2006 GMC opinions

[Rich Iowa]

A friend of mine has found a 2006 GMC 2500 that may be for sale, he asked if I knew much about them which I don't so I'll see if there are more knowledgable folks here. What I know is the truck is a reg cab, long box, 4 wd, with the 6.0L gasser and auto tranny with low miles. I guess the owner bought it new in 06 for a tax write-off for his business, but he rarely drives it and the heaviest load it has hauled is a lawn mower.
Any major or minor issues with these trucks? How about the 6.0L engine? And is the transmission the same one as used behind the Duramax?
 

[farmer boy]

From what little I know about them, the only draw back to them is the fuel mileage. The tranny is a 4l80e. It's not as good as the Allison 1000(duramax), but still a very good transmission. If it's never towed heavy and has low miles, it should be fine. As long as it doesn't get too hot, they'll last a long time. It'll have a 14 bolt FF axle, and a 9.25 front diff, and what looks like a very good frame. The only thing I can think of that can have problems at high mileage is the X-fer case. Should be a np263(E-shift) or np261(manual shift), the weakness is something to do with the slip yoke.
No issues with the 6.0, especially not in 2006. I don't think they ever had any problems, even in 1999.
 

[Jim in MN]

Very reliable but ugly mileage. Make sure he checks out the rocker panels if it was driven in winter at all. They aren't lasting long on that body style.
 

[mkirsch]

Name a heavy duty pickup truck that DOESN'T get bad gas mileage... You can't, because they all suck.

15 MPG is about the best you can expect with a light foot and lots of highway miles.

You don't need an Allison transmission for the 6.0L gas engine. Stock 4L80E is fine. In fact the 6.0L and 4L80E combination is rock-solid, especially in 2006.

2006 was the last full year of production for the GMT800 platform and incorporates all the improvements since 1999. The only major problems with that platform were the intermediate steering shaft clunk, and the stepper motors in the gauge cluster going bad. Neither problem is major, and I think they were fixed in the new trucks by 2006.

The intermediate steering shaft clunk is fixed by a lube kit, takes 30 minutes. If your gauge cluster goes bad, there's a recall. GM owes you a new one.
 

[GordoSD]

My 96 Dodge Ram/Cummins get 19-20 pulling a 17 foot boat, motor, fuel, groceries, liquid refreshments
battery chargers, tackle, trolling motor, and other guys stuff too.
 

[JD Seller]

Two of my sons have them. The one is a 1999 and it gets 8 mpg empty. Load it and it gets 4-5 MPG. It runs fine and we have had it to several GM dealers/mechanics and all of them say there is nothing wrong with it. It only has 38 K on it for miles.

The other one is a 2005 and he gets 12-13 MPG empty and 8-10 MPG with a trailer.

Both truck drive nice and pull well. The fuel mileage just is terrible on them both. You can't afford to drive them very much.

I have four Dodge Cummins trucks. The 1990 is a five speed and it will get 18-19 MPG empty and never under 13 loaded (It has 397,000 miles on it too). The 1998 and 1999 are a little worse in MPG but never under 12 loaded and usually 16-17 loaded.

I just picked up a 2004 extended cab out of Texas. It only has 12,000 miles on it. I have not drove it much but it is not getting as good of mileage as the others. It does have a little more power.

All of them are manual transmissions. So if the newer one will last as well as the 1990 I will not need to ever buy another pickup. I do keep my eyes open for any low mileage first Gen Cummins that come up for sale. They are just about bullet proof.

My brother has the Chev with the Duromax in it. It is a great running truck the fuel mileage on it is not real good either, 13-14 empty and 8-10 loaded. So I would not spend the extra money on one of them over the 6.0 gas. The mileage is not enough better to justify them. Plus the 6.0s are selling cheap if you can afford the gas in them. My son's will last a lot of years because they hardly ever get driven. They come and swipe one of my Cummins to pull anything heavy. LOL.
 

[buickanddeere]

145,000 miles on mine . Only service is brakes, damage from road salt and my dumb &$$ kid off roading with it.
Averages 13mgp just putting around locally.
 

[hd6gtom]

I have a 2000. I bought it to pull my skid loader and trailer, etc. I would not trade it for anything other than a newer 1 of the same make.
 

[OliverGuy]

Great truck. Some of the best ones I have are '04-'06's for some reason. Yes mileage blows, but they do in all gassers. No Allison in that one. Gotta get a diesel or my favorite gasser of all, the 8.1.
 

[Husker44A]

The Allison was not a option for ANY Gassers. Duramax only.
 

[Scott 730]

[scotc]

The first-gens are about bullet-proof, other than the sloppy torque converters, lack of lock-up on the OD auto"s, poor and undersize wiring, poor rust protection, teflon-based primer and a manual transmission that likes to shell out 5th.

That said, I wouldn"t trade mine straight-up for a new one.
 

[wilamayb]

I'll agree that the first gen is pretty darn good but Dodge mated them to those silly Getrag transmissions.. Yuck!

The Gen 2's were pretty darn good too except for that pesky dowel pin.
 

[Rich Iowa]

Thanks everyone! I will pass the info onto my friend. If my 2001 Dodge wasn't paid for and running well, I'd be tempted to buy the truck myself.
 

[Brad Gyde]

I'll toss another thing out there..

GAUGE CLUSTERS.

This was "supposedly" a 2004 only problem my dad was told.. But, dad's 04, my 05, and my uncle's 05 all have/had cluster problems..

My 05 the speedo will intermittently work, and the gas gauge is nowhere near correct.. (I ran out of fuel with nearly 1/2 tank showing last week).. Speedo started acting up at about 130k, dunno exactly when the gas gauge started acting strange..

Uncle's 05 Duramax has a fuel gauge issue.. We took it north snowmobiling and thought we were getting great mileage.. 12 miles from our exit off the freeway it went from 1/4 tank to low fuel light and ran out of fuel in 1/2 mile.

Dad's 04 had a speedo issue, and was "covered" by GM.. Mine was over the "covered" mileage, and uncle's was too old by the time he/we found out it had a issue..

I think GM would cover it if the truck was under 75k/5 years old, IIRC.

I dunno if the 06's had the same issue or not..

As for the 6.0.. I only know of 2 people personally that have them.. One has nearly 300k on it and still runs strong, and aside tune ups and normal maintenance has been trouble free.

Brad