had to go with the chevys....

[rob10858]

this isnt exactly diesel related, but then again it is. need four doors for our crews, the psd's were pitiful in fuel mileage and dependability. the only option was chevy. today we spent about $73,500 on two sd 4 door chevys with gas, not duramax motors. we dont want to be anybody's guinea pig and the gassers are proven power plants. the point is that we had to , in mho settle for less, and thats a shame. the drivers like me that travel alone, love our dodge ctds and the 2001. 5 ho's with a little bombing are beyond compare to any of our tow trucks. on the way home after giving up the big bucks to the chevy dealer, the boss, [my brother in law and friend] looked over and said, "if only dodge made a four door, it would be so much easier" i know its coming, but weve got three trucks to replace next year, what should they be? i live in a small town, and ive seen four of my former ctds from years past and know every owner of my babies. still going strong.

 

[Shovelhead]

Hellllllooooooooo Dodge Corporation... ..... are you listening?

 

[catoiler]

Hello this chrysler corp. sorry we are not in right now !!!!!!!!

 

[Steve M]

I'll have to admit, we looked at a couple of Chevy's before I bought my 01 Dodge/Cummins. This is my third DC. They're addictive. The Chevy crew cab is nice and I'm sure will give years of good service. But, for the length of the beast, I don't mind our quad cab long bed. It's hard enough to sport around parking lots and construction sites with the length of a quad cab/long bed. I don't need any more length and it doesn't hurt my rear seat passengers a bit if their knees touch the back of my seat. We've had seven long legged people in my quad cab for a three hour trip and nobody got out complaining about comfort or stiffness. Maybe they didn't want to ride in the bed on the way back!

 

[Dkevdog]

Just saw on the News last night that DC now has less than 13% of the total market share of all vehicles sold in the US. Ford had 37% and I can't remember but I think GM was somewhere near 19%. Gee- go figure. Ford offers almost 100 different configs for their truck line. You need only your hands to count DC. Would be real nice to see DC realize the market for 1. 5 ton and larger trucks too. That's what happens when you have the mercedes benz mentality.



Kev

 

[rob10858]

i think the killer of the whole 4 door-quad cab-crew cab thing is the total space of the rear floor area as well as the convenience of 4 doors. two of my guys can completely fill up the rear section of our 4 door gmc 6500 , a big truck in appearance, but no more interior room than our psd's. we really dont have a big enough truck that can carry 4 guys and a weeks worth of luggage. we stack our luggage in between the rear seats and on the floorbards in back. pulling flatbed trailers with equipment and aux tanks behind the cab doesnt help. any ideas?

 

[JConley]

If Chrysler made a SUV bigger than the Durango, I would have traded my Durango for this. DC doesnt have anything that I could trade up to. No Crew cab, no full size SUV..... nothing



Using Dodges own words, they are different since they dont offer anything that the general public wants. Because of this, I now have a Powerstroke Excursion in the drive next to the Ram.

 

[BFaoro]

JConley

JConley how do you like the Excursion ?? The wife is wanting one and soon !!

 

[JConley]

Bfaoro



I really like the Excursion. It has a lot of power, and at 65 MPH, I get 20 MPG. At 70 -75, it drops to around 18. The only bad part of the X is the front suspension. Ford sofened up the front suspension to the point that it su#@s. If you buy one, here is a list of mandatory things to replace when it comes home from the dealer.



1. Shocks. Take the factory ones off, throw them away, and dont even question this. I have 4 Rancho 9000's on the way.



2. Helwig rear sway bar. Cost is around $125, and it makes a night and day difference in the ride. The Excursions dont come from the factory with a rear sway bar.



3. A common upgrade is replacing the pathetic front springs with the springs that are for an F-550. You only have 1-2 inches of suspension travel in the front end. The 550 springs will raise the front about 2 inches, and put the suspension back to where it was designed to be. (I thinks soccer moms, and bumper height are to blame for this one)



Doing these 3 things will cost about $700. 00 and you will be one happy camper. Go to the Ford-diesel.com web site, and read the forum section about the Powerstroke Excursions. The only bad things people are saying are due to the front suspension. The 3 things I listed, fix all the factory mistakes.