Ram 1500 first modern half ton to offer diesel

[DieselnHooters]

Call it what you want. The fact remains that Ford took tax payer $$$$ just like the others. Ford still hasn't payed it back. So, did Ford take a loan from the tax payers ?? Yes. GM & Chrysler paid their loan back. More than you can say for Ford


Automakers' Report Card: Who Still Owes Taxpayers Money? The Answer Might Surprise You - Forbes

I am mostly aware of the canadian side of the bailouts, I presume the american version is similar only with bigger numbers.

Chysler and GM are doing better these days but its no big surprise when you relieve any company of its debt thru bankruptcy and stuff it with taxpayers $ _it would be remarkable if cash flow and profits did not improve lol

So yeah it did save jobs but at what cost?

After subtracting the partial repayment made by both cies, the gvmt's sale of some shares they got via the bailout and the current value of GM stock taxpayers are still out $810 million on Chrysler and $4.74 billion on GM. Using present employee counts, that means taxpayers offered up $90,000 per Chrysler employee and $474,000 per GM employee
.

 

[timswi]

The air filter was the easiest thing to change on my 04 z71. The oil filter however you ha to have hands the size of a child and have the magician skills of Houdini.

I'm confused on this, I had an '04 5.3 for 4 years and don't remember any hassle changing the oil at all.

To those who say that the 4.3 GM's were a pain to change the tranny fluid...give me a break, loosen the crossmember and juck up the tranny 3" and done...10 minutes of someones valuable time that could be spent doing something productive instead of whining about it on an internet forum...I've owned and serviced many 4.3 GM's and they were all fantastic. Not like you have to do a tranny fluid change every 5,000 miles anyway.

..My 4:10 2wd 4.3 Chevy S-10 PU would put down a holeshot that would make John Force proud...Sold at 185K with no failures beyond an upper control arm bushing around 140k.

To DP: My mom had an A plan '91 GMC Jimmy 4x4 4.3 that she gave to me last year...I sold it to a friend and they still drive it every day...The digital dash is the only replacement needed...Apx $150 and an hour of the new owners time. It had 113k miles when sold...Nothing but one ball joint replaced in around 20 years...That thing screamed for a 6 as well...The new owner loves it.

 

[94BULLITT]

I think he was talking about how the filter on the 4.8, 5.3, and 6.0 are jammed up against the oil pan and is hard to get a wrench on them.

 

[sld]

The only vehicles I have ever needed an oil filter wrench on were brand new when doing the first oil change.

What is so hard to understand about "hand tight"?

 

[RollingsFarms]

Don't own an oil filter wrench? $5 tool that makes those cake.

used to have a really good one but ofcourse someone borrowed it and, well, you know how that goes. the one's they sell at places like Advanced Auto aren't worth diddly. on my tractors I just change the filters by hand. My Tacoma came with 2/25,000 free maintenance and I also got them to throw in an extra 3 years 35,000 miles of free maintenance when I bought the truck. took a little arm twisting on my part but the guy knew I would walk out the door if he didn't sweeten the pot some more and he said he couldn't budge on the price or my trade-in(both were fair prices but I was going to get every last nickel I could out of them. just how I am with car salesman). that's when I said "well extend the free maintenance and put it in writing on my contract and you got a deal." so now I get free oil changes, tire rotations, tranny service which comes at 60,000 miles, and everything else for the next 5 years 60,000 miles. I made sure that was in the computer the first time I took my truck in for the first service last month.

 

[mikehaugen]

I am mostly aware of the canadian side of the bailouts, I presume the american version is similar only with bigger numbers.

Chysler and GM are doing better these days but its no big surprise when you relieve any company of its debt thru bankruptcy and stuff it with taxpayers $ _it would be remarkable if cash flow and profits did not improve lol

So yeah it did save jobs but at what cost?

After subtracting the partial repayment made by both cies, the gvmt's sale of some shares they got via the bailout and the current value of GM stock taxpayers are still out $810 million on Chrysler and $4.74 billion on GM. Using present employee counts, that means taxpayers offered up $90,000 per Chrysler employee and $474,000 per GM employee
.

realistically speaking, that isn't that bad. 90k is at what?... maybe 1 year salary (with benefits factored in) and maybe 2 years of unemployment. I think with that many people losing jobs in relatively small areas, the length of unemployment would be quite long. GM employees got more, but with enough time it should become less substantial. Also with these people not working, they wouldn't be paying taxes.

 

[Diamondpilot]

The wifes 2010 4.6l mountaineer has something similar to that from the factory. After removing the filter just take a rag and wipe of the "chute".

BTW, this vehicle is awesome. Can't believe Mercury is gone. If nothing else, it doesn't look like the other 10 million explorers out there.

We had a 03 4.6 AWD Mountaineer. Other than a power window it needed nothing. It was traded around 2010 for a car with 130,000 trouble free miles all while averaging 18mpg for its life. One set of brakes and tires at 80,000 miles was it other then fluid changes, one fuel filter change and a few air filters.

It had 3.73 gears and pulled around the Corvette's all the time without complaint. I think the tow rating was about 7,500#

Wish I had another all the time.

Chris

 

[mikehaugen]

Maybe the EPA will lighten up with more diesel options coming out.

Sadly, I would expect just the opposite. I think that is why they are getting stricter currently, more diesels on the road means more pollution to worry about. When diesels weren't very common, they didn't seem to care about how much they polluted.

 

[madmax12]

Funny you brought that up.. I ALWAYS believed the same thing until I started reading up on it and learned I was originally incorrect. It seems the "gas" companies are claiming that Diesel is not being sold here in large enough quantity to justify new pipelines and additional refineries. They claim that is why diesel is higher currently because the demand does not reach a point where they could invest more to into the supply chain that would allow much cheaper delivery and production. It really sound 100% backwards and may well just be another excuse to keep prices high but to some extent I guess it makes sense.
Hope that helps explain my comments. All I can really say is I wish diesel was cheaper!! This $4.25 a gallon is a killer

Thank you for clarifying.

 

[RollingsFarms]

I'm confused on this, I had an '04 5.3 for 4 years and don't remember any hassle changing the oil at all.

To those who say that the 4.3 GM's were a pain to change the tranny fluid...give me a break, loosen the crossmember and juck up the tranny 3" and done...10 minutes of someones valuable time that could be spent doing something productive instead of whining about it on an internet forum...I've owned and serviced many 4.3 GM's and they were all fantastic. Not like you have to do a tranny fluid change every 5,000 miles anyway.

..My 4:10 2wd 4.3 Chevy S-10 PU would put down a holeshot that would make John Force proud...Sold at 185K with no failures beyond an upper control arm bushing around 140k.

To DP: My mom had an A plan '91 GMC Jimmy 4x4 4.3 that she gave to me last year...I sold it to a friend and they still drive it every day...The digital dash is the only replacement needed...Apx $150 and an hour of the new owners time. It had 113k miles when sold...Nothing but one ball joint replaced in around 20 years...That thing screamed for a 6 as well...The new owner loves it.

like 94Bullit said, it was a pain to get at the oil filter on my 04. now on my 2011 with the 6.2 that was easier to change it out. I really liked how that engine was designed!