1995 GMC Sonoma SLS review from North America

The vehicle is on its fourth battery, but I feel that is the nature of Florida. An outside manual mirror has fallen off every fifty thousand miles. I am preparing to have to put the fifth mirro on the truck. The oil pan had to be replaced at 100,000 miles, either due to the plug threads failing or sloppy mechanics at the dealer changing the oil. I have lifetime oil and filter change in the purchase deal.

I have a 1995 Sonoma, currently 142,000 miles. Thus far, it has been a very mechanically sound vehicle. The engine has performed marvelously. Does not have the first leak of any kind. I have experienced minor problems. It is on its fourth battery, but I think that is the nature of batteries in Florida. Alternator replaced. The left rear speaker on the standard AM/FM radio quit early on. When I bought the truck, the dealer through in lifetime oil and filter change. On schedule, every 3,000 miles the oil has and still is changed. At 100,000 I had to have the oil pan changed because the threads for the plug gave out or were stripped by a careless oil changer. That cost $500 in labor. They have to drop the lower half of the front end to change the pan!

My one real complaint is every 50,000 miles; I lose one of the outside manual mirrors. They are weak; they bounce to a point where they break off. I am about to lose the right side for the second time. I have replaced both sides one time already. This will be the fifth outside mirror on the truck. I sent an email to GMC and was basically told it was not a recognized problem and they just did not give a hoot.

Has anybody else had this problem? I have noticed that the design of the mirror was changed in 1997 to a stronger housing. Does anybody know if this newer style will fit on the '95 model? As I said previously, this Sonoma has been a very good mechanically sound truck.