Hi I had a 99 suburban since it was new. I loved the truck in spite of all the design flaws like brakes, charging, door locks, ect. Bottom line was it was so useful easy to drive who could complain.. about how much repairs were needed. On top of that parts are so cheap. So I had a love hate relationship for many years with 99 GMC suburban. I did repairs myself. So recently I went to look for new trucks since the suburban died twice in one week. This 99 suburban had 65K mils on it the engine is ran like almost new. When I sold it was running really good. I love GMC since I had a 2004 standard cab with a 4.8L. It was a great truck in spite of the transmission issues. After looking at the new
2011 GMs it was clear GM is not putting any effort into improving truck designs. The 4.8L is only available with the same 4 speed transmission as my 99 Suburban. It was clear to me these are the same trucks as the 70's with new pushrod engines. They also had 11" drum brakes in the rear. Only small trucks use drum brakes. Drum brakes, actually can work but but they should be large hey.. its a truck, lets have at least 13 Inch drums in the back,, you will still be outdated but at least they can work. My Suburban could barley stop it self after a delay in the pedal actuation with 11" drums in the rear though the big problem was the small front disc brakes.. This was truly a dangerous vehicle brake wise. I had to put brakes on anything I towed even if it was 2000 Lbs. Back to engines don't get me wrong GM is the best at pushrod engines in the world they were are good in 2004 but are now out dated. They don't put the 6 speed with the 4.8L which needs it to compete with ford 4.6L 3V The GM trucks are the same for 2010 as 2011. They can't compete with the 2011 ford line up as GM will still have 4 speed transmissions Vs. fords 6 speed. Ford 3,7 six will be better than GM 4.8L 8. It will tow much more maybe 2X No doubt Power towing and performance will be good for new designs. We wont discuss the 4.3l as it will be virtually worthless. The 5.3 will fail against Ford 5.0. GM tuck is lighter but that mat nor help enough. We know GM 6L is a dog at 350HP it too may fail against 5,0L and may not fair much better than the 5.3L. We know Toyota will kill GM too they have a good line up in engines. Bottom line is Government motors stands to loose big in tis best division, the truck division because of lack of design engineering. After looking at GM vs Ford if I could not buy Ford it would be a Dodge because it is a better truck. I have never owned a Dodge but they now better than GM at this stage.Good luck to GM