Need advice on 1994 6.5 Suburban for $3500

[914turboford]

I am in negotiations on a '94 Suburban. It has 278K on the clock. Body is pretty clean. Looks pretty good except it has 1 mismatched wheel. Paint is good. Would look nice with a wash and new rims. Clean interior with no tears. Needs tires. Pulls to the left. Power steeringpump and/or lines leak terribly. AC compressor siezed. Rear passenger window non functioning. Expired tags. I can get it for $3500. It runs real good and supposedly has a newer trans. California truck so no rust. What do you think? Good deal or pass?
Brian

[Jochen Woern]

Good evening Brian, how are you?

In my opinion it is probably a good deal, but I would try to work it down to 3K!

I have a 96 Burb and paid 10K with 155K on the clock at the time.

- I just took care of my AC Compressor and I paid 350 bucks for a brand new one, not rebuild.
- Since it pulls to the right and it needs new tires anyhow, have it alligned which should probably cost you around 100 - 150 bucks depending on where you are located at and where you will have it done.
- Depending on what size tires you will get, you should expect to pay around 600 bucks for a nice set. I am running 265/75 R16 BF Goodrich All-Terrains and they cost me about that including all disposal fees as well as tax, etc.
- Rims, not sure what to expect there, too may out there and also depending on Manufacturer. I would assume you can pick up a very nice rim for this Burb for 150 bucks/each. But again, I am guessing here.
- Are you sure it is the power steering/power steering hoses that leak? The Transmission Cooler lines are usually the ones that leak terribly. Had mine redone and was "robbed" at the local Chevy Dealership and paid about 700 bucks for those. Should have been on this website before I did the work and I would have replaced the original ones with the aftermarket steel braided ones.
- The rear window is not a big deal, probably only needs a window actuator and these are not too expensive.

Do you have some pictures??? If the truck is clean, has no rips or tears on the interior, it was most likely taken care of. Do the math yourself and see if this is still working for you and go from there. For 3K it might just about be worth it.

- As for the expired tags, I can not comment since I am not sure where you are located at. However, your local DMV should be able to tell you what the cost is to get the BURB registered again.

Good Luck!

[914turboford]

Thanks for the reply. We have already agreed to $3500 so about the most I could do at this point is back out. These trucks are pretty rare around here. I know it is not the deal of a lifetime but with winter coming I am abit more motivated to move forward. I am pretty handy and can fix the problems myself for the cost of parts. With 278K I am assuming there has been a new engine at some point but I don't know.

[Jochen Woern]

If you have agreed to the 3500 bucks, then I am sure you like the rig and then there is no reason to back out. Especially since you say the trucks are rare where you are and you are handy with fixing the problems yourself.

You can not be sure that the engine was changed based on the high mileage. If you search/check this forum/website, you will see that there are trucks with more then 300K miles on them out there still running the original engine.

But again, if she is clean, she was taken care of and in my opinion there is no reason the be afraid because of the 278K miles on a 6.5.

Where are you located at and how did you find a CA Truck?

Keep me posted, would like to see some pics of the Burb once you get it.

[914turboford]

I went ahead and picked it up this morning. The mismatched wheels don't look so great and the PS pump is howlingly low on fluid. I live in California so CA trucks are plentiful! Just not 6.5TD 'Burbs. I'll let you know how it goes as I get into it more.
Brian

[Jochen Woern]

Hi Brian, how are you?

Congrats on your new purchase, hope you are happy with it.

Where in CA are you ? I am in Sacramento.

I agree, it was VERY tough for me to find a 6.5 Burb as well, found it on eBay in Modesto. Drove there, looked at it and feel in love with it, drove it and it felt even better. Bought it on the spot and am now in the process of modifying it. Today I received my 4" inch Exhaust kit from Pinnacle Power Exhaust, Jerry Jardine. Can't wait to install it cause I wonder what it will do for me. I could not believe how much more power the truck had by just changing the air intake to a performance filter kit.

[PerfectReign]

Good post for me to hop in. It is nice to see the feelings y'all have on the 6.5 in the 'burb with the mileage. I have a one-year-old Avalanche that I'm seriously considering trading in on a 6.5 suburban. I've been looking around and see a few here in Southern California with under 100K but most with between 150 and 250K on the odometer. In fact, I was just talking to a guy in the high desert last night who's got a '94 on cars.com for $5,000 with 229,000 on the odometer. (He's got the original block but new headers and relocated PMD.)

In any case, let us know how it goes!!

[Kev-o]

I have been watching E-bay for diesel burbs some nice and clean ones at good prices. There are burbs here in Alberta, Canada that have 200,000+km and been driven down a gravel farm road since new and snow and salt and they want $10,000-$14,000 for these.

However i found that typing in diesel for key words it does not show all the diesel burbs you are best to search chev/gmc 1994-1999 suburban. Good luck i will be on the hunt soon!