'89 Suburban Advice

Hi,

My transmission is starting to slip and I am not sure it is worth fixing. How much is my Suburban worth you think?? I have 133k miles 454 7.4L engine plus towing package. Some folks say that people might buy it just for the engine. What do you guys think??

Thanks,

swb1

You could probably sell it yourself for around $3000 or $4000 assuming no transmission problem and clean with no body damage. If the transmission is going out, someone may offer you $2000 for it if you're lucky. But you'll have a harder time selling it in that condition as most people don't want to go into a sale knowing they have a major expense ahead of them.

If it were me, and I've been here before, I'd try selling it to a dealership (do they have Carmax where you live?) and hope that they don't catch the transmission issue. If they don't notice the tranny slipping they'll probably offer around $1500.

In average shape you're looking at $2000 tops with the bad trans. If you like it, you could fix it up for a lot less than buying new.

At 370,000 miles I spent about $7500 on a new 383 engine, trans, rear end, bodywork, paint, etc. for my '90. It's my traveling office/work truck/sometimes motel. I like the extra 30 cubic feet of cargo room the R/V series gives you compared to newer ones, plus I can't see spending $30-40,000 for a new one that only gets a couple more mpg.

I'm terrified that a relatively small accident would "total" my baby but my insurance guy says he'll go to bat with all my receipts.

I won't consider a new Sub until they offer a 50/50 hybrid that gets 30 in town and 25 highway. Even then I'll keep the old one for towing duty!