My wife works for a Chevy dealership. They took in a loaded 03 silver 4x4 Navigator with 31k miles as a trade in around the 1st of November. It hasn't sold yet. Their company policy is any used vehicle that has been on the lot over 60 days is available to employee's at $100 over what they have in it. To make a long story short I can get this truck for just over $25k. I've recently moved back to the SUV world, though I owned a 97 Expy when they first came out I do not have a lot of knowledge about the new body style Expy/Navi. I've heard a lot of bad things on the forums about the 03 Expy. Does the 03 Navi share the same problems?

 

Man for 25-26K that would be an absolute FANTYASTIC deal. I just bought an 03 Navi 4x4 Ultimate loaded for 32.4K! I spent several months contacting sellers all over the country (eBay and autotrader) and that was the best overall value I could find (and I had to travel 1400 miles for it). You would be foolish to not get it. Even if you hate it afterwards you WILL make 3-5K selling it!!

As far as reliability, they have just a few problems from what I can tell:

Front brake pads are garbage (NAPA sell ceramic replacements for $75)

Models with posi in the rear have had some clutch pack/pinion issues (covered under warrantee). If yours has advance trac it doesnt have limited slip.

Some have had problems with the front diff making noises - dont know % on this though.


All in all I'm very happy with mine - and for that price you'll love yours too!

 

Sounds like a heck of a deal and hard to pass up if you're looking for a luzxury SUV. I'm curious as to what you say is "loaded". There aren't a lot of options on a Navigator as they come from the factory pretty well loaded. Does it have some aftermarket accessories? and if so, what?

 

They actually come in differnt series---LTD, Ultimate and one other.

I'm not sure about the exact names but you get the drift.

 

It is the ultimate package but it doesn't matter now. The service manager got it for his wife so I'm **** out of luck. I can't complain though. I've been hooked up a bunch of times with good cars they have brought in on trade and made some extra money on the side that way. Only reason I hesitated long enough to ask the question about reliability is because I was gonna keep this one for myself and sell my Expy. Doesn't matter now though.

 

Navigator: Luxury, Ultimate & Premium.

I priced a Navigator Premium in 2003. It was $54,000, plus TTL- (I didn't klnow I had X-Plan then). When it was all said & done, they wanted $900/month with $3,000 down.

When I finished laughing, they said- we may be able to get this down to $844 or so on a lease. I got the keys back to my 2000 Expy, and contemplated getting an Escalade- but too many people have them- so I went back home (Ford) and got a 2003 Expy EB; and saved nearly $400/month.

The day I pay near $60K for a Ford, will be the day the lower the price on the Ford GT to $60,000.00.

 

That is precisely why I was going to get it. Dealers have a very creative way of making it look like they are giving you X amount of dollars for your trade in when in reality they would have much less than that figure invested in your car. I'm sure they were showing the prior owner $35k or more for it on paper, but in reality they had just over $25k in it. As an employee I am able to buy cars they take as trade-in's for ACV (Actual Cash Value) which is a secret figure they keep on their internal invoices representative of the exact money figure they have invested in that vehicle, plus $500 cash markup. That figure on this Navi would have been $25,640 plus tax and tags and that no doubt would have been one hell of a deal on a 03 Ultimate Navi!