New 2005 GXP Owner

[CMNTMXR57]

~100k is where N*'s become "needy", regular maintenance or not.

It's not going to fall apart on the side of the road at 100k mind you and YES, many are out there with well north of that mileage on them. It's just that it will start nickel and diming you to death (and on a N* which is a size 10 engine in a size 5 dress and you're paying someone to do the work for you, those nickels and dimes start to add up at a greater rate than other cars), and at some point a question has to be asked, is this cost worth it for a now ~10 year old (or older by the time you eclipse that mile marker), vehicle?

[techweenie]

I'm quickly finding out on my GXP that low mileage is not good for a car this old. Mine is just shy of 90k and I'm currently dealing with a bad transmission output shaft bushing. In the process of removing the axle shaft I found several bolts that were impossible to remove without cutting, and bushings are all dried out. That resulted in having to order a lot of new parts I didn't originally plan on, including a whole new control arm and one of the bolts for it. I literally cut the original off. The engine, however, runs perfect. The dexcool looks brand new and there's no leaks or build up anywhere. The 4T80e might be strong in the sense that it handles power, but this bushing thing is killer. It has to be rebuilt to fix.