DC Sleez Blog

My family purchased a used 2004 Chevrolet Suburban in late 2008. A four year old full size sport utility vehicle, the Suburban proved to be one of the better values in used SUVs. With better gas mileage than the competing Ford Expedition, the ‘Burb proved to be an outstanding vehicle, even when used.

The reliability has been outstanding. Only one in the last 4 years and 50,000 miles has the check engine light come on. This was only for a small vacuum hose (emission leak) that was easily repaired by simply checking the hoses and making a small adjustment.

The original battery has had to be replaced, but other than the battery and small emission leak, there have been no problems whatsoever. This is much better than experiences that we’ve had with other full size SUVs that have been purchased through car dealers of “ill repute”.

Frustrated with how to buy a car with bad credit, we set out to find the best value for the money and arrange our financing before selecting a particular vehicle on a given car lot.  With most cars not holding their loan value as needed in order to get a bad credit car loan, we had to find a line of vehicles that would have sufficient loan value in relation to sale price.

Our search was narrowed down between the 2004 Chevrolet Suburban, the 2004 Chevrolet Tahoe and the Ford Expedition. With the high gas mileage of the Ford, we chose narrowed our search further between the two Chevrolet models.

As the Tahoe is in more demand due to it’s smaller size, the Suburban was available for less money. With the roomy interior, this gave us a great advantage as buyers. Just because a model isn’t in demand doesn’t mean that there is anything wrong with it.

Before long, we settled on a nice 2005 model, but found that the 2004 was equally equipped, and could be had for a few thousand less. With 85,000 miles on a leather suited 04, we found that a sale price of only $11,000.00 to be quite accomodating to our credit needs. We were able to buy it for that amount, including tax, title and tag without having to have a down payment, due to the high loan value.

Reliable beyond our expectations, the 2004 GM produced Chevrolet Suburban has proven to be a great buy at only eleven thousand dollars. Anyone looking for a great buy on a Suburban or Tahoe would be good to reference NADA or Kelley Blue Book to get a good idea of what the going market value is for the year model in question.