior. Pictures to come soon.

asepgrad98 · February 18, 2004

w00t!

Machine · February 18, 2004

Good choice!

TROYROBO · February 18, 2004

JBZ71 · February 18, 2004

Congrats on the new ride...

99silveradoz71 · February 18, 2004

Yes, yes

SnakeEyeSS · February 18, 2004

honda for a chevy!

dogzapper · February 18, 2004

Carguru,

We replaced my wife's aging 99 Blazer with a brand-new 2004 Tahoe LT (literally ALL options) exactly one week ago.

Ours is Summit White, because the wife commonly travels with our dogs. Kept clean, it looks super.

We couldn't find a Z-71 with seat heaters or side impact bags, so I opted for an LT and I'm adding the skid plates (for $109.00, installed by the dealer). Our dealer, Town & Country Chevy in Portland, Oregon, was gave us an offer we couldn't refuse. The Tahoe LT had an MSRP of $46,505 and we got it for $10,000 off of MSRP, at $36,505. With skid plates, Hushy floor mats, electric trailer brake and a bug masher, it's still well under $37,000.

Oh my, what a fabulous rig. Smooth-riding and awesome off-road.

Enjoy your new Tahoe, my friend.

Steve

Wingnut · February 18, 2004

Sweet man!! Congratulations!

MCourson · February 19, 2004

Redapple · February 19, 2004

Congrats!

RyanZ71 · February 19, 2004

Congrats on your new purchase! Just wanted to know though how well the Honda worked out for you guys, and what complaints/praise you had for it. I'm looking at good reliable minivans for my mother to get in the future and I don't trust Dodge, Ford, or the GM minivans anymore thanks to the expierence we've had with them all. I've liked the looks of the ods since they re-designed them a few years back, I think its a great looking van. Just wanting to get the feedback from someone who has owned one.

carguru · February 19, 2004

Thanks, guys. We are having fun with it so far. I'm still trying to get used to switching back and forth from my truck. I keep thinking the Tahoe should be longer than it is, an my truck is much shorter. Here is the first pic of it so far:

As for the Ody. We have had a love/hate relationship with it. Ours was a 2000 model EX with the Nav.

Pluses:

-Honda makes a great engine in the 3.5L. Quick acceleration/decent mileage.

Around town we averaged 16-17. Highway we averaged 25-28.

-Space is plenty good. With the middle seats out, you can haul 4x8 sheets of plywood. You don't feel cramped in any of the seats in the van.

-One of the best looking minivans still.

-Cool gadgets with the power sliding doors, nav system, and traction control.

-Good vehicle to go speeding along in. It seems that it blended in so well on the road, no one notices.

Minuses:

-Lack of insulation. Road noise was very bad. Road noise is even worse with the middle seats out.

-Poor choice of tires. The Michelin Symmetrys that came standard got louder and transmitted more road noise as they wore.

-Honda automatic transmission. This tranny just plain sucks. They even extended the warranty for the 2000 model to 6 year/100k. Supposedly there was a defect with a bearing in the tranny. However this "defect" spread over several different vehicles in the Honda/Acura line and over various model years.

-Tranny fluid sensitivity. Not only will it shift funny if you don't use the special Honda tranny fluid, but as you near the mileage required to change the fluid, shift quality goes away. This is just as bad as many of the Chrysler van's problems.

-Thin sheet metal. It seems if you breath on the metal too hard, it would dent.

-Thin paint. Somehow the paint seems more delicate than any other vehicle I've had in the past.

-Seats sucked on long trips. The seats are flat and have very little support. There are some mods that can help, but seat material has to be trimmed away. That wasn't something I was intrested in doing.

-Sliding doors stick.

-Sliding doors rattle.

-Contacts for sliding doors corrode over time causing the door open alarms to go off.

-Plastic wheelwells crack if the screws are tightened. We had 2 sets replaced during the time we had this.

If we were to buy another van, we would have probably bought another Ody. A close second would be the new Sienna. I don't really care for the Sienna because it isn't quite proportioned right (on some of the models with the standard wheels, the wheels look too small for the van) and for some of the problems Toyota has had in the recent past with their engines. To top it all off, the Sienna looks like it borrowed heavily from the redesigned Ford Freestar (woo-hoo, I'll have to tell the guys at Visteon/Ford that I got it right the first time and didn't call it the Windstar ).

The reason we did not go with another minivan was because we kept dragging coming into our driveway, we occasionally tow a trailer (fwd vehicles suck as tow vehicles), and go to the cabin in the mountains (no paved roads). In order to get a van with that sort of capability, we would spend more than what we got the Tahoe for. I guess the final reason we got the Tahoe was to increase our yuppieness

Sorry for the long rant. Just my $0.02.

RyanZ71 · February 20, 2004

Thanks for the info on the Ody, as great of a looking van as they are and with a very powerful engine, I don't think i'd want to subject my mother to all the other little things that go wrong like you mentioned, so I'm going to keep looking. Toyota is out of the question, the styling is beyond hidious.