Truck time

AndyR · Apr 9, 2002

I am REALLY happy to announce birth of new truck!
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Wallet will be in labor/w3tcompact/icons/crazy.gif for quite some time but big beuatiful truck will be delivered Thursday afternoon. Truck is a Chevy 2500HD, 4 WD, Quad Cab, Long Bed, LT package, Duramax/Allison [all diesel all the time]. Doing an innagural run to Pennsylvania this weeked and will be at the NH TBN gathering next weekend.

Stupid local dealer (who shall remain poorer) told me none in area and 16 week lead time. A search through GM website showed my exact truck - just not in my first color choice, at a dealer in the next town. local dealer had no good answers when I asked why - so he lost.

Next task - trailers (and suitable payoff of the wife - this will cost me much more then a camera)

AndyR · Apr 15, 2002

I picked up my truck on Thursday and on Friday I drove to Pennsylvania and back to NH yesterday. The Duramax is one awesome engine. Hills, what hills, this thing doesn't notice them. (There are some pretty good hills in VT).

Mileage on the first tank of fuel was a little over 16 MPG/w3tcompact/icons/grin.gif

Bayrat · Apr 20, 2002

I love my new 2500 Dodge. We have had as many problems with the GM company trucks as described in that previous post regarding the Dodges. Granted, the transmissions were troublesome on certain models. I checked into that before I purchased one and found that the culprit had long since been corrected. Mine came with a 100,000 mile warranty. I have the 5.9L and it has plenty of power, I couldn't justify the Diesel. Had the same engine in my 1978 W150 and after I ran it for nine years another person ran it for five more and then sold it to a Sheriff that STILL drives it. The body style was a turn-off on the pre '94 models, that's for sure, but I still perfer the last GM 1500 body style over the new one that slightly resembles the old eighties Dodge body. But it is like talking tractors, everyone has their own horror stories to tell about lemons. That loose bumper and missing shock is the result of a very bad dealer prep job. I will add that my brother-in-law took out the engine in his '97 1500 Dodge at around 58k because the oil pump blew and he kept driving it on his way to Pennsylvania one night. Dodge replaced it under warranty despite his negligence. That is the bottom line.

Robert_in_NY · Apr 20, 2002

In both of cases with the bumper and shock the dealer said it wasn't their fault and they are the largest Dodge dealer around here. They would not cover any of the cost and never even fixed the bumper. Even though the older Dodge trucks didn't look as nice as the new ones I have never heard anyone complain about them. They were built solid and meant to work where as most of the newer ones seem to be built to look at first and work second. At least Dodge is finally offering a 1 ton truck with single rear wheels if only Chevy would follow suit they will get a lot more sales. Take care.

Bayrat · Apr 20, 2002

I don't understand that. If the truck were delivered new and was missing a shock and the bumper was falling off, the dealer must have a death wish not to take care of it. One call to the 800 number in the owners manual will have a factory rep at their door. In my experience, the bigger the dealer, the worse the service as well. Seems they feel that you are insignificant until you get the factory invoved! Talk to ya later!

RobertN · Apr 21, 2002

The LA series motors(273/318/340/360ci) are great; I had one in my old Road Runner. They lasted a lot of years.

Interestingly, Car Craft or Hot Rod did a article a few years back, building a 360 mopar vs 350 chevy, using comparable parts. The Mopar made noticibly more HP and Torque(dyno'd bigger numbers), and was cheaper to build! The Chevy had more chrome available for it, but the Mopar ran stronger!

Bayrat · Apr 21, 2002

Yes, Chrysler always had great engines. They were not as plentiful as the other brands so aftermarket parts following the money produced more stuff for Fords and GM. But in my experience, the Mopars were faster out of the box than anybody else's, requiring little to bring home the trophy. I prefer the previous truck body style at this point /w3tcompact/icons/cool.gif, so I purchased the 2500 which won't be available in the new body form until fall. I would have liked to have been able to get that new HEMI engine which is standard in them though /w3tcompact/icons/love.gif! I don't understand the transmission troubles, the best tranny on the market was the Torqueflite, why change it to be less reliable? I know that the HD tranny in the GM's was a slightly modified (to avoid patent infringement) version of the Chrysler legend, I had one in my company vehicle, a 1982 Chevy C25 4x4 and it even sounded like the Torqueflite. Guess that wasn't covered in the patent /w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif.

Robert_in_NY · Apr 21, 2002

It is my brothers truck and the only thing they care about is getting his money. I have found most car and truck dealerships in my area are this way. Rod Woodson is part owner of the Ford dealership where I buy from and they own a ton of dealerships for every brand imaginable. Yet even though we buy a truck from them every few years they still treat us like crap. It is the one thing I like about tractor dealerships is that they are usually owned by a farmer or one time farmer and they are much nicer to people. Most of the car dealerships are owned by the same guy here so it doesn't do much good to change brands, and the smaller dealerships are being bought out by the larger ones so there are only a couple individual dealers left, one Ford and one Dodge dealer.

The rear window leaked in our 98' F-150 and the dealer would not fix it. I had a friend do it and when they installed the window at the factory the put the sealer joint on the top of the window where the water sits. Most of the 98' F-150's in this area have had their windows removed at one time but my dealer wouldn't do anything about it because we had too many miles on the truck. Oh well, later.