I generally drive a 01 Sierra. Last GM car I will ever purchase in a long line. You’d think after 100 years of building pickups, GM could have gotten some things right. Like the steering intermediate shaft (lost count of how many times they revised it - I stopped replacing it and lived with the clunk after replacement #2), the driveshaft slip yoke (same story), cancerous rust on the body and frame despite regular washing and waxing, heater core that requires the entire dash to be removed just to get to it. I could write a whole page on little things that regularly go wrong with the 00-06 pickups.
I will say the LS engine has been bulletproof, although noisy with the “GM says it’s normal” piston slap. OTOH, I’m on the third rebuild of the transmission.
Also have an 02 Sebring convertible that’s more of a toy and currently not on the road. Too many other things to do right now.
We also have a ‘13 Escape we bought off a lease. Too many doodads for my taste. I got an extended Ford warranty for the length of the loan. I have a bunch of specialized GM and Chrysler tools. I’m not about to invest in a Ford set too unless I plan on opening my own garage. By the time it’s off the loan, it will either be too unreliable to drive, or the Internet will be full of fixes that I can do myself and used tools I can get cheaper.
What annoys me about the newer cars isn’t so much that they’re not fixable, but that you need to spend almost what the car costs to obtain the tools required to diagnose the simplest of problems, and then the solution is always to throw expensive dealer-only parts at it. Very few things on modern cars actually get “fixed” anymore. You just replace parts that shouldn’t have broken in the first place.
BTW, the main reason I drive the truck vs the Escape (besides the Escape being my wife’s main transportation). Deer.
I’ve hit 3 with the truck in a year, and although she’s a bit bruised still, I was able to drive it and then patch it up for not much cash.
One hit to the Escape and I’d have more damage than the whole Sierra is worth.