silver billet
Spends too much time on here
- Joined
- Apr 18, 2019
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... "and now my watch begins" 
Currently driving a 2012 Jeep GC Laredo. It's been an awesome, flawless little Jeep over the entire 5 years that I've owned it. I'm at 150,000KM on the gauge, and only put $85 CAD (so, really, like 2 bucks American!) into the Jeep that I shouldn't have (beyond scheduled maintenance) for a brake pedal sensor. Reason I'm getting rid of it is that it just doesn't have enough grunt to pull what I hope to start pulling (travel trailer). I didn't even have factory tow package, so I was stuck to 3500 pounds max and that just wasn't going to cut it. The 3.6 does not do well with the Mercedes 5 speed anyway at the best of time, it's always lugging it's butt, the 2014+ is much better due to the 8 speed tranny.
Anyway. The Ford's are beyond moldy and stale so I didn't even look at them. I crossed shopped the Ram with the new GM twins (which I really like in higher trims), but those guys are nuts to be honest. Dealer quoted me $53,000 CAD for a GMC work truck with black bumpers, vinyl floors and no features beyond X31 offroad package + brake controller. They might wiggle down a bit, but I got a nicely optioned-up Big Horn in billet mettallic for a couple thousand less than that; stuff that my Ram has that the GMC didn't; power pedals, level 1 + level 2 stuff like remote start, heated seats, heated steering wheel, bedliner, park assist etc etc. I did ask them to quote an SLE which is much nicer than the plain work truck, but monthly payments (even at 0.9%) were going to be $100/month higher than my RAM (at 4.x %), still with some less features and a smaller engine (5.3). And the 2 trucks I test drove each had a tranny clunk or shake; the work truck when sticking it into reverse, and the SLE when it was messing around at country road speeds and it was dropping cylinders to reduce mpg. <-- nice feature, and might have been just my test truck, but it wasn't always that smooth. Combine that with a rear window leak that is prominent on certain trucks (rear slider window is cracked, some guys are left with moldy interiors and working with incompetent dealers, but up here in Canada we don't have any lemon laws) and I just didn't want to go there.
And GM does some really "bad for business" things. A) You don't get 4x4 low transfer case even on a "4x4" truck anymore. You need to get the offroad package (z71 for chevy, or x31 for gmc) to get 4x4 low. B) You can't get the 6.2 liter engine + 10 speed tranny unless you empty your wallet for the highest trims. That turned me off something fierce, and instead of them driving me into an even higher trim truck I just said "too bad, I'll go Ram instead". GM needs to stop that monkey business like yesterday.
So, I do like the GM twins for the most part, and perhaps next time, but so far I'm stoked with this Ram and it was by far the best value (what do you get for the money you spend).
Currently driving a 2012 Jeep GC Laredo. It's been an awesome, flawless little Jeep over the entire 5 years that I've owned it. I'm at 150,000KM on the gauge, and only put $85 CAD (so, really, like 2 bucks American!) into the Jeep that I shouldn't have (beyond scheduled maintenance) for a brake pedal sensor. Reason I'm getting rid of it is that it just doesn't have enough grunt to pull what I hope to start pulling (travel trailer). I didn't even have factory tow package, so I was stuck to 3500 pounds max and that just wasn't going to cut it. The 3.6 does not do well with the Mercedes 5 speed anyway at the best of time, it's always lugging it's butt, the 2014+ is much better due to the 8 speed tranny.
Anyway. The Ford's are beyond moldy and stale so I didn't even look at them. I crossed shopped the Ram with the new GM twins (which I really like in higher trims), but those guys are nuts to be honest. Dealer quoted me $53,000 CAD for a GMC work truck with black bumpers, vinyl floors and no features beyond X31 offroad package + brake controller. They might wiggle down a bit, but I got a nicely optioned-up Big Horn in billet mettallic for a couple thousand less than that; stuff that my Ram has that the GMC didn't; power pedals, level 1 + level 2 stuff like remote start, heated seats, heated steering wheel, bedliner, park assist etc etc. I did ask them to quote an SLE which is much nicer than the plain work truck, but monthly payments (even at 0.9%) were going to be $100/month higher than my RAM (at 4.x %), still with some less features and a smaller engine (5.3). And the 2 trucks I test drove each had a tranny clunk or shake; the work truck when sticking it into reverse, and the SLE when it was messing around at country road speeds and it was dropping cylinders to reduce mpg. <-- nice feature, and might have been just my test truck, but it wasn't always that smooth. Combine that with a rear window leak that is prominent on certain trucks (rear slider window is cracked, some guys are left with moldy interiors and working with incompetent dealers, but up here in Canada we don't have any lemon laws) and I just didn't want to go there.
And GM does some really "bad for business" things. A) You don't get 4x4 low transfer case even on a "4x4" truck anymore. You need to get the offroad package (z71 for chevy, or x31 for gmc) to get 4x4 low. B) You can't get the 6.2 liter engine + 10 speed tranny unless you empty your wallet for the highest trims. That turned me off something fierce, and instead of them driving me into an even higher trim truck I just said "too bad, I'll go Ram instead". GM needs to stop that monkey business like yesterday.
So, I do like the GM twins for the most part, and perhaps next time, but so far I'm stoked with this Ram and it was by far the best value (what do you get for the money you spend).
