Opinions on a possible purchase
 

Hello,

Being more of Dodge truck guy, I don't know much about Blazers other than I've always liked them. I'm in the market for what I call a bridge vehicle. Something to get me a couple of years until my house is paid off (way early bought in 1999) and get into a brand new truck. Anyway, I found a nice 1997 GMC Jimmy 2dr SLS with leather. Body and interior are immaculate, runs/shifts fine, new tires and whole pile of paperwork proving it's had good maintence. They want 3900 for it and I'm sure I can get them down a little as the truck has been there for sometime. I expect to have to put some money into the truck over the next couple of year. The truck has 139,000 on it. Is this a decent price? I thinking if I can get them down to $3300-3400 I'll pull the trigger.


A couple of things I noticed.

1.) I drove it about 40 miles on the test drive and the truck runs at 200 or 210 degrees. Right at the middle notch or just below, can't remember what temp that is.
2.) Rear wiper doesn't work, probably an easy fix
3.) The saleman kept saying the truck has had the "spider" and intake manifold was replaced recently. I know what the intake manifold is, but I haven't a clue what the "spider" is, but I assume having them replaced is a good thing.
4.) looking at the maintance records the truck had a new transmission at 106K. It was a Jasper replacement.
5.) Body has no rust rust and undercarriage is about as clean as you are going to see in Minnesota. I used to do autobody and I know where to look.


Any help or insight you may be able to give would be helpful. My old Ram (1995 with 280,000 miles) is getting tired and I'll be needing something to drive this winter after the IROC goes back into storage and I love to get a couple of years out of this truck and get myself totally free of my Mortgage before getting into a $7-800 a month truck payment.


Also, almost forgot. It's a 4X4 and that all works fine and sound good.

Sounds like a pretty good deal to me if you can talk him down to 3300-3400 like you said
1) thats where my truck usually runs, i believe its normal
2) maybe, maybe not, idk
3) The spider has to due with the fuel injection system and is something that goes bad fairly often on blazers
4) Always good to have
5)Another good attribute especially for Minne

Also, the leather is really nice, i always wished i had it for mine, is it a leather backseat also?

Yep. Back seat is leather also.

I'm leaning toward this truck. I'm going to look at a couple of others tomorrow. I looked at some exploders and wasn't real impressed. I'm not a fan of Durango's (only Dodge truck I wouldn't own) so I'm thinking Jimmy it is. I always wanted one, just something about them.


Any other things that are weak point on these trucks? If I was looking a Dodge Ram, I'd know every weak point, but i've not owned a GM product other than my IROC-Z. I'm pretty mechanical, and can pull a transmission pretty easily so if we can keep the motor happy I' thinking this truck should make 2-3 years easy. Basically, it's a winter rig and an go up to the cabin rig. It will only see commuter duty when it rains and during the winter. If the weather is good, I've been driving the Camaro to work and rather enjoying it. We rebuilt the L98 350 last winter and man is it fun to drive.

Good luck man... and sounds like a decent deal....