Looking for some info re: Chevy Avalanche

My girlfriend wants to buy one, so I said I would take a look around and research anything major to look out for.

Has anyone on here seen many big problems with a particular year Avalanche?

 

I had a 99 silverado with a 5.3. Good truck, good power, rode nice. 16.5 to 17 mpg on the highway with 3.73 gears. Pulled 7000 pounds quite well for a half ton. Total of parts replaced in 168k miles.....one tie rod end, front and rear brakes, drive shaft u-joints twice (got a bad one and it let go), drive shaft, and transmission tail housing (last two directly related to the cheap u joint failing).

It did develop a issue with 4 high and four low not working right before I got rid of it (worked one night, didn't the next morning when I went to leave) but the auto 4x4 worked fine. The only other issue was a check engine light and bad miss. Fixed by having the injectors cleaned.

I traded that truck on a 07 grand prix only because of the fuel savings (I was driving 100 miles round trip to work). Still miss that truck. Really like the taco I drive now though.

 

Thanks for the replies, at least i can now watch out for the tranny issue. She won't be towing, probaby won't even use the bed... well maybe we will... but that's the truck she wants so that's that. I tried recommending the Tacoma, but she likes the Chevy. Now for some more reading...

 

My buddy has one, it's a nice ride. He did mention he had to replace the front wheel bearings not long ago, and that the wheel bearings were a common repair (from his research).

Mike