Chevy vs Ford Diesel Shootout

[Egon]

Any truck that is paid for and complies with my wishes is "GOOD LOOKING":thumbsup::thumbsup:

 

[Diamondpilot]

Any truck that is paid for and complies with my wishes is "GOOD LOOKING":thumbsup::thumbsup:

I hear ya. I have 2 paid off now and working on getting the 08 paid off by February.

Chris

 

[mwb]

I think the Ford was 'crippled' by the high elevation. From the dyno tests I think the Ford would out perform - or at least be a lot closer to - the Chev if the test was done at sea level (ok, slightly above sea level)

I am wondering some Ford engineer had a "double blinker", said "awe cr@p" and then reprogrammed it to compensate for extreme altitude. The Ford's torque curve from the dyno test is amazing!

Congrat's to Chev on the win; I wish both would tone it down and make a reliable, fuel efficient truck instead of engineering equipment that pushes the boundaries. I am still happy with my lowly '94 F250 7.3IDI. Not a race horse for sure but that mule will work all day.

 

[dodge man]

I think the Ford was 'crippled' by the high elevation. From the dyno tests I think the Ford would out perform - or at least be a lot closer to - the Chev if the test was done at sea level (ok, slightly above sea level)

I am wondering some Ford engineer had a "double blinker", said "awe cr@p" and then reprogrammed it to compensate for extreme altitude. The Ford's torque curve from the dyno test is amazing!

Congrat's to Chev on the win; I wish both would tone it down and make a reliable, fuel efficient truck instead of engineering equipment that pushes the boundaries. I am still happy with my lowly '94 F250 7.3IDI. Not a race horse for sure but that mule will work all day.

Thats what I said in a earlier post, Chevy picked the conditions and new they would win. They set the conditions so Dodge couldn't compete. Dodge should pick the conditions, like driving all three off a big cliff and the first one to the bottom wins.

 

[Renze]

No matter what happens, no Ford for me: Henry Ford was known to purloin at scrapyards to see what parts never failed, so he could make them cheaper:
They still do that today, the Ford Mondeo my dad has now, has taken me more wrenching hours than any other car (Volvo, Toyota) and the doors rot away because Ford has cut corners on body protection to save production costs... The previous Mondeo was better, but was too outdated to compete. The Sierra before that, was a pig on the road, poor handling, but good dependability. Over the past decades they DID make a better driving car for the same money, but cut corners on quality... No thanks.

 

[Builder]

Very well said. Ford runs the world, plain and simple. Look at what the tow trucks are, ambulances, what cable companies drive, the phone company, school corporations, municipalities, farmers, ect. I would say a good 60% are Fords. Ford used to have the Police market locked down but thats not the case anymore. In my area they are using Fords, Dodges, and the detectives drive Toyota's.

I thought we were talking about 3/4 tons and up here but in my eyes the best looking truck is the Nissan Titan. I love it stubby nose. Just looks tough.

Chris

You mean Ford builds the cheapest trucks so they win all the government contracts. That's also why they sell the most, they're willing to build stripped mules and sell them for a $1 in profit if they have to so they can pad their sales numbers.

What sells the most is not always the best. Mcdonalds sells the most burgers and got rated as the worst tasting burger. Reason? price & availability. McD's is just like Ford: Cheap and on every corner.

"Ford runs the world"??:laughing: You mean like in China, India, Japan, etc., too? :laughing: The US only represents a tiny fraction of the population of the world. I'm sure other brands outsell Ford in the vast majority of the world. :laughing:

 

[Dmace]

What sells the most is not always the best. Mcdonalds sells the most burgers and got rated as the worst tasting burger. Reason? price & availability. McD's is just like Ford: Cheap and on every corner.

Yeah, the Whopper is WAY better than the Big Mac any day of the week.

Wait, what were we talking about...

Oh yeah, the Ford is ugly, too new to prove reliability, has a weak exhaust brake and is ugly.

Around here, most of the government vehicles are Dodge.

The cable company uses Ford trucks but they also get a brand new truck every year. I wonder why they can't get one to last more than one year...

 

[Lt CHEG]

You mean Ford builds the cheapest trucks so they win all the government contracts. That's also why they sell the most, they're willing to build stripped mules and sell them for a $1 in profit if they have to so they can pad their sales numbers.

That's not always the case. There are very good reasons besides price too. For a long time Ford was the only company out of the big three to warranty their trucks and vans for use as emergency vehicles. I was on the board of directors at my volunteer fire company when we purchased a mini pumper several years ago. It was built on an F550 chassis and was the last year that the 7.3 liter was available. We test drove Ford, Chevy and Dodge chassis cabs and actually liked the Ford the least as the 7.3 liter had the least power between the Duramax and Cummins turbo diesels. We were all ready to build a mini pumper on a Chevy or Dodge chassis until we realized that neither GM or Chrysler would warranty any components of their trucks if they were used as emergency vehicles. Ford at the time was the only company that would provide a warranty on their trucks if used as a fire truck, ambulance, etc. I've seen the letters from GM and Chrysler myself as I was on the board of directors.

I know that it was several years before GM and Chrysler were willing to fully get into the emergency services business with their trucks and vans. In fact I think it might not have been until about 2007 until GM would warranty their trucks when used as emergency vehicles. So for a while if you wanted a warranty on the engine, transmission, etc. Ford was literally the only game in town unless you upgraded to a medium duty International or Freightliner. Since companies tend to stick with what they've known (harder to change directions due to institutional momentum) that's also a big reason why Ford has done so well with their trucks in use as emergency services vehicles. I do know of a local ambulance company that has switched to Chevy vans for their ambulances recently, but the other companies that I know well in the area have stuck with Ford.

As far as cars, Ford really screwed the pooch by not offering a rear wheel drive police car after this generation of the Crown Vic ceases production. I know my old police agency and the biggest neighboring departments have tried front wheel drive police cars and found them to be unsatisfactory for patrol vehicles. These departments are only willing to use rear wheel drive patrol vehicles and will be ending 15+ year relationships with Ford in order to continue using rear wheel drive patrol cars made by either Dodge or Chevrolet in the form of either the new Caprice or the Tahoe pursuit vehicles.

 

[Builder]

That's not always the case. There are very good reasons besides price too. For a long time Ford was the only company out of the big three to warranty their trucks and vans for use as emergency vehicles. I was on the board of directors at my volunteer fire company when we purchased a mini pumper several years ago. It was built on an F550 chassis and was the last year that the 7.3 liter was available. We test drove Ford, Chevy and Dodge chassis cabs and actually liked the Ford the least as the 7.3 liter had the least power between the Duramax and Cummins turbo diesels. We were all ready to build a mini pumper on a Chevy or Dodge chassis until we realized that neither GM or Chrysler would warranty any components of their trucks if they were used as emergency vehicles. Ford at the time was the only company that would provide a warranty on their trucks if used as a fire truck, ambulance, etc. I've seen the letters from GM and Chrysler myself as I was on the board of directors.

I know that it was several years before GM and Chrysler were willing to fully get into the emergency services business with their trucks and vans. In fact I think it might not have been until about 2007 until GM would warranty their trucks when used as emergency vehicles. So for a while if you wanted a warranty on the engine, transmission, etc. Ford was literally the only game in town unless you upgraded to a medium duty International or Freightliner. Since companies tend to stick with what they've known (harder to change directions due to institutional momentum) that's also a big reason why Ford has done so well with their trucks in use as emergency services vehicles. I do know of a local ambulance company that has switched to Chevy vans for their ambulances recently, but the other companies that I know well in the area have stuck with Ford.

As far as cars, Ford really screwed the pooch by not offering a rear wheel drive police car after this generation of the Crown Vic ceases production. I know my old police agency and the biggest neighboring departments have tried front wheel drive police cars and found them to be unsatisfactory for patrol vehicles. These departments are only willing to use rear wheel drive patrol vehicles and will be ending 15+ year relationships with Ford in order to continue using rear wheel drive patrol cars made by either Dodge or Chevrolet in the form of either the new Caprice or the Tahoe pursuit vehicles.

I don't think it's a rear wheel drive issue with Ford. It's more the giant fireball Ford has become famous for when the Crown Vic gets rear ended. You'd think they would have learned with the Pinto, bit much to my shagrin, 14 police officers have died as a result of the Crown Vic exploding from a rear collision. Many many more have been injured & severely burned.

"Fourteen officers have been killed nationwide as the result of an auto fire from a rear end collision in a Crown Victoria since 1982."

Article source: Gas Tank Explosions - Crown Victoria Police Car Explosions

A friend of mine is a police officer and they have dumped most of their C/V's for the Dodge or the Tahoe. The sad part is all ford needed to do is install a simple sheild to protect the tank from rupture, or even better, redesign the vehicle with the tank placed in front of the rear axle.

 

[Lt CHEG]

I don't think it's a rear wheel drive issue with Ford. It's more the giant fireball Ford has become famous for when the Crown Vic gets rear ended. You'd think they would have learned with the Pinto, bit much to my shagrin, 14 police officers have died as a result of the Crown Vic exploding from a rear collision. Many many more have been injured & severely burned.

"Fourteen officers have been killed nationwide as the result of an auto fire from a rear end collision in a Crown Victoria since 1982."

Article source: Gas Tank Explosions - Crown Victoria Police Car Explosions

A friend of mine is a police officer and they have dumped most of their C/V's for the Dodge or the Tahoe. The sad part is all ford needed to do is install a simple sheild to protect the tank from rupture, or even better, redesign the vehicle with the tank placed in front of the rear axle.

I know of several highway patrol agencies that dumped the Ford after the gas tank issues. For definitely tried to get away on the cheap with that issue and I'd probably have felt different about my Crown Vic if I was working for an agency where I spent a lot of time on the side of a highway.

In the case of my old police department they never cared about the gas tank issue. I worked in an inner city where the speed limit was 30mph throughout the entire city so getting rear ended at high speed was not a very big concern of our administration. The Impalas we tried sucked, they were too small, lacked acceleration from a stop with the A/C on, had poor ground clearance and couldn't make a U-turn without making it into a 3 point turn on many streets. We had Caprices until 1996 and loved them. The engines were bulletproof but the transmissions had problems. When Chevy stopped making a full size rear wheel drive car we switched to Ford out of necessity and had good luck, but interestingly the Fords were exactly the opposite of the Chevy's in that the transmissions were bulletproof but the engines were somewhat problematic. The mechanics did find the Fords easier to work on though. We tried a Dodge and found the drive train to be awesome, man that car was fast, the fastest since the 1996 Caprices (I had an old reserve 1996 Caprice up to 151 mph myself backing up another officer in a neighboring jurisdiction). The problem is that they were a little too light in the rear end and the chief was worried we'd be stupid with them (probably a fair assessment). So we stuck with the Crown Vic until the last possible second and I know that this year they just ordered a bunch more to get them while they still could. My guess is that they will go with the Caprice when they come out but I know that as long as there is a rear wheel drive police car made, my old PD will never be driving a front wheel drive police car.