Hello, I was looking at a 2011 GMC Acadia / 2010 Ford Explorer. they both have approximately 160000 mile Plus. They both are between the $8000- $10,000 range. Is it good idea to invest that much in a high-mileage American car?
Nope. And those prices are severely inflated.
As a former GM employee, I can warn you to keep away from those Acadias. They were always in for transmission issues even at lower miles. The old Explorers I have heard mixed reviews on. But if I'm looking at 160k mile Explorer, I'm looking in the $5000 range myself.
I would advise against either purchase in my opinion.
Stay away from these ones.
The Explorer, as with the Flex, Edge, some Lincolns, the Mazda CX9 etc have a water pump that is driven by the timing chain. Absolutely stupid decision by Ford. VERY expensive to fix. All those cars a ticking time bombs IMO. Good luck finding a reliable large SUV in the $5k range. I can't think of one.
All the posts here are right...you can confirm them at this site: Carcomplaints.com
Heres one sample comment on the 2010 Exploder:
This was a dangerous used car that was passed along like a hot potato in Northern New Jersey between dealers until it ended up in a warehouse-dealer near an airport. I discovered the problem -- unintended acceleration -- by calling the prior owner, whose information I found. He told me as soon as the unintended acceleration occurred -- when he tried to brake -- he dumped the car a month earlier, afraid of 'killing someone'. But no one disclosed the issue to new potential buyers, including me, who test drove it unaware of the danger. The issue was however reported.
The other sample on the 2011 Acadia:
My Acadia is burning through oil. It started to shudder and shake as my wife is driving it home, so she went to the dealership. They said the timing CHAIN (yes, not belt) needed to be replaced. They can not tell us why? A timing chain on a vehicle should last 250,000 miles. Because of the poor engineering of the vehicle they literally have to pull the engine out of the car to do the work, so it will cost $4500. I am at 106,000 miles.
If I had known about this issue with the Acadia 6 years ago I would not have bought the car. I will not buy another GM product because you can not trust them to back their products.
Sister-in-law HAD an Acadia 2011 when brand new. Yes many issues and they got rid of it after 4 years.
