Mandalorian

Honestly, with all the gripes about the 8-speed, I'd get the 6.2 just for the 10 speed.

It honestly depends on the dealership, but those bad apples shafting people who didn’t buy from them are few and far between. Plenty of people move, have multiple homes, or go back and forth. They’re not deliberately not buying local, as their “local” is subject to change. Given all the folks from Upstate NY on this forum, the snowbird concept should be pretty familiar. Any sensible dealer isn’t going to risk jeopardizing future business from poor service.

This. Lots of factors going on. I remember looking at Yukon Denalis a few years back (we ultimately went with an Audi Q7), but a dealer 200mi away was $8k cheaper than my closest local at the time.

Entirely depends on the house. It depends a bit on the region, but if you can find something set back a bit on larger lot, the garage will probably be larger. Here in NJ, many of the houses are older and smaller with garages sized for a golf cart, but thankfully the trend is to buy two and tear them down to build one larger house. It's a boon to the market and great for our property values.

I would search your local dealers inventory online and see how they are pricing comparable trucks, than compare that to how the other dealer is pricing the one you want. If the local one is significantly lower, do a dealer trade, otherwise go to the farther one. Vehicles are mass produced, GM dealers are a dime a dozen.

I would avoid MY 2015. Seems to be the source of probably 90% of issues with the K2 Suburbans. Never really good to buy the first model year as a general rule anyway. 2016+ have a lot more/better tech features as well. I would not buy without the max tow package either, it gives you a 2-speed transfer case and importantly a 3.42 rear end which puts some good pep into the powertrain. 20 inch wheels will give you a better ride over 22, especially if you live in an area with bad roads, but of course that can always be done aftermarket. As for the suspension, magride is pretty comfortable and lasts longer than the conventional setup with optimum ride quality the entire time (whereas regular shocks gradually wear out), but is more expensive to replace. That being said, you can always convert it to conventional shocks when the time comes.

Keep us posted

I think a Hellcat Ram would be pretty neat.

Get the dealer to buy you an F150. Much better 2.7 engine.

As far as clear coat/paint goes, with the exception of the Germans and super high end stuff like Rolls-Royce, they’re all equally bad.

I'd bet 2020s are going to kill it now that they're FINALLY getting around to adding ACC

Acid wash solves the problem

As others have correctly stated, it all comes down to circumstance, but trucks don't really have too many reliability issues. If you want a Land Rover, BMW, Jaguar, Mercedes, lease the hell out of it and dump it. Great cars to drive, terrible to own out of warranty.

Keep in mind, there is a HUGE confirmation bias on a forum like this in terms of issues. Between GM, Ford, and FCA, around 2.5M trucks are sold every year. If 20 people comment about how their X or Y did this or that, it's statistically insignificant. 20 lemons out of 2.5M is less than a drop in the bucket. 1 bad F-150 does not mean 1M bad F150s, for example. That being said, there are plenty of tangible differences. Rams A/C does not perform as well as GM, however the interiors are better. Ram has a much better 8-speed transmission, although this probably isn't a concern with the Denali (6.2/10A). Personally, I don't love sweating, so I'd trade a little leather and wood for superior A/C performance.

GM has a huge love affair with black. It's pretty much impossible to find a light colored interior on dealer lots these days.