2007 Chevy Silverado HD Duramax,Diesel Allison Transmission

[Jakessweetthing]

We have a 2007 Chevy Silverado HD Duramax Diesel with an Allison transmission, that now has 200,000 miles on it. 85% of those are over the road miles. We have had it serviced and taken excellent care of it. The interior is in great condition.
So Here is our question, My husband wants to trade for a new truck. But the price we are looking at is almost out of our fixed income budget. We could do it, but do we want to?
So the next question is the important one. How many more miles can we expect to get out of our truck if we keep it???
We live in Kansas and we are planning a trip to Arkansas, California, and Colorado this year. And maybe the same next year. The next five years we plan on traveling a lot, so do we keep it? Or trade and take on those huge payments? What would you do?

[Grit_dog]

You DO have one of the best trucks made. That’s good for 2 things. It’s more likely to last longer AND it’s a pulling machine that will keep up w the new ones with only a small tune. The other thing it’s good for is better than average sales price.
Keep vs sell depends on how savvy you are with repairs. It’s still an old truck with a lot of miles and if you don’t know how to pre emptively diagnose or anticipate issues then you may be more comfortable with low miles.
The manner in which you speak about the truck leads me to believe you aren’t a gearhead and none of us know what you’ve done vs what will go wrong in the future.
Reccomendations of “awesome truck, keep it” generally come from guys like me who wrench on our vehicles and understand them.
Reccomendations of buy a new truck come from convienence and the security of less expected repairs with a new rig.

[2001400ex]

I'm in same dilemma with my 08 Duramax. I just replaced the front wheel bearing and brake pads at 160k miles. Last year I did shocks and new tires (last set did last 80,000 miles). The deal is, I paid it off last year and since then I've put over $2,000 into it, with my brother doing the work on my bearings and shocks, would have been $3,000 if a shop did the work. I do believe that you either have a payment or you have maintenance. Now a payment is more and depreciation on a new truck is significantly more than mine now.

That being said, I'm waiting until the 2020 HD comes out. I've thought about getting a 2-3 year old one, but I need to get to a 15 for a better interior and a 17 for more horsepower (mine is tuned with EFI live). And anything 15 or newer, unless there's 100k miles on it, it's not much of a discount from New. In addition, mine is fairly well loaded, I don't have a sunroof or power rear slider, other then that, I wouldn't gain much in a new pickup. With a 2020, they should have a bigger cab and push button start based on what they are doing with the half ton in 2019.

That is just my thought process.

[BurbMan]

ksss wrote:
Broke down in BFE and you will wish you had reconsidered keeping getting out of it.

Meh...stuff breaks on new trucks too, there's no guarantees. Best bet is to roll with the Roadside Assistance plan of your choice....

[4x4ord]

I have a son in law with a 6.0 l Ford who has 500,000 miles on his truck. It is on its second engine but it still seems like a very good reliable truck. He bought it off his father 5 years ago and I'm not aware of a single problem that he has had in the last 5 years. If you can't afford to pay cash for a new truck I think you should run what you have. The 2007 Duramax is a pretty good truck.

[edatlanta]

SDcampowneroperator wrote:
If your truck is an 07 classic with the LBZ/Duramax like mine, keep it. Over the next 200k miles I expect to spend 5-10 k on repairs as injectors and other stuff wears out, but I do not expect the main driveline to wear out. If it did breakdown on the road, we do have our house right behind, so we can wait for repairs or trade then.
There are thousands of these trucks out there with many more miles than that with that experience.
The 07 classic has a higher resale value than trucks up to 3 years newer.

I have a 2006 LBZ with 182,000 on it and I plan on keeping it until my son in law inherits it. A few hundred dollars now and then is a lot better than a few hundred dollars every month for a payment.

[LIKE2BUILD]

Jakessweetthing wrote:
Our truck overheated going through the mountains last summer and we have worried a little about it since. But its a good truck and we have never had anything go wrong with it other than that. We are leaning on keeping it. And just setting money back for anything major. We keep it well maintained and service on a regular basis.

The overheating incident would concern me. Did you find the cause and fix it or do you just cool down and go on. If it was an unknown cause I would be worried it could happen on another trip.

[ksss]

If you were traveling local that would be one thing with 200k plus. Traveling across the country can be another. A couple upsides to getting something newer, the latest gen of GM HD trucks is substantially better at towing than were the GMT8-900. The suspension is better, brake are much, much better, the exhaust brake is excellent, more power of course. So the heavier your towing, the more you can appreciate the newer paint. The other thing that hurts is when you need major repairs, you don't get much of that invest back if you want out of it. If it is worth 17K now, you put 5k into repairs and it is still worth 17K. So you end up having to keep it longer to see your money out and it turns into a vicious cycle.

It is a roll of the dice, no payments and life is good. Broke down in BFE and you will wish you had reconsidered keeping getting out of it.

[SDcampowneroper]

OP I ' d say there is a concensus, from other posters You have the best dieseltranny combo on the road.
( please excuse my partiality) Saving for possible eventual repairs, is a far more sound financial plan.
planning on items like injectors after 150k are known. Front wheel hubs. Good for 80-100k mi. $500 if you pull your own wrenches.
07s classics have no DEF, NO Cat. converter 360hp 650 lb. ft. torque. As large a radiator as any newer. You would have heated up any newer truck as well.
There has come many a time for us to know when to lighten up my foot as I saw the temps climbing. The truck wont let you overheat it to damage, brain will limit the fuel to keep you in the safe zone.
I paid 38k us for my 53k us listed truck 101/2 yrs ago. Still resales for $ 18-20k. only 50 % depreciation after 10 years and 200k miles? New replacement is $ 70k plus list. 40plus to trade? For what?

[KD4UPL]

My '05 Chevy diesel has 225,000 on it. I hope to keep it for many years yet. It's been the most trouble free vehicle I've ever owned. If I don't get at least 300,000 out of it I'll be disappointed. My daily driver is a 202,000 mile '02 Jeep and the family car, a Buick, has 192,000 on it. I don't plan to get rid of any of them any time soon.
Your truck particularly is a keeper. The '07 classic is highly desirable and one of the best combinations of drive train and lack of emissions equipment. I'd keep up on the maintenance and drive it another 100,000 or more.
The new trucks can actually give a lot more trouble than the older ones. There's a lot more fragile things to break on a new diesel than on the one you have.

[Thom02099]

Another guy here that agrees with keeping with what you've got.

2007 GMC Sierra SLE Classic 3500 dually, has 289K on it and runs like a top. I bought an extended warranty for it, covers the engine and drivetrain for 3 years. Yes, I've had some maintenance come up, but the basics are in good condition. It took me to the Grand Canyon and back last fall, high mountain passes (Wolf Creek) and high desert. No significant issues at all. Spent a little money to improve the aesthetics of the truck (dualiner bed liner/truxedo tonneau soon). Since I only use it for towing, it doesn't see a lot of daily drive wear and tear; have 2 other vehicles for every day and a back up tow vehicle (2003 Chevy Tahoe) if I need it.

[BurbMan]

I am approaching 180K on my 2001 and am not worried about components failing, mainly because they have already failed...I have already replaced just about everything there is to replace including rebuilding the trans and rear axle. When this truck was new the payment was $700/mo, and a new one would be about the same. Even when stuff was breaking left and right I was hard pressed to spend $700/mo. Even the trans was only 5 payments!

I did put in a new touch screen stereo with bluetooth, back up cam, and navigation to keep things updated. Not planning on a new one anytime soon.

[Mike_LeClair]

I am with the camp that advises to simply get your current truck up to tip top condition and keep driving it till the wheels fall off. Heck, we had a 17 year old RAM 2500 with a 24V Cummins at 300,000kms. If it could have safely pulled our current RV we would STILL have it. I anticipated at least 500,000kms out of that unit until the body rusted away from the motor.

Cheers!

Mike

[FishOnOne]

Based on the 2007 Duramax engines/transmissions I would not hesitate to drive it another 100k miles.

Having said that I'm assuming your truck is in good shape based on your comments.

Another thing to consider is if you do have to spend major $$$$$ for a repair, it sounds like it could complicate a new truck purchase in the future.

Bottom line it's your decision and no one here has a crystal ball.

Good luck...

[Halmfamily]

We have an 08, see Sig, and plan to drive it for another 10 years or more. Yes there will be repairs but it's far cheaper than buying another truck

[spoon059]

DownTheAvenue wrote:
Actually a quick Google search and a call to my local Chevrolet dealer (Hardy Chevrolet 770-532-4389) confirmed that a Silverado 2500 can be leased with many vendors, including the manufacturer, providing many options for a lease. Furthermore, a check on AutoTrader.com found many used 2500 Silverados.

http://www.quirkchevy.com/new-vehicles/silverado-2500hd/lease-offers-and-best-prices-boston-ma/

This is the 1st thing that came up when I searched... It would appear you could lease a GM HD truck.