Well, I've been lurking for a while now. I owned a 1994 S-10 in college, but ended up trading it in on a new vehicle back in 2002. Wanted something new with warranty'ed reliability. My truck was hitting the point where lots of little things were starting to go wrong, so I didn't want to rely on it as a daily driver. I've missed the truck ever since I got rid of it. But in the back of my mind I've really wanted a Blazer for years.

Well, the time finally arrived. Took a huge chance and put down a deposit on one from an eBay ad. It's a 2000 2dr 4wd, 130k miles. Flew up to New Jersey Thursday night. Rode the rails to Paterson, and dropped the check on it yesterday. Immediately hit the road. Drove overnight and made it to Huntsville, AL, where I'll spend the rest of the weekend. I'll finish the drive to Florida on Tuesday.

So far, so good. No significant issues. I've been averaging about 22mpg so far, so I'm pleasantly surprised with that. Haven't burned or lost any oil, and the tranny seems strong. Has a tendency to vibrate a bit excessively at anything over 65 mph (not too much through the steering wheel, mostly through the chassis). I can deal with it and do the real trouble shooting later. In the mean time, I'm probably going to pay a local shop here in Huntsville to rotate/balance the tires, just in case. Meant to get an oil change before I left Jersey, but I had to try to beat the traffic, so I need to take care of that too (of course, even though I tried hard, I still hit traffic all the way through Maryland). The coolant looks a little rough and just a bit low, so I may swing for a coolant flush too, though the temp has been fine so far. Picked it up with an empty tank, and the fuel gauge was going haywire. I've kept it above half a tank the whole way and it's been fine. Does make me worry about the sending unit/pump a bit.

My only immediate concern is the interior panels by the rear seat (around the speaker openings). They rattle like a sumbich. Lot of flex and play in them, and I've got no rear speaker functionality. Haven't had a chance to really troubleshoot that yet. I'm hoping it's just some incompetent person's oversight. They probably tried to do a stereo install and just screwed it up. Hopefully the speakers are there and the panels are just improperly installed. If not, my first real project (following a hitch install) is going to be tearing apart the interior and putting it back together, modding as necessary to avoid the rattles.

And yeah, I do have a picture. I'm stuck at a Starbuck's right now and forgot my camera out in the truck, so no pic posting (yet).

In any case. Just wanted to say hi. This is the first time I've had a 'toy' vehicle. Ought to be fun, not having to worry about everything that can possibly go wrong. That's what the daily driver is for, right?

Edit...got a pic.

[IMG]local://upfiles/10863/102E031CAF744FB4BB9E0739E30EBFD5.jpg[/IMG]

 

welcome to forum.clean lookingtruck. my panels around the speakers rattle also. i have been meaning to fix, but allwayshave something else to do. hope you enjoy your new ride.

 

[sm=welcomesign.gif]

 

welcome to the forum.

 

welcome. It looks clean and I love me a 2door

 

What part of FL? I live in central FL in between Orlando and Daytona

 

Welcome to the forum, glad to have you!!

 

HOW DARE YOU SIGN UP AND ONLY MAKE 1 POST!!!!

 

Sorry about that. Between the drive, vacation, work blocking this site, and various problems encountered on the site as of late, just haven't had a chance to post.

Anyway, the truck survived the trip flawlessly. Averaged 22-23 mpg from Paterson, NJ to Huntsville, AL. A couple of days driving around Huntsville gave me an average of 17 mpg. Everything was great from Huntsville through Atlanta and down 75. For some reason, I filled up right when I crossed in to FL and only got 19 mpg. My next fill up (just after getting on the FL Turnpike) gave me 16 mpg. Burned about a quarter tank from there to home (Merritt Island), but haven't topped it off yet to calculate the mileage. Odd that it just randomly dropped 30% in mileage. No noticeable performance differences...

Anyway, I'm going to give it a quick tune up this weekend (oil change, plugs, wires, distributor cap, rotor, coolant flush, possibly differential fluid swap, fuel filter). Also installing a hitch and probably tearing apart the interior to see what's going on with the rear speakers and interior panels. May or may not finish all that up this weekend, but I hope to.

 

Looks just like mine the day I got it. Not so much any more.