GM Parts Availability in Central/South America

Tegan

New member
I'm looking at driving a Chevy Suburban from the US down through Central America and down into South America.

Does anyone know about the availability of parts for GM trucks in these countries? Or am I better off with something like a Toyota Land Cruiser?

I picked the Suburban for it's price and size. They are affordable and roomy. This is going to be my house for a year or so.

Thanks in advance for the help!

Tegan
 

1leglance

2007 Expedition Trophy Champion, Overland Certifie
In this day and age you can have anything you want shipped pretty much anywhere you want.

Give the rig a good going through and do all the pm stuff.
Then don't over load it on wgt, drive it in a reasonable manner and you should be fine.

When you review the trips reports out there most of what has to be fixed is either suspension (which is why you should try to keep wgt down) or something unforseen.
But even the repairs are on a small percentage of all the traveling that is done.

Most important is to just GO and not spend too much time or money in the PREP phase that could go towards the TRAVEL phase :)
 

haven

Expedition Leader
Welcome to ExPo, Tegan!

Doing a quick web search by country, I could find the Suburban advertised for sale at Chevy dealers only in Chile. The Tahoe SUV appears in Colombia. So the dealer support for GM's pickups and SUVs is thin in South America. That said, I see no reason why an older Suburban would be a poor choice for a trip in South America. The key is using a vehicle that has a minimum of electronics, since the small town mechanics don't have the necessary testing equipment to evaluate electronics problems.

On the other hand, Land Cruisers are ubiquitous, with Toyota factory support in all countries along the Panamericana.
 

chilliwak

Expedition Leader
I also want to welcome you to the site Tegan. I drive an old school Chevy(1979) and am amazed at how easy it is to fix this vehicle in the field. Although I have never driven my old Chevy in south America, I did once have a carburetor malfunction over a 100 miles from civilization. I simply took a coat hanger and bent a new rod to activate the secondaryies on the carburetor and I was good to go. It took me 10 minutes! Cheers, Chilli..:)
 

UK4X4

Expedition Leader
Chevy is in Colombia and Venezuela- i had a big *** burb in venezuela years back- remember to bring a spare transmission and transfer case.

the transmision failed 5 times before the truck was dumped in discust by the company, the first time was the cooler inside the radiator broke filling the tranny with water.

and I went through 2 transfer case chains in 3 years years.

Toyo is everywhere here ! every street corner and every village
 

zeke2.0

Adventurer
If the situation is anything like Ford, you should be able to find authorized service centers with the ability to order parts, anywhere in the Western Hemisphere.
 

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