About to buy a Hummer H2, I'd like to know something first!

[MarioS]

Hello,

I'm buying a Hummer H2 either 2008 or 2009 in the next couple of weeks. It's going to be Luxury and SUV.

I've been reading these forums quite a while and I keep seeing people commenting bad things on the Air Suspension? People saying they are glad they changed to Coil and that they want their Air Suspension gone.

Well, does anyone care to explain why? Is the Air Suspension system on the 2003-2007 models the same as the one in the 2008-2009? No improvements at all?

I will not be using the truck for Off Road, maybe a few bad roads but no mountains or mud or water or anything of that style.

Also, if the truck I decide to buy has Air Suspension, is it easy to remove/replace? Is it expensive? Is it recommended?


Thank you!

[Hellz]

i think the reason alot of people dont like the air suspension is due to the cost of replacements.

i have a 2003 SUV with the air suspension, and i have no problems with mine at all.

now, if my compressor decides to take a dump on me, i will look for a replacement, and decide at that time if i want to gut the system or replace it.
on ebay, the avg price i have seen is about $800. no idea on bags.

where as switching to coils, your looking about $300 + some change for misc parts.

i think the switch is relativly easy, its just alot of people dont bother to search the forums on how to properly get rid of the DIC error messages that will come up.

they swap the coils in, and get all the errors, and come here looking for help, when they should have done the research themselves.

personally, with either the 08 or 09, i would keep it in and run it till it breaks, then worry about swapping it out, unless you want to keep it and just replace the broken part.


im not sure if the parts are the same for all years

[MarioS]

Hmmm I've been looking around and found the differences between 2008 and 2009...

Flex Fuel
Bluetooth

And a few others...

Now I'm wondering if I should spend more on a 2009 because of the Flex Fuel thing...

[codered]

Originally Posted by MarioS

Hmmm I've been looking around and found the differences between 2008 and 2009...

Flex Fuel
Bluetooth

And a few others...

Now I'm wondering if I should spend more on a 2009 because of the Flex Fuel thing...

Your not paying more money just because it is flex fuel. that means nothing with it being able to operate on it. You are paying more for it being newer and because it has the ls3 motor. just has a little bit better of a powertrain than the 03-07 model. Plus you'll find that you wont even run the e-85 half the time.

[MarioS]

Ah I see... So the 2008 and 2009 are pretty much the exact same thing except a few additions on the 2009 such as Bluetooth?

Well, I don't live in the US, and I am flying over to Florida on the 8th this month to look at an H2.

For the past couple of months I've been looking over on Ebay and Autotrader.com to see if there's any nice deals.

Currently I'm looking for a 2008 - 2009 model with less than 20,000 miles, Luxury, and as for colors, I like Greystone, All Terrain Blue, Ultra Marine Blue.

At the moment there's a 2009 with 22,000 miles Luxury on Ebay for 54,800$...

Can anyone here that maybe knows about prices tell me how are prices going on at the dealers personally in the US? I'm hoping they're cheaper than online...

[HummerJim]

Warranty (basic) on everything on the 2008/2009 is 4 years 50K so the air suspension will be covered for a while. Personally, I like the air suspension for offroad and have not had one problem with it. Most of the problems are with the bags and sensors, but if you use it, it can last a long time. Use it or loose it. Rubber cracks over time and I spray the bags two or three times a year with Armorall and keep mud off the sensors as has been recommended by several members. To me flex fuel is no big deal, to farmers here in the Midwest and the E85 plants in the Midwest it's a major deal.
As for prices, now that there aren't going to be anymore H2s, prices are going up for new and used ones. American Collector just added the H2 to the H1 in its list of collectibles even with a total production out put of 139,245, biggest sales year on the H2 was 2003 with 34,531 and only 1514 sold in 2009. I see one dealer on the left coast is selling H2s at full sticker now with no discount. Why should they discount them with only a handful of new ones left in the US?

[HummerMann]

I like the air suspension, but if you end up removing it, the only hard part is replacing the coil springs.