JKloppe, You are the ONLY person I have ever heard that likes the Dodge interior better than the Chevy. I have owned two D/A trucks, and '01 and an '03 and currently have three third gen CTDs. Funny you mention seats, I would pay anything to have the seats from my Chev in the Dodge, and I am no fat person. I do make a 20 hr drive every other month and the flat hard seats on my '05 KILL my back. I never had a problem in the Chevy with 15 hrs straight. I also found the Bose stereo in the Chev to be FAR superior to the Infinity in my Dodge, no contest. I own several other "premium" european vehicles and the Chev interior much more closely emulates them than the hard plastic dash in the Dodge. In fact, if I could put GMs interior in my Dodge it would be nearly perfect, but I guess we all have our preferences
As for the Allison, typical GM, great idea, poor execution. I had to haul my Unimog from Atlanta to northern Minnesota with the '01. That stupid Allison wouldn't hold fifth gear on the highway. I was getting 5 mpg at 3000 rpms for 800 miles in a shortbox with a 23 gallon tank. The trip took what seemed like forever, but I got to visit a lot of truckstops along the way

The biggest thing I like about the 48re's vs the Allison is that they are programmed to make the most of the diesels torque. The 48re jumps in to OD and locks the convertor and she pulls like a train. The dang Allison makes that D-max spin like crazy to do the work and hates going into OD. The next issue is that the Allison can't take the torque. They de-fuel to 520 lb/ft in first and fifth so you lose 70 lb/ft over the advertised rating in the two gears where you need it the most. I really like the Allisons grade braking feature and wish Dodge would figure that out for us, but other than that, I'll take a 48re Dodge any day. I have voted with my dollars, no Chevys anymore, all Dodges

The loose convertor issue on the Dodge is at least partially solved for '05 with the new tow/haul program. With T/H engaged the convertor locks up in third at 35 mph and stays that way. So you get great turbo spool in first and second to get moving and then it locks up and pulls with the torque we all know and love. Sure it could be a little better, but it really isn't bad IMO, and after living with Allisons for four years, they really aren't as great as some think. Oh yeah, and at 25k miles with very little towing, my Allison in the '03 burnt the fluid BLACK. GM's answer??? It is NORMAL for the Allison to turn the fluid black, I still have the TSB from them stating just that. After that incident, that transmission gets a big vote of no confidence from me.