The loudest Suburban we cover — a hard brake pedal and a tired transmission are the two things that decide this truck.

The six- and eight-speed automatics shudder under light throttle, hesitate and thump between gears, and in the worst cases stop driving the truck entirely. Owners in the file report replacement before 100,000 miles, a torque converter and transmission failing 25 days after purchase, and a shift solenoid failing at 65 mph with no warning. There is no recall and no special coverage for this on a 2016. A shop inspecting a high-mileage example quoted a rebuilt unit at $3,000 to $3,500 and $4,000 to $5,000 installed, noting the four-wheel-drive labour penalty. Test-drive for a fine shudder at steady cruise, a firm 1–2 shift and any hesitation, and treat undocumented fluid history as a real risk.

Both V8s use AFM — Active Fuel Management, the system that shuts off cylinders under light load to save fuel — and the collapsible lifters that do it can stick or collapse. A failed lifter chews the camshaft, so the repair is lifters plus a cam, several thousand dollars. Symptoms are a tick or tap at cold start, misfire codes and lost power. There is no recall covering it on this year, only class-action litigation and reactive warranty repairs. A mechanic who tears these engines down puts failure at roughly 3 to 5 percent of them, anywhere from 30,000 to 100,000 miles. Cold-start it and listen before anything else.

The combined transmission-fluid and air-conditioning condenser cracks under thermal cycling and lets the refrigerant escape, killing the A/C. A mechanic who owns one of these trucks explains why: the condenser hangs on its own weight and cracks, and it needs a support bracket it was never given. GM covered it with Special Coverage 17336 for 2015–2017 Suburbans — but only for five years or 60,000 miles, so on a 2016 that window closed long ago. In a hot climate, confirm the A/C blows genuinely cold before you buy and price the repair as yours.

A Special Coverage Adjustment (N182198000) covers 2016 and 2017 trucks whose fuel injectors deliver an improper amount of fuel, causing a lit check-engine light, a rough idle and stalling. The catch is geographic: GM's document limits it to emissions states, naming California, Connecticut, Delaware and Maine among them. The document does not state a mileage or year limit, so terms need checking in the bulletin itself. Outside those states it is a straight repair bill.