8.1 Sububan question

Did your father maintain the 8.1 well? If so I'd go with that one. 100k miles isn't that many anymore. I've got 185k on my 99 Tahoe, wife has 175k on her 2001 Tahoe, had 180k on a 2000 Suburban when it got totaled in a wreck. There should be many years of good, trouble free, service in that Yukon.

BurbMan wrote:
The design life on the 8.1 is 200k miles

250K,same as the Duramax.

You will enjoy the truck. The design life on the 8.1 is 200k miles and mine is going strong at 150k. Not sure who told Tiger that is was expensive to change the spark plugs, they are iridium plugs but easy to get to.

BTW, $5k is an awesome price, it's worth $10k. Hard to find one if you were looking for it.

BTW - invest in gas stock (you'll get 11mpg around town, 13mpg on the road without pulling, and much less pulling - we got ~7.5 pulling a 30' 9000lb TT).

Also expect to put in a quart of oil every 1500 miles.

We had a 2002 3/4 YukonXL 8.1 from new to one year ago when we sold it at ~185K miles, not because of any issues...just not sure I trusted it for a 1month 5000mi vacation pulling a 9000lb trailer. We were very happy with the Yukon, I expect you will be too :)

8.1 for sure. That is a great engine.

H2oSprt wrote:
I'm looking at two options, buying a used few year old suburban for 35k with low miles etc. or my Father offered me his 01 Yukon xl 4x4 with 8.1 (100k miles) for 5,000 bucks. If I look at money it's easy choice, just wondering how many years and miles I could get out of an already 13 year old tow vehicle?

It would tow a 6000 pound boat and take us on family vacations, probably use it 6000 miles a year tops.

Damn, if you don't want it ill buy it !

My vote is for the older 8.1 and save the money. I have looked at both old (00-06) and new and while older, I don't think they're worse. In fact I find the materials (dash and switchgear especially) to be of higher quality in the older trucks. So many newer Subs have cracked dashes and the labels on the switches are all rubbed off. The 3/4 ton platform underneath did not change so both are still on the GMT800 platform, just with different bodies. The fuel mileage will be better on the newer one with the 6.0, but with 30k in your pocket I doubt that matters. Lastly your resale value on the older one will stay the same or increase, but will decrease substantially on the newer one. Good Luck!

My brother has a Yukon 8.1 of about that vintage. He told me when I bought my 8.1 that the spark plug change at 100K miles is essential and expensive (this from a brother who rebuilds his own engines!). Has your father's Yukon had that done?

Re age of vehicle: my pre-Tiger RV was 23 years old and had 149K miles when I sold it. It is still on the road now, 7 years later. If you take care of them and if parts are available, they last.

To me, that is a no brainer. Take your Dads Yukon and start making payments to a "new" vehicle fund for 4 or 5 years down the road. that Yukon has many thousand miles of life left and knowing the history of the Yukon is big in my book.