Ford Rant

[Egon]

I have a 96 dodge that has half the paint peeled off.

 

[MossRoad]

I have an '85 Chevy 1/2 ton 4x4, 350 w/California emissions sitting next to my garage with four flat tires. In the bed under a cracked cap I store pressure treated lumber scraps. About once a week I pick up another piece of the truck that has rotted off. It has been sitting there for four years. Why won't it repair itself?

 

[Volfandt]

Hey N80, that black sure looks good after a long day of working it but I doubt I'll own another black vehicle.
I've left mine about as stock as one can and it's been a good truck in return. I have nothing agin tweaking and adding more go-fast parts but I got tired of constantly having to wrench my "performance" add-ons
I've even stayed with the stock wheels & tires. Got 75k on the originals and the present Wranglers looks like they'll have the same longevity. I dunno, sometimes I yearn for the sweet low rumbling sound of twin turbo thrush's but then again when I'm really enjoying the ride everything gets drowned out by the 6 CD changer anyways

Hey nobull1, I aint no ford oppologist by any means. Matter of fact I don;t necessarily disagree with you. I've just had better luck w/Ford pkups than any other vehicle except, ahem, Toyota.........

There was another thread up in trailers where I expressed my opinion on how our American automakers let their virtual monopoly dissenigrate in less than 10 yrs because they couldn't or wouldnt match the quality & price of the imports.
Course I didn't even buy my 1st honst to goodness import (non-big two made)until 2001 and I liked it so much I traded it for another.
I'm glad the big two or three are improving, I just hope it's not too late for 'em as I will still look towards Ford 1st whenever I'm ready to trade my 98 F150.

 

[N80]

As much as I like little trucks (maybe just for playing around), I was seriously considering getting an F-250 SuperCrew Diesel. The mileage is about the same but you get a lot more room for kids, dogs and stuff plus more towing capacity with the 250. But then I heard the ongoing saga with those diesels and that scared me away. Thought about the Dodges with the Cummins which my B-I-L thinks I should get, and they're probably great, but his, his daughters and his friends all and injector pump problems. Probably a coincidence, but, well, what would you think?

I've just never been a Chevy man. My Dad had serious problems with his second S-10 Blazer and he got treated real bad. You know how experiences like that affect you.

So, I'm staying with this F-150 until it tanks!

 

[Volfandt]

I was seriously considering getting an F-250 SuperCrew Diesel.

Same here, I really don;t have a need for a Power Stroke F250 but man-oh-man would a 300hp + diesel crank my tractor

The skinny on the Ford PS is that the older 7.3's were bullet proof, the 1st couple yrs of the more powerful 6.0 gave the entire engine series a bad name but supposedly the later yrs of the 6.0 lived up to all it's hype and worked as advertised.
The new 6.4 has had a few teething problems, i.e. the exhaust would get so hot as to shoot flames out a couple feet from the pipe but that has supposedly been rectified now.
The new Chevy Duramax coupled to an Allison in the 2500 series and up is supposed to be THE setup now. Don't know much about it yet but I've been hearing great things about it.
What I'd like to see is a 250 to 300 hp diesel in the F150 / 1500 series trucks. The massive amount of torque coupled with better MPG than the gassers would make them more popular as well as more economical. Perhaps this new ULSD will start us down the road to smaller diesels.

 

[Dargo]

Thought about the Dodges with the Cummins which my B-I-L thinks I should get, and they're probably great, but his, his daughters and his friends all and injector pump problems. Probably a coincidence, but, well, what would you think?

One of my neighbors is the service manager for the 4th largest Dodge dealership in the country. He told me that he could probably count on one hand the number of injector pumps they have worked on in the last 10 years. Something doesn't sound quite right there. Not only have they sold thousands of them, but all the smaller dealerships send their "problem children" (hard to fix problems) to this dealership.

P.S. They also own one of the largest Chevy dealerships and Ford dealerships in this area as well. I wasn't aware that the Duramax has had more issues than most people think. Other than the first year or two of the 6.0 Fords, he thinks the Ford 6.0 is as good as the GM Duramax. Take if for what it's worth (if anything), but he uses a Dodge to tow his 5th wheel camper and the dealer who owns all the dealerships uses one of the new Dodge pickups to travel to his get away cabin.

 

[jcmseven]

The Ford 6.4L has been a very solid and trouble free motor so far. So for N80, I would have no reservations about test driving one. A good truck, for sure. I bought one two months ago and have been quite satisfied with my purchase. Ford has gained leaps and bounds on this truck.

John M

 

[riptides]

As much as I like little trucks (maybe just for playing around), I was seriously considering getting an F-250 SuperCrew Diesel. The mileage is about the same but you get a lot more room for kids, dogs and stuff plus more towing capacity with the 250. But then I heard the ongoing saga with those diesels and that scared me away.

Have you considered an F-250 7.3L Diesel?

Sweet they are.

-Mike Z.

 

[RobertN]

OMG. You have got to be kidding. You can only think of ONE dog from the 70's?!?! Roy, the 70's is the decade of the American junk car. As other have mentioned, anyone can rattle off a long list of not just bad but laughably bad cars from the 70's and early 80's. It's comedian material man. Where have you been?

Wow! Two of the better cars of my memory were a '72 and '74 Mopar. My Mom had a '72 Fury III with a 360. It was spacious, handled well, and towed a smaller 16' travel trailer very well. Also the first car I drove over 110mph The tranny did need a rebuild at about 150k miles.

My '74 Roadrunner was the last real one, although it was a smogged out California car with a smallblock. I got it with 100k miles, and drove it hard to 175k miles, when it got t-boned... That car ran great, and even with my thrashing on it, never broke. I left it stock.

Even the 70's Pinto I had ran well. My Grandma had it from new to about 100k miles. I had it for another 25k miles. The person after me put somes miles on it, but thrashed and the wrecked it.

Even my '79 Trans Am was good. I got it used, put a bunch of miles on it, and sold at 130k miles. Only thing about that car; I could not change the spark plugs myself. I have largish hands; I could not get to the front passenger side spark plugs because of lack of clearance. With the bigblock motor, there was no room under the air conditioning pump.

The worst car I can think of from the 70's is the Gremlin/Pacer... I don't know which was worse, reliability or ugly Although, my Aunt had a Pacer; it was reliable from what I remember, but was sure an ugly car(IMHO )

 

[scott_vt]

However! The 4wd switch is the stupidest thing I've ever seen on a modern vehicle. It is the same size and shape as all the climate control switches and sits in a perfect line with them. The '4x4' indicator light is also just plain dumb, it is tiny and totally obscured by the steering wheel not matter what position its in.

The result? Well, about once or twice a year I think I'm turning the fan up when I'm switching into 4wd!
)

Afternoon George,
Well, no switches in my 00 Dodge for FWD In fact you have to give the shift on the floor a pretty good tug to get it engaged ! My vote goes to the old fashioned mechanical shift on the floor !