No, I have not, thank you very much “grin”! My opinion is based on a few friend’s experiences with recent Ford, GM, and Dodge and mostly the diesel engines, their poor performance and even poorer warranty care. A year ago I had a Ram Ecodiesel or “Eco-Boom” on my shortlist. Ram had stopped making them and switched to electric instead. A good friend had one and he raved about it. I visited some dealerships and just couldn’t bring myself to buy one as hard as I tried, because of my gut and prejudice against them. A couple neighbors have the diesel 2500s friends have Rams and seem to like them a lot. Ram is a much better value than GM or Ford for the same reliability. A year ago a co-worker had an Ecoboom engine grenade under warranty and he said he never liked the truck. Recently my friend with the Ecoboom had his engine grenade on him. He took it in under warranty and they said it would be three months. He was angry at Ram and told me he’d sue them, then he dumped it for a new 2024 Platinum Tundra with the hybrid engine and 100,000 or 150k warranty. He used to by the highest end American trucks and cars and finally said enough was enough!!
I can get 17 mpg too on level highway. You want to replace your atf, front, rear, transfer case fluid, and coolant regularly. I believe Toyota has lowered the minimum maintenance on their cars and trucks to get them through the 5 year warranty. I’ve spent countless hours figuring out what maintenance I should perform as a lazy, clumsy, and cheap guy to keep my vehicles running long with diminishing returns of replacing fluids too much. I recently realized and I’m a civil engineer not to run the washer fluid dry or the gas, repairs are expensive!! I don’t really mind gadgets or sensors so long as they don’t add a lot of cost and/or reduce reliability. Like my dad my trucks have never been daily drivers, they sit a long time and get old and I’m cheap. I’m driving hundreds, often thousands of miles to hunt and demand reliability and simplicity most!! My daily drivers are bottom tier Hondas or Toyota's, because to me they have all the features I really want. Modern car failures is a very complex issue with many causes. Certainly companies cater to the majority of idiots that want sparkling, and complex systems that they won’t utilize more than a tiny bit. Lots of bragging on the Tundra forums, “your SR5 has cloth seats and basic interior so it’s worth NUTHING!!, my platinum, deluxe, leather, shiny gauges and interior that would make a pimp green with Envy shows I’m a winner!!” Car companies I believe tweak things for all kinds of reasons, probably some to make car less reliable. I believe Toyota is making their new trucks and cars less reliable on purpose. And they have lowered their minimum maintenance considerably on some things on newer 2nd year Tundras over earlier versions.
Which Superduty engines are you talking about? Damn shame about modern diesels, it’s the emissions. No other gas engine excels at towing and has such torque as diesel!! What do you mean you wouldn’t miss the new 7.3 with 4.30 gears forever? Do you mean the 7.3 Godzilla engine?
Understood. But that's still anywhere from $500-2000+ for the pump. About 2 hrs book labor. If it was a catastrophic pump failure, that's a completely different story than just pump shit the bed.
I'm not trying to convince you of anything, but I would have to disagree with some of your assessment. Here's an example of a modern diesel fleet vehicle (2019 Ford F-550) to support it. I've had the truck since new, in 123k miles it hasn't been in the shop for longer than 1 day of tire rotation, tranny filter change, or other etc maintenance. Zero issues. I'm an Ag mechanic and our fleet let's our rigs idle a LOT of the time, especially in the summer when we have to be there for hours in July triple digit heat. The Duramax's go in minimum once a year for DEF maintenance/replacement, or whatever else they need. Draw your own conclusion.
I wish him good luck with that Tundra:
cooked turbos plus wiring burnt and cracked radiators, it was warranty work. Just not dependable as a daily driver for work. Like he told me loved my 20 but he needed a 4 wd.
Nice write up. I'm no expert but when you have plugs and no way to check fluids makes me worry. I like to see the tranny fluid and oil are at correct levels. Not just trust us and only change it at 100,000. LOL
You can close your eyes and throw a dart at chance, or you can analyze and over analyze and play the probability odds. Numbers mean something. Anyone can win in Vegas for a short run, but for the long haul Vegas always wins because the odds are set in their favor. Analyzing (or over analyzing) is done to set the odds in your favor.
Yep.
4 grand for blend door replacement is insane!
