2010 GMC All Terrain 4x4 5.3 LC9 211k mi
Joined
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17,451 Posts
It is time to create a build log and share my truck and my experience with the forum. My plan is to make this a bit of a documentary as well as a chronicle of the changes and upgrades I do. I hope that is a ok format because I really feel that the story of our trucks says so much more than just the changes we make.
Here goes. I had just finished up the long hot summer with a host of projects that had me lamenting my choice of a commuter vehicle with great fuel economy. I had not too long ago purchased a 2013 Chevy Malibu with the 2.2 liter turbo engine and was getting over 29 mpg average. It ended up being too small back seat for any passengers, so I traded for a pre-owned 2011 Avalon Limited. This car had a V6 3.5 liter and was nearly getting 29 mpg average. Well...it is not a truck! I had been finishing up the summer projects with a huge task. Building a level base for a 8' x 12' shed in the back yard. The ground is not level and it required me buying hundreds of pounds of landscaping edging blocks and 12" x 12" pavers...all of which I hauled in my wife's 2011 Venza. I got it done, but I had an aching to be back in a full size truck with capacity for anything I wanted to do. I considered V6 engines for economy but none really presented much better mgp for what you got. Small trucks were just...small. I gave some consideration to the Tundra Crewmax but they were both pricey and not at good mpg. My first love has always been the GM products. I live in a cul-de-sac and every single house has a pickup. There must be 6 F150's! My neighbor has a Tundra and a GMC HD Duramax he picked up used. Who has two trucks??! That's another story.
I launched into my fury of intent looking to find the right truck for me. It was going to have to be used...and with some miles on it because I was on a budget. I did not want to be any further in debit than what I currently was on my Avalon (which I only had for about 4 months). I could write an entire blog on my vehicle switching history! I decided my budget was going to be around $24k. I searched high and low in the nearby area. I went out and checked out five or six trucks over several weeks and each time was disappointed. Two were sold before I got there (one of them I was told was there and wasn't). Many of them were decently low mileage (45-60k) for about a 3-4 year old truck...but most were not well cared for. I knew I would have to accept wear and tear on a used truck, but was looking for something that had been owned by a considerate owner and was kept up.
I finally found one at a dealership that was about an hour's drive away. I called them up and inquired about the truck which had been taken in on a trade only weeks before. It was a single owner who lived locally. It had 92,000 miles on it though and was a 2010 GMC Sierra which was silver in color. I am really a big fan of blue but this looked good. I was certainly wary of the mileage. Was I prepared to go purchase my primary daily driver at what seemed to me near the end of its life?! From what I had seen so far though...the only way I was going to keep within my budget and get what I wanted was to check this one out. After speaking to the dealer and discussing pricing and trade numbers somewhat...I decided to drive over after work and try and make a deal. I got there and drove it and checked it over. This was a clean truck! I could not believe the difference in this one from the others I had looked at. It was obvious that the owner had taken care of it...and that gave me enough confidence to try and buy it.
Well things did not go as planned. The dealer was firm on a low offer for the trade of my vehicle...even after coming down off the price of the truck from $22,795 to $22,000. I did not want to be that upside down on my trade even though I knew I was not going to get a full payoff. I held my ground and left. I was saddened and feeling that I was just not going to be able to make this work. The next day was a beautiful Saturday and I spent it with the family. Later in the afternoon I decided to reach out to the dealership and ask if they were willing to make any better offer. They were. I was offered an additional $1000 for my trade in (which the night before was the best they could possibly do) and that was enough for me. The numbers worked and I decided to head over there that evening. It was about 5:30 pm and the dealership which was an hour's drive away closed up at 7:00. My son and I hopped in the care and away we went. When we got there just before 7:00 the sales guy was having the truck washed and had the papers all ready. I had asked for a price for some OEM step tubes since this one did not have any. The price was $595! I asked if I could get it for their cost and the answer was no. Ultimately I decided to go with it. I did some quick research on eBay and whatnot and the price seemed to be in the ballpark. I signed the papers and then we waited a bit for the finance guy to finish up. Once we completed that I got the keys and switched over my stuff to the truck and said goodbye to the Avalon.
We headed home and I was thrilled with the truck! I was finally back in a GM truck and was ready to take on the world of projects (little did I know that they would be working on it!). Unfortunately due to the late timing of the purchase, the accessories department was closed and did not work Saturdays so I could not even grab the step tubes and put them on myself later. I would have to drive back over there after work on Monday.
My son and I headed out on Saturday morning for Corpus Christi for a camping trip with his Cub Scout pack on the USS Lexington. She is nicknamed the Grey Ghost.
Monday I got off work and headed down to get the steps installed. I noted a few oddities once the hour wait was over and they had finished. The main chrome body seemed to have a seam in the middle and there were only 3 support brackets for each side. I had seen 4 on others I looked at. I just blew it off and determined it must have been some changes or something. Tuesday evening I was looking over the truck and admiring it and saw what I thought was a bow in the step tube. Upon closer inspection there was a bow on both of them! It was nearly 3/8" down in the middle from what I could tell. I immediately called the sales guy and the accessory guy and fired off an email with lots of pictures.
They admitted there seemed to be an issue and then to my surprise told me they were aftermarket and not even OEM! I was upset for sure. I clearly asked for and was told I was getting the factory GM parts. The sales guy had to talk to the GM and came back with two options; return the steps and get my $595 back or get the OEM ones (that they say were over $800) installed at no cost. Either way it was another hour drive! I found a Craigslist seller with a brand new OEM set for $450 (you will see this story throughout my blog). I offered him $400 and he accepted. On the way down to the dealership to have them remove the steps I stopped off and purchased the new OEM ones. Yay I was $295 in the black (minus all the fuel) for more goodies!
Here goes. I had just finished up the long hot summer with a host of projects that had me lamenting my choice of a commuter vehicle with great fuel economy. I had not too long ago purchased a 2013 Chevy Malibu with the 2.2 liter turbo engine and was getting over 29 mpg average. It ended up being too small back seat for any passengers, so I traded for a pre-owned 2011 Avalon Limited. This car had a V6 3.5 liter and was nearly getting 29 mpg average. Well...it is not a truck! I had been finishing up the summer projects with a huge task. Building a level base for a 8' x 12' shed in the back yard. The ground is not level and it required me buying hundreds of pounds of landscaping edging blocks and 12" x 12" pavers...all of which I hauled in my wife's 2011 Venza. I got it done, but I had an aching to be back in a full size truck with capacity for anything I wanted to do. I considered V6 engines for economy but none really presented much better mgp for what you got. Small trucks were just...small. I gave some consideration to the Tundra Crewmax but they were both pricey and not at good mpg. My first love has always been the GM products. I live in a cul-de-sac and every single house has a pickup. There must be 6 F150's! My neighbor has a Tundra and a GMC HD Duramax he picked up used. Who has two trucks??! That's another story.
I launched into my fury of intent looking to find the right truck for me. It was going to have to be used...and with some miles on it because I was on a budget. I did not want to be any further in debit than what I currently was on my Avalon (which I only had for about 4 months). I could write an entire blog on my vehicle switching history! I decided my budget was going to be around $24k. I searched high and low in the nearby area. I went out and checked out five or six trucks over several weeks and each time was disappointed. Two were sold before I got there (one of them I was told was there and wasn't). Many of them were decently low mileage (45-60k) for about a 3-4 year old truck...but most were not well cared for. I knew I would have to accept wear and tear on a used truck, but was looking for something that had been owned by a considerate owner and was kept up.
I finally found one at a dealership that was about an hour's drive away. I called them up and inquired about the truck which had been taken in on a trade only weeks before. It was a single owner who lived locally. It had 92,000 miles on it though and was a 2010 GMC Sierra which was silver in color. I am really a big fan of blue but this looked good. I was certainly wary of the mileage. Was I prepared to go purchase my primary daily driver at what seemed to me near the end of its life?! From what I had seen so far though...the only way I was going to keep within my budget and get what I wanted was to check this one out. After speaking to the dealer and discussing pricing and trade numbers somewhat...I decided to drive over after work and try and make a deal. I got there and drove it and checked it over. This was a clean truck! I could not believe the difference in this one from the others I had looked at. It was obvious that the owner had taken care of it...and that gave me enough confidence to try and buy it.
Well things did not go as planned. The dealer was firm on a low offer for the trade of my vehicle...even after coming down off the price of the truck from $22,795 to $22,000. I did not want to be that upside down on my trade even though I knew I was not going to get a full payoff. I held my ground and left. I was saddened and feeling that I was just not going to be able to make this work. The next day was a beautiful Saturday and I spent it with the family. Later in the afternoon I decided to reach out to the dealership and ask if they were willing to make any better offer. They were. I was offered an additional $1000 for my trade in (which the night before was the best they could possibly do) and that was enough for me. The numbers worked and I decided to head over there that evening. It was about 5:30 pm and the dealership which was an hour's drive away closed up at 7:00. My son and I hopped in the care and away we went. When we got there just before 7:00 the sales guy was having the truck washed and had the papers all ready. I had asked for a price for some OEM step tubes since this one did not have any. The price was $595! I asked if I could get it for their cost and the answer was no. Ultimately I decided to go with it. I did some quick research on eBay and whatnot and the price seemed to be in the ballpark. I signed the papers and then we waited a bit for the finance guy to finish up. Once we completed that I got the keys and switched over my stuff to the truck and said goodbye to the Avalon.
We headed home and I was thrilled with the truck! I was finally back in a GM truck and was ready to take on the world of projects (little did I know that they would be working on it!). Unfortunately due to the late timing of the purchase, the accessories department was closed and did not work Saturdays so I could not even grab the step tubes and put them on myself later. I would have to drive back over there after work on Monday.
My son and I headed out on Saturday morning for Corpus Christi for a camping trip with his Cub Scout pack on the USS Lexington. She is nicknamed the Grey Ghost.
Monday I got off work and headed down to get the steps installed. I noted a few oddities once the hour wait was over and they had finished. The main chrome body seemed to have a seam in the middle and there were only 3 support brackets for each side. I had seen 4 on others I looked at. I just blew it off and determined it must have been some changes or something. Tuesday evening I was looking over the truck and admiring it and saw what I thought was a bow in the step tube. Upon closer inspection there was a bow on both of them! It was nearly 3/8" down in the middle from what I could tell. I immediately called the sales guy and the accessory guy and fired off an email with lots of pictures.
They admitted there seemed to be an issue and then to my surprise told me they were aftermarket and not even OEM! I was upset for sure. I clearly asked for and was told I was getting the factory GM parts. The sales guy had to talk to the GM and came back with two options; return the steps and get my $595 back or get the OEM ones (that they say were over $800) installed at no cost. Either way it was another hour drive! I found a Craigslist seller with a brand new OEM set for $450 (you will see this story throughout my blog). I offered him $400 and he accepted. On the way down to the dealership to have them remove the steps I stopped off and purchased the new OEM ones. Yay I was $295 in the black (minus all the fuel) for more goodies!