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Fleet buyers always love Ford and Chevy trucks and SUVs. The manufacturers, working through the government purchase contracts, practically give them away if you buy enough of them.
They go only by price. The bid goes out. Whomever has lowest bid wins. Has nothing to do with brand.
When I represented a lot of construction contractors, many of them tracked cost data on their employee trucks. Not only purchase price, but repair costs maintenance etc. Most ended up with F series fords as being the most cost effective over 5-10 years. Some bought Chevy for their project managers, because the PMs liked them more, but their cost was a bit higher. The PM truck usually does not get as tough a workout.
The Chevy trucks were durable, just everything cost more including the initial purchase. F series were overall the most cost effective. One guy tried Toyota's but it was a disaster. RAM was also a disaster
This was quite a while ago. I know RAM has improved substantially since then, but they still have a lot of QC issues. Their big advantage is incredibly well thought out convenience items (like storage compartments). Unfortunately these great ideas are not always well executed. I have a RAM truck because i want the convenience items. I tolerate the greater frequency of problems and incredibly stupid repair/access issues (they all have some of this, my RAM seems to have more than others) because, to me, the convenience items are worth the hassle and cost of the design/execution problems.
My truck is nine years old, I just dropped it off because it suddenly has no oil pressure, and they said it has four new recalls since the last time I bought it in (December 2016). That seems a lot to me (not to mention the little issue of suddenly having zero oil pressure, however my point is not that issue but the fact it has 4 new recall issues nine years after production, and there were a couple or three major recall issues before that.
Location: San Ramon, Seattle, Anchorage, Reykjavik
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Quote:
Originally Posted by unit731
They go only by price. The bid goes out. Whomever has lowest bid wins. Has nothing to do with brand.
Yep - and Chevy and Ford practically give them away if your order is big enough. I spent 6 months in fleet sales at GM in the early 1990s. It was eye opening.
Location: San Ramon, Seattle, Anchorage, Reykjavik
2,254 posts, read 2,735,540 times
Reputation: 3203
Quote:
Originally Posted by Nlambert
What do you consider real work?
Buying as Class 5 and 6 isn't really all that reasonable or feasible for someone who isn't hauling over the road. Those trucks also have their shortcomings. It all depends on what you intend to do with the truck. If you need to haul 10-15k lbs a Class 5 or 6 is really overkill for that purpose. A 1 ton truck will do that job and then go to the grocery store on Sunday.
I was responding to the OP, although as usual the discussion quickly got off track. Hauling significant amounts of granite or heavy plywood is a medium duty truck forte.
Yep - and Chevy and Ford practically give them away if your order is big enough. I spent 6 months in fleet sales at GM in the early 1990s. It was eye opening.
I was recently surprised to see how little they are discounted at least for us. I recently reviewed a contract to purchase 30 Canyon pick ups. They were discounted but not by all that much. Maybe a few thousand less than you could negotiate at a dealer - maybe. I was expecting half price or 30% off, not two or three thousand.
I was recently surprised to see how little they are discounted at least for us. I recently reviewed a contract to purchase 30 Canyon pick ups. They were discounted but not by all that much. Maybe a few thousand less than you could negotiate at a dealer - maybe. I was expecting half price or 30% off, not two or three thousand.
Government contracts are where the big discounts are, especially the federal one. The neat thing is that municipalities, counties and states can tie on to them, even though most states also have procurement contracts. We're talking 35% off list, sometimes more.
What is the best brand of truck for "super-duty" work? I'm talking about something above a Ford F150. Will be for moving extremely heavy granite and quartz countertops for houses, which can weigh as much as 25 lbs per square foot. Or PSL (parallel strand lumber) which is very heavy also.
I hear the Ford F250/350 and the Chevy 2500/3500 and the Ram 2500/3500 are not really that reliable. Being "tough" and reliable are 2 different things. A neighbor here had a Ram Diesel that he bought brand new and spent so much time at the dealership that he traded it in for a Chevy Tahoe instead. I've heard super duty Ford/Chevy/Ram trucks having problems with their electrical system, alternators going bad, disc brake problems, cooling system issues, etc.
It's too bad a "super-duty" work truck is this unreliable. Meanwhile, people are hauling stuff way over the limit on their Honda CRVs and Civics and they keep going to 200k miles.
Ford, GM and Chrysler have to count on the segment of the population that are gullible to remain in business, otherwise no one would buy their crappy products.
I have been driving the same Honda for 23 years. I keep driving it because it never breaks down.
I was surprised at used pricing on trucks like this, I think dealers/ sellers have forgotten that all vehicles, even trucks, loose a large part of their value when they are first driven off the lot! I saw lots of trucks a year or two old that were pretty darn close to brand new truck prices!
I had one salesman tell me they could never sell a year old truck with low miles for half the price of new, he said no one would buy new if they did this!
Ford, GM and Chrysler have to count on the segment of the population that are gullible to remain in business, otherwise no one would buy their crappy products.
I have been driving the same Honda for 23 years. I keep driving it because it never breaks down.
So you have a 23 year old Honda Super Duty lol?
You have no idea what quality of vehicles are out there because you’ve been driving the same car for 23 years.
Honda’s been on a lame streak lately. Their trucks are terrible, nobody is buying their cars anymore, they have no high performance version of anything, and even their hybrids are poor sellers. They’ve fallen behind in every category except CUV’s and minivans.
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