Everyday I Wake up Conflicted

[BroncoMike]

I can't imagine offing either of my Fords, but the GMC could be a candidate... nah, I need some driveway space. Selling the GMC outright for upgrade funds will be a plus.

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[Bronco II]

You know what GMC stands for Garage Mechanics Companion

 

[nameuser]

You know what GMC stands for Garage Mechanics Companion

When I was a kid I asked my dad what the difference was between a Chev and a GMC......
He said "lockwashers"

 

[loubif]

When I was a kid I asked my dad what the difference was between a Chev and a GMC......
He said "lockwashers"

LMAO!!!

 

[Stampede.Offroad]

When I was a kid I asked my dad what the difference was between a Chev and a GMC......
He said "lockwashers"

I don't think I'd go that far. Just a few more square inches of chrome plating.

 

[BroncoMike]

I bought it new in 2001, and granted I've only put 135k on it, but I can't say much bad about it. Not my first GM product, but for sure my first GM truck. We had a lot of them at work, I was assigned them year after year, and while I had Fords at home, I got used to the GM. All brand loyalty BS aside, it works perfectly fine - some ways better than Fords, some ways not as good.

So at 135k, wiring to the knock sensor is corroded, throwing a CEL on occasion. Passenger door lock is sluggish, but that happened suspiciously just after I replaced the door speakers (gonna have to look at that). A couple things that were done under warranty, one of them has come back - a little "knock" in the steering shaft when going over bumps, reportedly a bushing in the shaft but it doesn't bother me enough to fix it. The rear diff had a "whine" in it at about 15k, they replaced the gear set and done.

It hasn't spent a single day under shelter (Arizona, west Texas, New Mexico most of its life), and the clearcoat on the roof is just now starting to go. Compared to my girlfirend's old 2007 F150 that's in my driveway (it lived in exactly the same environment) the Ford's paint is GONE on the roof and going on the hood. Maybe because I only wash the GMC about every two years. She washed that F150 at least once a month.

There's a lot on the GMC that is much easier to work on than on some of the Fords I've owned. But there are other things on Fords that are either more durable or better engineered. Never left me stranded, and never failed to do something I asked of it. Lots of good times in that thing, but it needs to go to fund a laundry list of Ford parts.

Not sure what I'm going to use for transportation to the parts store when I turn the GMC into cash...

 

[3crows]

I just do not buy anything GM, sorry. Ford, sure, Chrysler/Jeep, depends on the vehicle, Toyota is my go to and then Honda. But Toyota has bored me to tears, Honda seems to have forgotten themselves, Ford, who knows what they are doing other than smoke, mirrors and big talk and GM, still no way.

Do not be conflicted, just go buy both!

 

[BroncoMike]

Stopped buying GM after the bailout, and how they shirked responsibility for pre-bailout cars by saying they were a different company now - "new GM".

 

[Bronco II]

Stopped buying GM after the bailout, and how they shirked responsibility for pre-bailout cars by saying they were a different company now - "new GM".

The ignition switch problem is because you have to much junk hanging off your keychain and the a8 problem is because you don't know how to drive a automatic transmission.

 

[BroncoMike]

https://www.deseretnews.com/article...ys-GM-failed-to-fix-thousands-of-Impalas.html

It's not the failures so much as it is the way they duck out of responsibility. My neighbor was going through rear tires like crazy - we had a fix on our police package vehicles that didn't get applied to consumer vehicles like hers.

It has nothing to do with keychains or if you "know how to drive an automatic transmission". It has everything to do with taking millions of taxpayer dollars and then telling people with warranty claims that their issues are with "old GM", which isn't around anymore thanks to the millions of taxpayer dollars that bought "new GM".

 

[Bronco II]

Another dodge GM uses more and more is that what ever problem you have falls with in tolerances

 

[BroncoMike]

Another dodge GM uses more and more is that what ever problem you have falls with in tolerances

My boss had Ram do that with his 3500 pickup. Apparently, their tolerance range is quite large.

 

[TeocaliMG]

I bought it new in 2001, and granted I've only put 135k on it, but I can't say much bad about it. Not my first GM product, but for sure my first GM truck. We had a lot of them at work, I was assigned them year after year, and while I had Fords at home, I got used to the GM. All brand loyalty BS aside, it works perfectly fine - some ways better than Fords, some ways not as good.

So at 135k, wiring to the knock sensor is corroded, throwing a CEL on occasion. Passenger door lock is sluggish, but that happened suspiciously just after I replaced the door speakers (gonna have to look at that). A couple things that were done under warranty, one of them has come back - a little "knock" in the steering shaft when going over bumps, reportedly a bushing in the shaft but it doesn't bother me enough to fix it. The rear diff had a "whine" in it at about 15k, they replaced the gear set and done.

It hasn't spent a single day under shelter (Arizona, west Texas, New Mexico most of its life), and the clearcoat on the roof is just now starting to go. Compared to my girlfirend's old 2007 F150 that's in my driveway (it lived in exactly the same environment) the Ford's paint is GONE on the roof and going on the hood. Maybe because I only wash the GMC about every two years. She washed that F150 at least once a month.

There's a lot on the GMC that is much easier to work on than on some of the Fords I've owned. But there are other things on Fords that are either more durable or better engineered. Never left me stranded, and never failed to do something I asked of it. Lots of good times in that thing, but it needs to go to fund a laundry list of Ford parts.

Not sure what I'm going to use for transportation to the parts store when I turn the GMC into cash...

I really appreciate this post Bronco Mike. I always get a kick out of full brand wide horror stories. I think I made a post a while back about this, but most manufacturers are reasonably competitive with each other as a whole. I find that most horror stories will be associated with a particular model or even powertrain, and though this can leave a bad taste in the mouth it is hardly representative of the whole company. For ANY company. I am a Ford engineer and I can tell you that a healthy portion of our engineers at higher levels have had a portion of their career at 1 or more other OEM's and Ford is not unique here. There is not a lot of secrets when it comes to vehicle engineering between the OEM's (shared engineers/projects/technology). It is generally case by case execution. And there is not a company out there that will go out of its way to pay for anything that's gone wrong. Every brand will have customer service horror/hero stories. That usually has more to do with Dealer execution.

Anyway, growing up on the farm we cycled through a 1 ton truck from each of the big three and every single one had issues, (some maybe more than others) but each was able to do the job of hauling way more hay down the country road than the manufacturer ever intended. So there's my 2 cents. If anyone has had a bad experience, there's usually an explanation, and there is no such thing as a perfect brand (Toyota/honda included ).

 

[BroncoMike]

I really appreciate this post Bronco Mike. I always get a kick out of full brand wide horror stories. I think I made a post a while back about this, but most manufacturers are reasonably competitive with each other as a whole. I find that most horror stories will be associated with a particular model or even powertrain, and though this can leave a bad taste in the mouth it is hardly representative of the whole company. For ANY company. I am a Ford engineer and I can tell you that a healthy portion of our engineers at higher levels have had a portion of their career at 1 or more other OEM's and Ford is not unique here. There is not a lot of secrets when it comes to vehicle engineering between the OEM's (shared engineers/projects/technology). It is generally case by case execution. And there is not a company out there that will go out of its way to pay for anything that's gone wrong. Every brand will have customer service horror/hero stories. That usually has more to do with Dealer execution.

Anyway, growing up on the farm we cycled through a 1 ton truck from each of the big three and every single one had issues, (some maybe more than others) but each was able to do the job of hauling way more hay down the country road than the manufacturer ever intended. So there's my 2 cents. If anyone has had a bad experience, there's usually an explanation, and there is no such thing as a perfect brand (Toyota/honda included ).

I'm a "whatever works" guy. If company X is making the best one when I'm looking, that's what I'll be buying so long as it delivers good value for the money. If a brand worked well in the past for me, I'll likely give that company a little more consideration in my next purchase unless I learn there's something that eclipses it - but I'm still going to read all the reviews, listen to all my friends, and test everything I am interested in. I don't have much in the way of "brand loyalty", if you're not making the best one out there you'll have to make pricing concessions in exchange for my sacrifice of not getting the best available product.

Since consumers have a diverse set of needs and priorities, every vehicle is a compromise to some extent. I empathize with the difficulty OEMs must have in finding the sweet spot between features, performance, comfort, capability and longevity, all while remaining within the confines of a complex multi-agency regulatory environment. It has to be a tough target, and missing the mark is costly.

Like you, I've found that few manufacturers are "notorious" for the same issues year over year, unless they silently went down the road so long before they were discovered and now eight years of them are out there approaching failure. When I was a kid in the military, we had a lot of Dodge products, and my observation was that their ergonomics were horrible - switches where you wouldn't think to look for them, that sort of stuff - but other than that, each brand has good features and poor ones, good models and "meh" models, better years and worse years.

Blindly "hating" a brand is as ignorant as blindly loving one - the former can keep one from owning a great product, the latter can leave one with an expensive mistake if/when the production paradigm shifts.

Hey, I'd even buy a Harley if they made a reliable, torquey sub-300lb. dual-sport with 70-ish horsepower and good luggage racks.

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