Oh Lord!

What's scary is my brother-in-law uses the Durango to pull their Sea Ray. He should use his 00 F150 FX4 supercab but they have 3 kids.

 

Yet you can find similar stories about f150s endlessly being in the shop. Trucks are the bread winner for these companies, easy to build with fairly low tolerance requirements* as compared to certain cars, but they are similar in build quality through all the manufacturers.

The only way to look at this objectively is to study defect rates and long term studies. I bet you that both show fairly similar results in similar situations. Whether that be work trucks or soccer kid haulers.

I own both GM and Ford now, and they are the right vehicles for the job (though the corvette has a tough time hauling stuff . Say what you will about the government stepping in and helping out GM, but keep in mind that without the government rebates recently ford would be in the same position, not to mention they started majorly failing BEFORE the big bust, so they were able to secure private funding. GM was after and the funding had dried up. Ford just got lucky enough to make a big profit because of the f150s target market and as such they are not out of the woods yet.

The f150 interior is vastly better than the GM interior truck interior, though there are some smart things that GM has in some vehicles (though not on their trucks) that ford has yet to even think about. The GM trucks continue to maintain the "usable" but plastic and noisy interior from the late 90s (with slight updates). Its a huge turn-off for the mass market, which is a place ford has solidly won.

As for engines, who wouldn't love to have a torque focused LS3 in their truck? The 5.0 is coming close to that, but the GM has had that engine for years now and in many, many vehicles. The hemi is "ok" but really just a marketing name. The engine itself is, in my opinion, nothing special and a fuel burner. Ford is sticking with their stuff, but GM is clearly in the lead.

For me, I went and looked at a number of vehicles and settled on the lariat because it had the features I needed, could tow when I wanted, and had an interior I would be comfortable driving in hour after hour. None of the other trucks could do that at a price I was willing to pay.

*: I'm NOT saying they are not quality, far from it, just in many cars way less than 1/16" of an inch counts on absolutely everything. A Truck has super strong steel, big box frames etc. Much easier to assemble and still have a killer vehicle, but low cost to build.

 

Sorry, I know this is a huge Ford fan site... I too am a huge Ford fan. Still the '09-'10 Dodge Ram 1500 is nice. If the Transit Connect has similar payload to a Ram, guess what, it has similar payload to my '09 F150. Payload is a marketeer's load of crap. My wife's Saturn has higher payload than my '09. That's been discussed. This is my fourth F150, I purchased F150 again because of the leaf springs and the fact that I load the heck out of my truck. A similar Dodge had the same payload "capacity" but didn't quite handle the load as nicely as the leaf sprung Ford.

The Dodge 5.7 has proven itself in millions of trucks/cars as has the Ford 5.4. The Dodge transmission is suspect. If we want to discuss this subject objectively, let's start with the transmissions. So far my '09s tranny is driving me nuts after 15k miles with it's hard shifts, clunking, etc., I just hope it stands the test of time. I can deal with trading comfort for longevity. I hear that the Dodge with a 5.7 will need a new transmission in 100k miles.

As for not seeing old Dodge pick ups on the roads... here in Texas they are EVERYWHERE.

 

i own all of the trucks 1996 chevy 2500 1999 dodge 2500 and a 1992 ford f250 in my landscaping business and none of trucks can compare to the ford when i pull out receipts of repairs and what not. the dodges tranny has been done twice and it only has 220k and the electrical has went out and cost 1000s to fix a number of times the ford has over 350k and still out-pulls and out-hauls all of them with minimal fixing and maintenance my 2009 f150 hasnt had much work yet, its mainly used to sell the jobs and does a very nice job! but i have owned numerous fords and all of them have had over 200k and the body fell apart from rust and being beat up before the powertrain fails

 

There's no argueing that the F150 is the best truck on the market with it's current features, Quality and safty. There's nothing on either a Dodge, Toyota or a Chevy i would want that i aint got on my F150. I dont need more HP as i only tow around 7k lbs, I dont want coils as i want to be able to tow more than 3k lb. But we also know that they are and have always been the best built truck. Today whilst i was out i counted how many pre 80's trucks i see of either brand. over 20 Fords, 2 chevys, 0 rams, 0 toyotas, 0 Nissan.

Figures say it all. Ford must be doing something right.

 

...and now chrysler is talking about never paying back the loans they were given to bail out.

At least GM is on an accelerated plan to pay back their loans.

But I'd never buy either brand ever after that fiasco. The government randomly selects to save two crappy auto manufacturers, yet lets hundreds and hundreds of other businesses fail and go under. WHY? How come mom & pop nick-nack store gets to fail, but chyrsler deserves a bailout? I don't give a crap that chrysler is much bigger, has many more employee's, could affect other auto manufacturers because it hits the suppliers too, etc etc. It's morally wrong to decide one person is more important than another, or one business is more important than another. Treat everyone equally, or let them all fail equally. If chrysler and GM were to fail, who gives a crap. Someone else would replace them, nature abhors a vacuum. I just don't believe in randomly choosing who to help and who to not help, you need to be fair to all or stay out of the equation.

Chrysler and GM can go suck off. Could care less about their vehicles or how they compare to Ford, the simple fact is they took money that should have been given equally or not at all. Those two companies have no ethics to speak of, and never deserve one cent of my honest, hard earned money.

 

Amen brother.

Too late for that. And what adds insult to injury, it's just more debt for the Chinese to buy up.

 

The day my 2 yr 3 mo. old Ram truck's hood flew open (main and safety latch failed) going 70 down a twisty highway, then Chrysler would not cover the issue was the day I had enough. They said I didn't grease the latches properly. I showed them the receipts for all the checkups on top of the other 20+ times it was in the shop for various items:

major water leaks thru the doors multiple times (carpeting replaced every time)
O2 sensor
tranny would not go into OD while on cruise control(I made sure it was fried so they couldn't fix it and had to be replaced)
Windows would work sporadically
broken tie rods
radio issues

I was glad the day it was fixed and I sold it. The insurance said they prefer to arbitrate this type of failure instead of admitting it is their fault, fortunately my insurance covered everything and they went after Chrysler.

But I have to admit, the new Dodges are nice. I think ride quality on them are nicer, interior is just is nice and truck has more power. But capability is why I buy a truck not because it is a luxury kid hauler. Though these new seats are really comfortable.

 

I was and am still a MOPAR man I had an 84 Ram 1/2 ton and traded it for a 96 1/2 ton w 5.7 motor and then I added a 98 Ram 1500. I had little if no problems with the first two rams and had quite a bit of probems with the 98. I just traded it for my first f150 2010 XLT and really love it. Point is you have to find something that you like and hope for the best out come. We in America still manufacture the best wanted vehicles (Trucks) in the world, bar none. So feel lucky and enjoy what others can only dream of.

(A New FOMOCO enthusiast.)

 

...and you know this how?

On 12/19 I traded my 2004 Dodge 1500 Hemi for an FX4. 125k miles and has never seen the inside of a shop.

 

After having four Dodges in the family in the past 10 years, I never experienced a problem with any of them that wasn't due to high mileage. That includes a '99 2500 Cummins, '02 1500 4x4 4.7L, '03 3500 CTD Dually, and an '04 1500 QC 4.7L. The last to go was the '03 Dually that lasted 230k before the manual tranny had a syncro pin slip. Decided it was getting up there in age so we sold it and the guy that bought it fixed the problem and has had no trouble with it. The only problem truck was that '03 and it was a heater core issue. They were no frills trucks on the inside, but did their job as intended.

After that '03, my dad switched over to an '08 F350 that was used. It was plagued with engine problems ever since he had it. Dealer paid it off and he got a new '09 to start fresh with. 15k in four months and zero problems. I liked his truck so much it prompted me to trade my Toyota FJ in on the F150 I have now.

I'm not a brand loyalist, but I know a nice truck when I see one. I wouldn't hesitate to drive another Dodge. I think these new ones are finally getting them into the game, and you can't argue with the durability of a Cummins diesel.

 

I think you are missing the point about the loans (not payouts). Years previously ford took private financing to keep the company afloat. When GM needed money there was none to be had through any private source. If they did go out of business, thousands of relatively innocent USA based parts producers would have been forced out of business due to causes completely unrelated to their business (financial collapse of banks). VERY little difference between them and Ford, except for the timing.

Now some will say the loans should have gone to the "innocent" in the background. If the loans went to the parts suppliers there would be no sustaining reason to exist, they wouldn't go out of business NOW but there would be no one to sell parts to. Get the company selling again and everything would be good.

Of course NONE of this would have been required if the previous administrations (both parties) wouldn't have stripped many of the financial protections.

If you now say "but look at what GM did with their contracts", I agree the workers got screwed. Look at ford, they did NO better at all, the workers got royally screwed but since it happened a few years ago no one remembers.

Both Ford and GM are massive and massively screwed up companies but both are finally producing decent vehicles though the f150 is vastly better than the competition in my opinion. Both still have major issues and it will take time to resolve.

 

The new Dodge trucks look awesome...but i too use to own a Dodge Durango...and man so many damn things went wrong on that SUV i cant even count...plus the maintenance was a huge PITA.

owned my Ford for almost 5 years thus far...zero issues. im dead impressed, however the ford plastic is excessive...I would like to see their higher end vehicles actually have true leather seats, and real wood grain...or something more stylish than cheap plastic...

Thats where the Hondas and Toyotas come through for me...they dont seem cheap when it comes to their high end vehicles...My Lariat looks really nice...but step inside a Lexus or a BMW, or an Acura, Infiniti...impressive.

 

I should say most Foreign vehicle interiors supersede all of our Domestic vehicles...

Look at the new Vette, looks like a freakin rental car for christ sakes...yea its a great performing vehicle, but man...

Sat in G37 last week....Infinity must have killed a million babies cause the leather was as soft as a babys ***!

 

Not much being said about the Titan .