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Thank you all for your advice. I will definitely look into the Colorado and the 1500's. How are Dodge trucks, reliability wise, though? I was going to buy a minivan in 2009 when our family was starting to grow, and the Grand Caravans seemed absolutely terrible for drivetrains. That is a long time ago, though, so maybe they have fixed that issue.
Go test drive a RAM crew cab base model with the V-6.
Another vote for the Chevy Colorado here, it's a great looking truck. My friend has one, and he and his wife and two gradeschool-age girls love it. My city's Park and Rec now uses them too.
And now it comes with a Duramax turbo-diesel engine. I've been driving a new Grand Cherokee with the turbo-diesel for 3 years now and just love the car, especially the engine. I can get great MPGs, over 30 if not driven aggressively, and it has excellent towing and range. I do not have anything to tow, but can pull a lot with a U-Haul trailer when needed. I have towed my wife's car on what U-Haul calls their auto transport (all 4 wheels of the car off the road), up and over my local Santa Cruz Mountains, and my Jeep barely breathed hard. It was amazing. And, I have gone as far as 835 miles on a tankful, on a long highway road trip. I regularly get 550 miles on a tank.
Today's diesels are much quieter and do not smoke like the older diesels used to. ULSD is our friend, ultra-low sulfur diesel fuel, available nationwide. And with an app like Gas Buddy it is easy now to find the diesel stations in unfamiliar towns.
If I didn't love my Jeep so much I would seriously consider the Chevy Colorado with the Duramax diesel engine.
Oh and the Tacoma, by the way, although a strong stalwart over the years, has had some recent dings to its reliability reputation. If the OP is considering the Taco, look into that.
I spent years studying pick ups and ultimately selected a RAM. Here are my reasons:
1. Best comfort/room front and back.
2. reasonable storage options. Most pick up have no storage and that can be a nightmare. RAM has secret compartments all over the place, a great console, ect (I also get the RAMbox). Tons of storage. To me, storage is a huge huge issue. I carry tools, tow straps, lights, jack, boots, sometimes a hard hat, coat, mat for lying/kneeling ont he ground, spare gloves, hand warmers, snacks, sometimes a couple of dozen bottles of beer, sometimes throwing axes/knives. . . . all kinds of different things. With most trucks, you either end up with all that junk rattling around in the back seat, or you have to buy a storage box that eats up your bed space. Having 5 storage areas in/under/behind the back seats, the huge double console, double glove boxes, and the optional ram boxes, I have nothing rattling around int he back seat except people or dogs.
3. "Hemi" engine. This is not really a hemi, hemis are out of date and not likely to reappear ever. However it is a powerful engine and it is really fun once in a while to toast off a mustang, or especially some of the little boy racer cars kids get so cocky about. (Kinda embarrassing to be toasted by a pick up truck - (well kinda embarrassing to still be playing with boy racers at my age, but sorry, it is fun). It is neat to have a pick up that is still fin to drive.
4. Looks. Yes looks really do matter. I get tired of that argument. Looks matter for people and looks matter for pickup trucks, even if pick up trucks are all basically ugly. It is hard to argue the Ram is not the best looking of the bunch.
5. Ride. When I test drove Ford, Ram and Chevy 1/2 tons, Dodge had the best ride - significantly. Still it is capable off road too. I do not know which one is most capable off road, but I can tell you my dodge does fine.
6. Cargo management system. This is just another cool feature available. Yes, you can probably buy the same thing aftermarket for the other trucks, but it is nice to have something designed into the truck that will fit look great, work great. It is worth checking out. It is incredibly useful until you forget to lock it and someone steals it. Basically it is a grate that can be locked into different places in the bed to compartmentalize the bed, or it can be installed with the tailgate down to extend the bed. When not in use, it locks against the back of the cab.
7. Not aluminium.
8. Very comfortable. Although all of the trucks were pretty comfortable, I liked Dodge the best. I found the Ridgeline too cramped for me. I am tall, big and do not bend well.
9. Stereo sound. They all had good sound systems available. To y surprise I thought the Kenwood (dodge) sounded better than the Bose (chevy). My past experience with Bose was that is was by far the best, better than almost all after market installations because they design the car to match the system and vice versa. The dodge one has speakers all over and a subwoofer and amp under one of the back seats and sounds great at high volume. Less so great but still decent at lower volume.
10. Bench seats. I think when I looked bench seats were available in all brands except maybe Honda, but they were not very good. I found the Dodge bench seats to be more practical, more comfortable and the double fold down console is great (eve thought the latches broke almost right away).
Here is where Dodge fell short:
Dodge Disease. When Chrysler vehicles get higher mileage (eg. 100,000 plus), they get Dodge disease. Little things break constantly. Much more than other brands it seems. To me, it is the price you pay for all the cool ideas. The develop wonderful ideas and then execute them poorly. Still they are better ideas to begin with. Worth it to me.
repair and maintenance difficulty. Here is where the Dodge engineers step in their own poo. They just do not think about how you get things apart to replace them, even for things that will unquestionably need replacement, and they have a lot of unnecessarily expensive things. Examples: Replace headlight bulbs s involved removing the entire grill and a much of other stuff. Many of the fasteners are cheap plastic things that are definitely going to break after being removed and replaced a dozen or so times. Another example 16 irridium spark plugs. A tune up takes all day and costs a fortune. Another example, toe replace the rear shocks (should be 1/2 hour job), the intended procedure is to remove the entire pick up bed to get to the top bolt. If you cut a wrench in about 1/3 and contort your body a great deal, you can get it out and in without removing the bed (but you cannot torque the bolt). If you count buying the wrench and cutting it off, it became an all day job for me.
Radio/computer. The Dodge system sucks. Its VR is lousy. The functions are limited and nothing works very well. However if you have a smart phone, you are likely to use that anyway.
The hood is plastic or fiberglass and wiggles when you drive at high speeds. It does not seem to hurt anything, but it is disconcerting. In fact, too much of the exterior parts are plastic. Sooner or later you will encounter a branch, rock, log, foot excessively exuberant mechanic who over tightens something, etc, and parts are going to get broken. I just mark it off to Dodge disease and go search junk yards for replacement parts. Sadly, most of the trucks in junk yards already have broken parts for the parts that tend to break
This is probably true with all vehicles, but think twice about fancy extras. I have remove start on my key fob thingy. From the dealer replacement key fobs are $178 plus $52 for programming, plus tax. I found some online for $65 (plus $52 for dealer programming) but that is still costly. My rear view outside mirrors have built in turn signals, built in heaters and automatically adjust tinting for bright lights, electric positioning (like most vehicles) and fold in for parking or car washes etc. One broke. It costs about $1200 to replace it because of all the fancy stuff built into it. So, I just drive with a cracked mirror. My seats are 6 way electric with lumbar adjustment "leather (meaning vinyl with leather inserts), heated. A small part of the "leather (vinyl) delminated. and the seat heater stooped working. Dealer repair costs are about $1000. I will look for an entire seat in a junk yard and just replace the whole thing, but I am not sure it will save me all that much.
By the way the "leather" seats are mostly vinyl and are not very good quality.
I did not mention Toyota because I did not like their truck at all and quickly eliminated it. I really wanted to like the Honda, but it also became a non-contender pretty early in my search. Really the closest second was the avalanche even though that is not really a truck. There was still a lot I liked about ti, but they do not make them anymore.
Last edited by Coldjensens; 01-05-2017 at 10:51 AM..
I was out at the GMC, Chevy and Ford dealerships today, but didnt manage to get around to the others yet. I actually liked the F-150 more than I thought that I would, but the guy was super pushy on a Raptor, and their leasing deals werent nearly as good as the ones over at Chevy. The Colorado was nice, but I just dont think that the amount of room with the backseats is enough for comfortable trips with the family. The Silverado, though, was nice, so I think that I am leaning that way, to be honest.
Just for clarification, since many people have brought it up: It isnt that I want a truck without towing, etc, just that I dont need it. When I discussed trucks with the guys at work, they start arguing over towing capacities, the ability to offroad, etc. So I was simply pointing out that this was uninteresting for me in the sense that it could tow 10 tons, and it wont matter. Work arguments over one being able to pull 800 pounds more than the other, which is better if you have such and such boat, etc, doesnt apply at all, and isnt of value for me. I was just trying to eliminate variables for the discussion.
Thanks again for all of your help. Hopefully I can make it out to the Dodge and Toyota dealerships on Saturday.
I spent years studying pick ups and ultimately selected a RAM. Here are my reasons:
3. "Hemi" engine. This is not really a hemi, hemis are out of date and not likely to reappear ever. However it is a powerful engine and it is really fun once in a while to toast off a mustang, or especially some of the little boy racer cars kids get so cocky about. (Kinda embarrassing to be toasted by a pick up truck - (well kinda embarrassing to still be playing with boy racers at my age, but sorry, it is fun). It is neat to have a pick up that is still fin to drive.
9. Stereo sound. They all had good sound systems available. To y surprise I thought the Kenwood (dodge) sounded better than the Bose (chevy). My past experience with Bose was that is was by far the best, better than almost all after market installations because they design the car to match the system and vice versa. The dodge one has speakers all over and a subwoofer and amp under one of the back seats and sounds great at high volume. Less so great but still decent at lower volume.
Here is where Dodge fell short:
repair and maintenance difficulty. Another example 16 irridium spark plugs. A tune up takes all day and costs a fortune.
Radio/computer. The Dodge system sucks. Its VR is lousy. The functions are limited and nothing works very well. However if you have a smart phone, you are likely to use that anyway.
I'll give you the bit on the Hemi, it's not a true one. That said, you are definitely right on spanking around kids - I have the V8 in my Jeep and while it's not a speed demon by any means, it is fun on occasion to keep a kid from passing me when he's screwing around. Had a kid in a Veloster floor it and try to pass me on a shoulder. Nope. And I didn't even have to break the speed limit to keep him behind me - I just got up to speed a hell of a lot faster than he could.
The newer engines come with 100K plugs now instead of needing to change them every 30K or so. I didn't buy a V8 until they changed out that requirement.
I am surprised at the stereo comment. The 8.4" UConnect systems are consistently rated as the easiest to use out there. Fords Sync system is complete crap and I had a Chevy rental with their new system - also horrible beyond description. Pair the 8.4" it with the Alpine speakers and it sounds pretty decent for what it is. The downside of course is you cannot replace that head unit with an aftermarket one - ever. If it dies, you have to use the same model from Chrysler. So much is tied into the system within the car it's not even funny and you lose almost all interior functions if something goes wrong. That's the case on most newer systems though, not just Dodge. Ford is the worst in that regard.
There is a fix, but GM wont acknowledge it, or fix it unless you pay for it. My dealer has replaced several axle assemblies with the Yukon/Tahoe assembly and the problem is gone, but GM wont pay for it.
I'll give you the bit on the Hemi, it's not a true one. That said, you are definitely right on spanking around kids - I have the V8 in my Jeep and while it's not a speed demon by any means, it is fun on occasion to keep a kid from passing me when he's screwing around. Had a kid in a Veloster floor it and try to pass me on a shoulder. Nope. And I didn't even have to break the speed limit to keep him behind me - I just got up to speed a hell of a lot faster than he could.
The newer engines come with 100K plugs now instead of needing to change them every 30K or so. I didn't buy a V8 until they changed out that requirement.
I am surprised at the stereo comment. The 8.4" UConnect systems are consistently rated as the easiest to use out there. Fords Sync system is complete crap and I had a Chevy rental with their new system - also horrible beyond description. Pair the 8.4" it with the Alpine speakers and it sounds pretty decent for what it is. The downside of course is you cannot replace that head unit with an aftermarket one - ever. If it dies, you have to use the same model from Chrysler. So much is tied into the system within the car it's not even funny and you lose almost all interior functions if something goes wrong. That's the case on most newer systems though, not just Dodge. Ford is the worst in that regard.
The problem with the 100K plugs is they do not last 100K. Mine were done at 80K. A $400 maintenance item at 80K miles is not that big a deal by itself. However that is just an example. There is no reason for the double plugs really. It adds next to nothing. Supposedly it is more efficient in theory. Oh boy, now I can get 14.8 Mpg instead of 14.5. The other problem is they did not think about getting them in and out on a big picture basis. Some of them are next to impossible to get to.
I dod nto know the Ford system well, just played with it a bit while test driving. However the UConnect system is terrible. The funny thing is it defaults to calling a towing service. Apparently the programmers had a low expectation of Dodge. "Call Mom" "Do you want to call a towing service? ok" The blue tooth connection to my cell phone keeps disappearing and I have to go through eh sync process over and over again. It will last a few days, and then my phone just drops off the list and is gone. There are way too many windows to click through to change from one function to another and it is sometimes dangerous to try to change something while driving. My biggest beef is the necessity to continually adjust the screen brightness while driving. It has an automatic function, but it seems to work backwards. It makes the screen blinding bright at night, and so dim it cannot be seen in daylight glare.
It is not critical that Uconnect does not work well, because it does not do much. For what it does, the whole thing could be massively simplified, or as complicated as it is, it should do a whole lot more.
Oh and the map/navigation function is pretty worthless - just use your phone.
Funny thing is the drive-train has been very reliable. It has not left me stranded ever. The only problem I have had drive train wise is a recall due to a defective pinon nut that comes loose and destroys the rear end (free rebuilt - yay!); and a weird problem with the 4x4 system when I go through a car wash. It gets stuck in 4x4 low and the transmission gets stuck in click to shift mode (for towing). the solution is a complicated process where you put it in neutral, push a button, turn a knob, turn the car off, put it in park, start it up again, push a button, turn a knob, get out and run around the truck three times chanting "Ram Tough" turn it off and restart it and the problem goes away. (only slightly exaggerated, but it works, every time). There is also the broken off exhaust manifold bolts that are impossible to get at, but, although it is an engine thing, I do not consider it a drive train problem. It is easy enough to simply ignore (or pay a dealer $1000 to fix). It just adds a little more noise.
I am at about 120,000 miles now and I have beat the heck out of the truck (off road, over loading, towing hauling heavy stuff at high speeds, etc). Other than Dodge Disease problems, it has been a trooper.
There is a fix, but GM wont acknowledge it, or fix it unless you pay for it. My dealer has replaced several axle assemblies with the Yukon/Tahoe assembly and the problem is gone, but GM wont pay for it.
What a crock to have to deal with. You would think its a recipe for a class action suit.
What a crock to have to deal with. You would think its a recipe for a class action suit.
Yeah that info about Chevy Shake doesn't sound good. I wonder what percentage are affected...If there is a legitimate issue with parts, supplier, etc.
Chevy should own up to it if like I said it is their issue.
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