I understand this post and I know where you are coming from... Im a GM dealer, Chevy and GMC, and an ex Mercury/ Lincoln dealer, and maybe your right, a few more lemon laws on the GM side. If I call GM and tell them my technicians cant fix a car or truck. They send a factory rep technician. If he cant fix the car or truck, GM or I buy the truck back. Especially in a case like this where the customer has owned several Fords. It doesnt take 6 months for a factory rep to throw parts at the issue and find out its a bad vehicle. Lets be honest, a technician in this day and age is only as good as his factory technical assitance will let him be. All technicians today have to have prior approval from a guy over the phone, to throw any serious warranty money into a problem vehicle, (foriegn or not). I love american vehicles... It's where my family got its start, but when it comes to backing the product as far Im concerned, GM has Ford. BK or not.
The dealer also has a lot to do with it. I for one have had problems with my Duramax.. actually my Allison, and the dealership in my home town was a smuck.. and actually went out of business recently.. and I bought many vehicles from them. The Ford dealership, treats me like I would treat a customer if I owned the business.. and yes Ive had a few problems with the 7.. 6.0's that Ive owned.. but my 6.4 has been running great to this point. It's all in how the customer gets handled from the on start. If they are let down numerous times, no matter how well you fix the problem, the taste is still there... and the vehicle in their mind will always be a big POS.. At least thats my experience. BOTTOM LINE.... Chuck was not handled properly..
I own a 2006 Dodge quad cab dually and I've never had an issue with any system on it. 16-17mpg city 21-23 hwy. This is my second Dodge 1 ton, the other was a 2003 srw. Never had anything go wrong with that one either.
I think the new 2010 duallys look fabulous, especially the silver crew cab mega I saw at the Texas State Fair last week. The rear fenders are now one piece rather than the tacked-on ones like I have. They are now true crew cabs instead of the short rear door quad cab like mine.
Chuck you should go drive one before you decide. Call ahead and ask if they have a Laramie dually you can demo. You may choose the Chevy anyway but give yourself a choice. You might be surprised at how good the Dodge trucks are now.
I have been looking at getting a f450 or f550. I have never owned a diesel, nor a Ford truck. I have read all of the stories told in this thread. You guys have scared me into reconsidering. I have been towing with a 90' 3500, 7.4 gas Chevy dually for the past 9 years. At 206000 miles, the timing chain gave up. I replaced the engine with a new crate engine, had the trans rebuilt. Haven't had any issues since. Granted, I"m not getting the mileage, nor towing as much weight (<9000lb), but the dependability has to factor in. I don't have the patients to be stranded on the road while towing or dealing with the kind of mess that Chuck and others have been going through.
I have been looking at getting a f450 or f550. I have never owned a diesel, nor a Ford truck. I have read all of the stories told in this thread. You guys have scared me into reconsidering. I have been towing with a 90' 3500, 7.4 gas Chevy dually for the past 9 years. At 206000 miles, the timing chain gave up. I replaced the engine with a new crate engine, had the trans rebuilt. Haven't had any issues since. Granted, I"m not getting the mileage, nor towing as much weight (<9000lb), but the dependability has to factor in. I don't have the patients to be stranded on the road while towing or dealing with the kind of mess that Chuck and others have been going through.
If all you tow is the boat you have, a 3/4 ton truck will do just fine. Do you have a big RV or something?
You can't go wrong with a Dodge diesel. If you go with the new one, you can get a DPF/EGR delete kit for more power and better fuel mileage but that will void your warranty.
i also agree on the dealer aspect of the arguement. Ive bought my last two trucks from a ford dealer here in town. i didnt go to this dealer looking for a truck. I found the trucks i wanted and they both happend to be at this dealership. First one had 135k on it, it was already at auction when I told them i wanted it. They sent someone to pick it up and bring it back the same day. Thats after I low balled them on the price, but im sure i paid more then what they would have got at auction. when the 7.3s had the CPS recalls, other dealers were taking DAYS, i took it to this place, within hours it was done. The 2nd is the 06dmax i own now. I bought it and a week later the AC would stop working when it rained..they coulda said "up yours, you bought it without a warranty and its gone"...but they told me to bring it back and theyd look at it, and they did. The salesman even called me on my birthday, 4 months after i bought the truck to make sure it was doing ok. ive never been into car dealerships, i prefer to buy clean trucks from owners, but ill go back to this ford house if i ever need another vehicle...all because they have good service to their customers.
I know the post has been going a long time, but i thought i'd tell my ford story, Bought a 05 f-250 to pull my new at the time 05 36 outlaw. live in seattle built a new home in havasu
used the 250 to pull back and forth twice in 05,a total of 2800
miles broke down 6 times had atotal of 27 recalls and ford would do nothing. the truck was the biggest pice i ever had.
in early 06 i paid it off and sold it to other dealership that traded it to the dealership it first came from. I've heard they have had fun with it. I then went and bought a 06 GMC dually and have not had one problem, not one. In the past 4 plus years have made many trips back and fourth to AZ and all I see is ford broken down on the side of the road in one trip counted
19 fords 1 chev. 1 ram 1500. always a ford, I also will never buy a ford again. I fought with ford for a year, never got anywhere and just decided to move on to much stress to keep up the battle, in the end everyone lost, both ford and myself.
nothing like a little bs to make your story sound better. sorry you had problems but 27 recalls is a joke. they are required by law to perform all recalls. was your truck over 100,000 miles?
All I want to say is that the trucks and engines from Ford are not the sum of the problem. Some dealerships simply do not know how to properly diagnose and fix all issues. The original issue in this post in my opinion from what I read and understand is exactly that, they did a poor job identifying and dealing with the real issue and in doing so too much time elapsed and the end result is what you read. The new 6.7 ltr that is coming out will be the engine everyone flocks to wait and see. If there is one thing Ford does do is listen too its critics and find solutions to current situations.
Folks remember one thing, Ford didn't go bankrupt, didnt take money from anyone, isn't being bought by a foreign company nor does it put warnings in its 1500 series not to put campers in the back of its trucks. Yes it is true if you get a Dodge as someone said, they put a warning on it that they do not recommend placing a camper in the bed, so then how is it supposed to be able to tow our fine toys?
The other side of this is that no one ever tells the whole story either. How many people over chip their rides or push them to the limit but never mention that when it comes tell the story? I am not saying this is the case on this particular issue but we see it all the time.
One last thing. Our Ford store has had NO lemon law returns in over 5 yrs. A GM store in our group has had 4 in 3 months, and one of those siezed the engine so bad while going down the road it flat spotted the tires coming to a hault. Food for thought.
This is a good post.. for you guys that hop these diesels up (me included) . Throwing in a programmer, chip, module is way different on a gas vs a diesel. the results are stammering the amount of power one can gain.. The results are also devasting at the same time... especially long term, and if you bought the truck second hand. You will never know the abuse the previous owner did to the diesel. My 08 is stock and Im leaving it that way. The 2011 Ford and 10 Dodge I will also leave stock..
I have had 2 Ford diesel trucks, a 06 F-350, and a 08 F-450. Both were bought new, and left totally stock. The 350, had a 4.10 gear, and got about 12 mpg, and 10.5 mpg towing. Got rid of it to buy a 08 F-450. It had the 4.88 gears in it, what a phuckin mistake !!! Got 8.5 mpg all around driving, and 8.0 towing. Sold the 350 with 20K miles on it, and the 450 with 16K miles. I never had one problem with either one of em, other than stopping to refuel all the time. LOL
A very good friend of mine bought an 05 3500 Duramax dually with the 4.10 gears in it, and it gets 21-22 mpg's on the highway. I did'nt believe it till he took me on a trip from Michigan to almost Iowa and back to prove it to me. AND, we cruised at 75 mph most of the way. We towed a 46 Cig with it, and it was showing 14.5 mpg. The next truck will be a chevy duramax for sure.
I've never had a lemon law case over motor or tranny.
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