My old man has had 3 new gmc 1/2 ton sierra pickups. A 2000, 2002, and now a 2004. One with the 4.8 (2000) and the others with 5.3L engines. Basically they suck, and we regret the sale of the 98 K1500 w/ 5.7L (350) just about every day.

Family friend has been through as many heavy duty gm trucks in the last few years, 6L, 8.1L, and even the duramax are not up to snuff. And the trucks those engines are in are for city people who never used them for anything beyond towing a pretty boat to and from winter storage.

 

Brent87LT1!
Gm has a TSB bulletin out for the steering clunk and also play in the steering wheel. I'd take it in whether it's under warranty or not and tell them to fix it. They know they have a problem. If the dealer gives you grief than call GM customer service. That's what I had to do. They should replace the intermediate steering shaft with a "new and improved design"?. The steering boxes are also junk. Mine has had the steering shaft , idler arm and pittman arm replaced. It's also on it's third steering box. It just turned 33,000 miles. Other than that I love the truck. LOL!

 

Sounds like Chevy needs to quit makin trucks. I assume GMC is havin the same probs?? I haven't heard anything bad about the GMC trucks. Am I right? Ford still eats Chevy's and pukes Dodges, hahaha.

 

i will teach you all a lesson, now when ever a new model car/ truck/atv/motocycle/ or redesign never buy it untill a year or two later because it takes a year or two to work the bugs out. like my sisters 2002 audi a4 , beautiful fast car but it is a pos because all the computer problems it has, also my dads 2001 ranger had ignition problems and those two are redesigned models. King Quad, Raptor etc. Also its hard to believe that japanise cars are so much more reliable than the majority of the american cars. also look at the old polaris to how the the old suzukis and hondas are never find a reliable 1999 and below polaris

 

aaahhh i love it when people diss chevy. Drive a ford haha

 

as i stated earlier that i love my truck would never buy a jap truck or those poor dodge things they call trucks with useless rearends, or those leaky, on my 3rd tranny ford pu's.

 

In this day and age, that shouldn't even be a consideration. They shouldn't even PUT a vehicle into service until they extensively tested it FIRST. Why leave the customer and dealers to put up with the problems and remedies. If I spend what they're asking for these things, I don't WANT to have the friggen truck in the shop, I should be paying for all the R&D they HAVE done, not doing it for them.

 

The market place is the true equalizer. Back off and look at the big picture. Ford trucks have outsold GM forever...there's a reason. I'm not for or against any U.S. mfgr; in fact, I'd like every American business to be successful and make a zillion bucks. But if you are in the market for something..and EVERYONE is driving a particular model, well, there's a reason. And guess what, if the current trend continues we'll all be driving Japanese trucks in 20 years. The Japanese are not going to stop until they have all the market. Read the reviews of the Toyota and Nissian trucks...and now Honda has put it's toe in the water. Ask the farmers. Most (all?) mid sized tractors and smaller are made in Japan. Deere just paints them with their $1000/gal green paint and charges more. A blind man can see what's coming.

This American vs. European vs. Japanese thing really chaps my a**. I mean this has been going on since the late 60s/early70s and the American mfgrs still don't get it. At the moment American trucks are supporting the American auto industry. The auto side is losing money. What's scary is between 15% and 20% of ALL jobs in the U.S. depend directly or indirectly on the auto industry. We just can't afford to lose that, but in the above posts you've outlined problems that are not unique and almost seem to be the norm.

The first year out the Lexus was the NUMBER ONE vehicle in frequency of repair and still ranks up there somewhere. And we continue to get stuff like the Aztec and cladding. The scary thing is that the top Japanese sellers were designed in the U.S. Stand by...it's only going to get worse. Please may I be wrong.

My .02, no make that .50 and my hot button.

 

Wait until the Japs enter the diesel truck market. The USA is going to take another big hit. Only a matter of time.

 

As soon as we get "clean diesel" aka low sulphur that they have in europe, look out, there will be deisel in everything on the road. Jeep is putting out a small deisel in their Liberty very soon, probably based on a Mercedes version sold over there. It's only a matter of time before every manufaturer jumps on board, hopefully the price will take a nosedive as well. In keeping with the "Thumbs down on Chevy" thread, my father in law has 2 Duramaxes, both have had small minor tranny and motor problems, but it's everything else, like window motors, wiper motors, security system faults, things like this that cost money as they aren't covered by the warranty. It's one thing or the other, they just don't seem to have the fit and finish down to import standards....yet