I didn’t intend on this thread becoming so adversarial , but that being said, it has been informative and I appreciate the feedback. I certainly wasn’t advocating one product over the other. I love both trucks. I was simply pointing out there are opportunity costs with both.
The Ram has very few of these opportunity costs and competes favorably compared to the gas equivalent GM’s, which was why I was days from ordering. Like I said...gas vs. gas, it’s hard to deny the Ram is a better all around product. However, when I randomly drove the newly introduced Duramax it introduced a new variable that wasn’t there when I started looking at trucks. The same conviction I have in saying that the Ram’s interior design and materials are superior to GM, I likewise have saying the Duramax is superior to the EcoDiesel.
What am I going to use the truck for? Great question. I’m not a contractor so it would not be “heavy duty” stuff. It will probably be in line with many light truck owners. I am a home owner who frequently does landscape DIY projects. My wife is an interior designer who carries large samples of construction materials that scratch up her Explorer, so I’d love her to use the truck instead for those endeavors. We live in a snow state at 4500’ MSL and we have a boat (6000 lbs) that we tow down to the lake (30 miles or so away) about 10-12 times a year and we tow it once a year down to Lake Powell about 400 miles away. Have a couple motorcycles that I would want to throw in the bed as well. I average around 10-12k miles a year, and plan on keeping whatever I buy “to the wheels fall off”
I’ve always been a performance car guy, so I’ll admit it’s a bit foreign to me to see the the Powertrain of a vehicle so readily dismissed. Again, I didn’t say that the Ram’s is bad, just that the comparable product from GM does have added value to me. That Duramax made me giggle. That Ram interior made me giggle. It’s about value to me. Gas vs. Gas? Zero comparison in my eyes where the better value and better cumulative product is...It’s Ram. However, if you place substantial value on the refinement, performance, and smoothness of the powertrain, than that curve begins to slide a little. Enough to sway most members of this forum away from the Ram? Probably not. Enough to sway me? Honestly....probably not, but I wanted to introduce the debate and get some opinions.
What’s interesting is this all might be moot for me, because I am finding that GM dealers are not nearly as aggressive price wise as Ram dealers. I just assumed that if a Ram dealer was able to give a 10-13% true dealer discount, then a GM dealer would follow suit. Not the case at all. I am seeing an average of 5% off sticker for most Chevy/GMC trucks, and because of inventory limitations, they aren’t that flexible.
Do I like the Duramax enough to potentially offset the inferior interior (say that 10 times fast) of the GM? Maybe. That’s why I started this thread. Do I like it enough to offset the inferior interior of the GM AND an extra $3-4K? Probably not.
