What made you choose a 14/15 GM over the competition?

[buckwuk]

Im starting this topic to see what is everybody's reason for choosing what they did be it a ford, dodge, etc and why? No info on toyota and nissan in here as i didn't care for either of the trucks. Everything below is my opinion and experience.

 

Now I've owned a 2011 F150 EB for awhile and needless to say I liked the truck a lot. Lots of power, mfd said i averaged 18.9 with most of my driving but hand calculating was usually always 1.5 to 2.5 lower than what it said so 16.5 to 17.5 ish which was a bit disappointing with all the hype. Towing it had great torque and power and even averaged around 15 hand calulated pulling a 5000 pound boat 400 miles. Had a few small enging problems and a driveshaft recall on it which everybody will have there problems.

 

Over the last 2 months i've done multiple test drives and deep research. My purpose for this was finding a truck that im going to be keeping for the next 7-10 years so reliability and customer service is a big thing for me.

 

2015 Ford F150

 

With there new aluminum body i found a lot of people seem to be having stamping issues with there panels being wavy or smooth and the doors not lining up correctly. Also I see there are a few cases of the paint not holding and flaking off. Ecoboost problems from the intercooler moisture problem, loosing power, hard transmission shifts which every year they seem to disappear a little more with updates from ford. Carbon build up problems on the valves and fords only fix so far is to replace the heads which i find in the long run may be expensive. Can't run a cleaner through it or the carbon chunks may destroy the turbos. I also read there are people experiencing the same vibrations that GM's are plagued with. The problem is related to a weak torque converter mount which is moving and transmitting through the whole truck. Fix for this is replace with a Raptor torque converter as far as my knowledge.

 

All the things I've talked about are obviously all the problems everyone is experiencing and as everyone knows on forums you're only seeing the problems and they are actually not that common. I had an f150 ecoboost and never expierienced any of these problems except a few hard shifts that i maybe had happen 2 times in the 60000 miles i had it.

 

As far as looks and features go on their new trucks i really like the exterior, great lines through the truck there l.e.d. headlights are a great innovation. I enjoyed all the features the truck had except there my ford touch system which seems like you have to punch the screen to get it to work. The interior looks of the truck i didn't care for. Felt cheaply put together the controls on the steering wheel are hard to use because they are so close to the center of the steering wheel, I needed to actually remove my hand from the wheel to be able to reach them but heck, i have kind of small hands i guess i dont know. They did have BLIS, twin panel moon roof, 360 camera which i though gmc's camera was better, there was just too much going on with the camera that may have been intimidating to me, i didn't care for the visibility it offered for $1000 add on. They do have the largest interior cab with crew cab configurations which is very nice and a flad load floor which nobody else has. There key fob was also the best one i've ever held in my hands. A very ergonomical feel to it and push button start. Now overall i liked my 2011 lariat interior more than the new interior. A lot of the materials have been upgraded but then again a lot haven't. Which is like whoa thats really nice...wait what the hell is this cheap plastic s$*&% doing in here. Now I really like the truck, it was very quite to drive smooth ride and the ecoboost has plenty of power but i dont think the mileage is there. The 5.0 felt good but again mileage just not there. The test drives i go on i took all the trucks on the same roads with same speeds. It ended up being just a little over 20 miles with a mix of town back roads and interstate. All test drives included some stomping on the gas. With the EB i averaged 15.6 in the 20 miles, It may perform the best for mileage around 55 but you aren't in the turbos. At normal driving which i always set cruise at 72 the turbos just seem to be always spooling. Driving the 5.0 i averaged 18.2. Which yeah buying a truck why do you care about mileage. I care about mileage, i need a truck but also drive 60 miles a day for work and would like the added benefit and over the next 10 years 2-3 miles per gallon is going to make a difference.

 

2015 Ram 1500

 

I didn't do that much research on the ram. I test drove it once because I felt like I should be giving it a shot. With my test drive experience I hate the design of the exterior i think its ugly. A nice feature was the tailgate locks with the truck with the keyfob. The interior was very nice i though and can customize the dash quite a bit and put displays where you want them but are limited to there settings. But still found no one else offered something similar to the extent you can actually put a gauge on a certain part of the screen. With the fords and gm you can only pick what screens you want on the info screen which you can do in older vehicles. The test drive i averaged 18.7 with the 5.7 it felt good with power and what not but the ride quality was choppy and i found the interior road noise was overwhelming compared to GM and ford. I test drove one with the standard suspension not the air ride. Again not much research with the problems or quality of the truck but didn't care for my overall test drive experience.

 

2015 GMC 1500

 

Now the write up with the silverado and gmc are basically the same. I ended up choosing a Gmc denali with the 6.2l and 8-speed trans. Ended up picking a gmc because the overall finish of the interior was nicer and just came with a few more things.

 

The problems i've found with GM is the widely known vibration issues and bad headlights on gmc's. Hard shifting issues which again have been getting better every year just like fords with software updates. The frames starting to rust at low miles. I know a lot of people with GM's and have read about them too with a lot of complaints with the AFM system. Such as shuddering and always switching from one to another. Also just not performing all that well with mileage. My uncle has an 08 silverado and says he averages around 17 on hwy.

 

My sales guy was very full of information on all these problems. With the vibrations he's seen a lot of different fixes for it. Torque converter, drive shaft replacement, transmission replacement, engine mounts. So its a problem that may be hard to fix at the time and as of now GM has no real fix for the problem. The headlights he told me were bad because they originally programmed a lower voltage or ohm going to them which has been fixed with higher power going to the headlights and a new bulb. The AFM system has been updated and recalibrated in 2014 and has fixed a lot of the issues, but they are still there for some.

 

My test drive experience in these trucks were the best out of any. The exterior i love the looks of the bold front end and the body lines. The interior was the most comfortable and had the best finishing feel to me. The intellilink system with bose and the 8 inch info screen betweet the gauges adds and awesome feel to the truck. Way better sound and customization then the ford with myford and sony, I hate how ford sticks with sony. Spend a lot of time in my truck better have good sound! It did have a lot of things missing from the interior that the f150 had that i liked. When i took it out on my test drive which is the same drive i took the ford and dodge on. First i drove a 6.2 with an 8 speed trans. It shifted perfectly couldn't even tell it felt like it was just in one gear the whole time thats how smooth it was for me. The ride was very smooth just as smooth as a ford. Road noise was kept very low with there triple door seal technology, i felt the ford was just as quite though. Again the same drive as everything else i averaged 20.8 with it. I was completely amazed for this size of engine and truck. It had awesome power and handling though the ford maybe felt better with the handling. Next i took the 5.3l out, my average was only 17.3. Now im not saying i couldn't do better but i did just get out of a 6.2 and i may have gotten into the throttle a little bit more with it. The 6-speed tranny didn't feel as good as the 8-speed either and felt a little sluggish from a full stop and just overall liked the 8 better.

 

Final thoughts

 

As I mentioned before I ended up ordering a gmc 6.2 denali. What ended up making me make my decision was my experience at the dealer and previous owners thoughts. I am a member on the f150forum.com website and honestly ford owners are just so damn cocky and full of themselves with there trucks thinking they are better than everyone else. Some gm guys are the same but doesn't seem as bad. The ford dealer when i brought up any of the problems they refuse all of them and just say we are the best we destroy are competition we have no faults or i haven't heard of that happening. I dealt with 3 different ford sales people and everybody was like this. If you sell a product and dont admit to faults it strickes me as "if it aint broke why fix it" attitude.

 

My gmc sales guy admitted to all the problems and even educated me on a few that i didn't know about. He even brought up a tech/service guy who is there main shop guy and had him tell me about all the "bad" of the truck. This strikes me as hell if i have problems these guys are going to make it right or atleast try there hardest to fix it with me. Although i did like the denali more the an f150 platinum this sales guy just made me have that much more confidence in it telling me all the problems and fixes. Also with a better warranty than ford i felt i had to do it now since gm is dropping to 60000 miles for 2016. Which i might be pushed back to a 2016 since my order wont be placed until 4/21/15 and the 6.2 is hard to get as of now.

 

I wrote this up to help other guys decide on there purchase be it whatever it may be. All trucks are great and this is my personal opinion on what is best. Everybody makes a good engine just depends on what you want and like. If anyone has more to add and educate me a little more on stuff i missed or was just completely wrong about go ahead..you're not going to hurt my feelings.

 

By the way the dealers were both in St. Cloud Minnesota at Tenvoorde Ford and Miller Auto Plaza-GMC.

 

 

[high country]

to much to read, short is better

[Clocked92]

I had very similar experiences to you. I didn't look at the F150 since the new model wasn't out yet when I bought mine and I didn't like the outgoing model.

 

I started with Ram and seriously considered buying one even before I looked at a GMC. I tried dealing with the salesman online at the local Ram dealer and they were very rude. I said I wanted to order a truck to look at and would take it if I liked it, another Ram dealer out of town already offered that. They said no and that they needed a $500 down payment and it had to be done by Friday because that was the last day of orders for the 2014's. I couldn't make it so I said no thanks. They kept emailing trying to entice me to come down but I never did. Then... on monday they called me and asked why I didn't come in on the weekend! I said that they told me the last day to order was Friday so I had no point in going down on Saturday. They quit calling after that.

 

A couple weeks later I was looking at GMC's on a Saturday and the salesman came out to talk to me. He told me all about the truck and that he had just bought one too. He said it had some problems which I knew about already but that the dealership already had some fixes for them. He then threw me the keys to the truck I was looking at and told me to come back whenever. When I came back I told him I'd have to think about it and he was perfectly fine with that.

 

I did go back and test drove a Ram Sport with a different salesman and they actually let me take it for the weekend to drive and test out. It was a nice truck and I always have liked the Ram Sports looks, power and interior. It just rode rough like you mentioned and felt too big for me. The 8-speed dial shifter was hard to get use to as well.

 

The next weekend I walked into the GM dealer and talked to the salesman I had talked with before. I told him the truck I was looking for and the exact options I wanted. We built it on their order system and he said they would actually order it with the rest of their trucks for me to look at before buying it to make sure it was what I wanted. It took about 10 weeks to get there but the day it rolled off the truck, the salesman phoned me up and told me to come take a look. We agreed on a deal the next day and I took it home with 8km on the dial. I basically chose GMC because of the service I received at the dealer. The sales team was very nice and worked to get what I wanted and didn't pressure me into anything. The service department is also very good.

[txchevy4ever]

Always been a GM guy until the bailout. Bought my wife a Ford in 2012 (first Ford). It has 18k miles on it, seat broke, power steering pump broke, transmission had a leak, key fobs were "forgotten", and after all of that, I was done with Ford.

[nards444]

I will never buy Japanese, so its big three for me. I was in a Ford F150 and had a kid on the way. I wanted something with 4 true doors. Built a F150 like the one I just had but with crew cab and it was to much money. At the time GM just came out with the double cab, I get employee pricing so the price was right, I ordered in OCT of 13, truck came in NOV 2013. So far the truck has been a great truck minus about 6 recalls waisting my time, not at much power as my old ford. So for me it was cost, im do for a new truck next year, although nice I think theres better stuff out there and probably wont be back in a GM truck, unless the price swing is a factor again.

[Truckerado]

cause it looks great, drives like a car, gets great MPG, make decent HP/torque & has a fantastic interior, this is why I bought mine over the others.

[SouthernSilveradoGuy85]

I've always been a GM guy, but I still like Ford and Dodge so I'm a "Big 3" guy in general. Ford has the worst interior of the 3 and Ford is pushing the ecoboost too hard. It's not a bad engine, but some people like me are just V8 guys and would prefer a naturally aspirated V8 over a turbo V6. As for Dodge, as far as I know they're transmissions are still junk. My '14 rides like a Cadillac and still does after around 11,500 miles. The only thing I don't like about mine is the axle ratios only being 3.08s and an axle ratio in a truck shouldn't be that high (low #).

[wurgs]

We have some fords and Toyota at work and just like the GMC better overall. The others had some points better than GMC but as an overall package the GMC was better.

I didn't test drive any Rams though

[stevev]

mainly looks and price, and decided to try something different. Before this I had new 04 and 09 F150 crew cabs with no real problems. I don't care for the looks of the new 2015 F150, although my brother has one and he doesn't have any issues with it yet. I have zero interest in the other full-size truck brands.

[BluByU14]

Bought my 2014 and 2015 Sierra's (both had the 6.2L) based on looks, power, quietness and layout of the interiors. Unfortunately I was dealt 2 lemons. GM bought back my 2014 (vibrations) and I traded my 2015 6.2L/8-speed for a 2015 Ram Sport after experiencing the same vibrations, electrical problems, and early 8L90 transmission issues you can read about here: http://www.gm-trucks.com/forums/topic/164949-anyone-with-a-2015-62l-with-the-8-speed-auto/ . I am probably the very small minority here, so I wouldn't worry about your decision to get the Denali. If I could start with a clean slate, the Denali is the truck I would purchase/order. From my understanding, GM has updated the internals on the 8L90 so you should have any issues there. There are a lot of things I miss about my Sierra...quality of the interior materials, looks, and the 420HP/460TQ are the main ones. To answer your question, that is what made me choose the Sierra over the other brands.....initially. I have over 2000 miles on my Ram without any issues. I didnt make to 500 on my Sierras without visiting the dealer. Good luck with the new truck...be sure to post some pics once it comes in.

[Coppertone]

GM Card points

[Ezekiel2517]

Best motor and transmission for reliability and MPG. Otherwise probably would have gone with Toyota for bigger back seat.

[Newell33]

Bought my 2014 and 2015 Sierra's (both had the 6.2L) based on looks, power, quietness and layout of the interiors. Unfortunately I was dealt 2 lemons. GM bought back my 2014 (vibrations) and I traded my 2015 6.2L/8-speed for a 2015 Ram Sport after experiencing the same vibrations, electrical problems, and early 8L90 transmission issues you can read about here: http://www.gm-trucks.com/forums/topic/164949-anyone-with-a-2015-62l-with-the-8-speed-auto/ . I am probably the very small minority here, so I wouldn't worry about your decision to get the Denali. If I could start with a clean slate, the Denali is the truck I would purchase/order. From my understanding, GM has updated the internals on the 8L90 so you should have any issues there. There are a lot of things I miss about my Sierra...quality of the interior materials, looks, and the 420HP/460TQ are the main ones. To answer your question, that is what made me choose the Sierra over the other brands.....initially. I have over 2000 miles on my Ram without any issues. I didnt make to 500 on my Sierras without visiting the dealer. Good luck with the new truck...be sure to post some pics once it comes in.

I just saw a very nice 24 month lease deal on a 2015 Black 1500 Express Ram at my local Dodge dealer. I've actually already contacted them to see what it would take to get out of my 2014 Silverado. I just can't take the horrible transmission tuning any longer. Does your Ram have the 8 speed? After owning both, what do you like about the Ram vs. GM? Does the Ram 8 speed have any shifting issues? Is the engine / trans tuning considerably better than the GM?

 

Thanks!

[88junior]

I had a 2011 F150 with just shy of 50,000 miles on it and it started to develop several little problems. Nothing major, but enough little things to bug me. I wanted to get one of the new '15s but for one equipped like my '11, they wanted 3-5 grand more. Then I checked out the new GMCs while my wife was car shopping. Much nicer than the Ford by a long shot. My first brand new truck was a '95 GMC so getting another from the same dealer was a pretty easy decision. No regrets up to this point and not expecting any either.

[BluByU14]

I just saw a very nice 24 month lease deal on a 2015 Black 1500 Express Ram at my local Dodge dealer. I've actually already contacted them to see what it would take to get out of my 2014 Silverado. I just can't take the horrible transmission tuning any longer. Does your Ram have the 8 speed? After owning both, what do you like about the Ram vs. GM? Does the Ram 8 speed have any shifting issues? Is the engine / trans tuning considerably better than the GM?

 

Thanks!

 

Yes, my Ram has the ZF8HP 8-speed transmission. The transmission shifts are flawless and the tuning is much more "performance oriented" then the 8L90. It holds the gear much better and seems to not jump to the 8th gear as soon as possible, like the GM 8-speed did. There are no bumps, bangs or clunks anywhere in the drivetrain. This transmission has been around several years and is widely used by several manufacturers. All that being said, I clearly got a GM 8-speed unit that was clearly not ready for production in late-2014. From my understanding, the 8L90's being produced from mid-January on, dont have the issues that I had (random shifts, clunks, bangs, and shudders from a stop). After pleading with my dealer and GM, who refused to replace my original transmission, i threw in towel for a different brand of truck. It was just unbearable to drive. Overall the Ram just feels more "alive" than my Sierra did. While I did have the 6.2L, you would really have to put your foot into get it to go....around town and everyday driving the Ram feels night and day better than my Sierra did. As I stated before, there are things I miss about my Sierra, but am overall very happy with the Ram. If I had just waited 2 months to order my Sierra 6.2L/8-speed, I would most likely still have it and would have never thought about getting a non-GM truck. I am not hear to bad mouth the GM trucks, most of them are really good trucks. I just had bad luck with 2 of them and had to make a switch.