Well the red albatross has worn out it's welcome...Back in early June on the way to a swap meet I spun it on a sharp turn a block from my house. It started to slide putting me on a collision course with a phone pole, I corrected hard to avoid taking it out (I hear phone poles are expensive), which resulted in my avoiding it* and colliding with a guard rail on the other side of the road. *I avoided the pole, but it's guy wire hooked the rear fender folding it back and hooking under the rear bumper cover ripping that cover off and messing it and the tail gate (bottom edge was mostly painted bondo) up a good bit. The front bumper cover and grille sustained damage. Not to mention damage to the dial bezel of a radio I had fixed for someone (it's always the thing you feel most guilty about that gets it worst).
I think what I blame most for the accident is the driver side front sway bar linkage being broken (it likely was before I owned it given the rust on the break) and the rear tires being baldy. I was only going 30 (the speed limit there) and there was some morning dew on the pavement.
This accident at once makes me like the vehicle platform much more, and like the particular specimen I possess much less. The frame and metal bumpers are remarkably solid and the vehicle took the impact well (the guard rail and plastic parts took all the damage). (Contrast that that to my parrents' previous honda CR-V that did not even have a bumper under the cover as sold from the factory
)
I recovered rear the bumper cover (minus a light mounted in it) and after beating the hidden fender metal it mounts over back roughly into shape me and a friend got it back on...It ain't pretty, but it looks better with it on.
All that body damage pretty much kills the resale value...
As much as the new linkage makes it about as drive-able as it was; I've lost all faith in it....Doing the repairs I did made it obvious this was not it's first front end collision....Doing a very thorough inspection of the front end reveals that this was not it's first front end crash, and the last was much worse....On top of that whoever the previous owners hired to fix the front end last time did an appalling job...Most of the visible front end body parts were affixed with zip ties and or drywall screws (where they bothered to fasten it) EVEN in the places where the factory mounts still lined up right! With how much old work that I can see was done wrong I'm too concerned about the stuff I can't see to want to fix it.
I actually decided I was done with it before the accident when changing the front pass wheel bearing did not fix the bad grinding sound on low speed 90 degree right turns....Between that, the worsening air suspension issues, the 4DW issues, the bad door seals creating noise, drag and a drivers floor foot soaking pan when parked on an incline in the rain, and a dozen or so other issues of varying import I decided it ain't worth the time/money to bring it up to my standards.
I've been and still am saving up for a better SUV. Once that is done, I'm either going to sell the GMC cheap (as is), or if a dealer has a good Push-Pull-Drag sale, trade it in on the next one. ....If both of those options fail I have half a mind to park it in the middle of the previous owner's (cough*swindler's*cough) gigantic lawn late at night, set fire to it, and walk away.
I may end up buying a better example of the same model....I can tell it's a great platform despite owning the worst (cared for) example of it I've seen on the road.
07-22-2017, 10:21 AM
Hybrid Mode
