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im not brand loyal at all. ive had two gm products an 01 impala that i bought used in college and an 07 yukon we bought for my wife in 2010, both were good vehicles other than the cheap, plasticy rattle prone interiors. the reason i didnt go gm was because of the tiny rear seat, lack of features at the same price point as ford, and marginal crash test rating on the crew cab. i also would have had to go gmc, as the silverado front end is butt ugly and the gmcs were higher priced.
i bought a brand new jeep grand cherokee limited in 2012 after i got my first good paying job, loved the car at first, it looked good and the interior was still one of the nicest ive ever sat in, but the damn thing couldnt stay out of the shop for more than 2 weeks at a time. the powertrain was good, but it was an electrical nightmare. i eventually got tired of it and traded it for a new 2013 honda pilot exl. i swore off fca after this, not just because of the unreliability, but fcas attitude toward the situation. i didnt bother looking at a ram because of this. i do like the interior on the 2019, but i liked the interior on my gc too and you see how that worked out.
then comes honda, i absolutely love them. ive had everything from $1200 200,000 mile beater civics as a teen, to brand $40000+ honda suvs and my wife currently drives a 2016 acura. ive never had to do anything more than routine maintenance on any of them. if they made a full size truck, id have one.
ive only owned 1 other full size truck and it was an 08 f150 xlt screw with the 5.4, i bought it cpo in 2010 with 25000 miles on it, kept it 2 years and traded it for the jeep lemon. it was a pretty good truck, it left me on the side of the road once, but ford came and towed it and had it running again in 2 hours. i dont even remember what the issue was, but it was something small obviously and covered under the warranty. i put 50,000 miles on it in those two years with no other problems, it did have a plasticy interior that rattled much like my gm products of the same vintage. i went ford again because of the options, the rear seat room and flat floor, good crash test ratings and i like the way they look.
i looked at a tundra crewmax, didnt go that route because of marginal crash ratings, thirsty 5.7, and lack of features.
My first Ford was a 1966 F-100 with a 240 straight six and "three on the tree" and no radio. I was originally my grand dad's farm truck. I still kick myself for getting rid of it. My next truck was a 1990 Chevy extended cab. I owned it for 13 years and loved it. I sold it and got a 2003 F-150 XLT Screw 4X4 because I really liked the Ford body style better than the Chevys. I drove it for 10 years and traded it in on a 2013 XLT Screw 4X4. Drove that one 5 years before I traded it in on my current one, a 2017 King Ranch. I really enjoyed all of the Fords that I have owned. The main reason that I drive Fords is because in the 15 years, and about 250K miles between them, that I owned my 3 Fords, I have only had to make two visits for repairs other than normal maintenance. One was for a seat cover replacement on the '03 and the other was to replace a blend door actuator on my current one. Both were warranty items.
I don't have anything against GM products because my wife's last three vehicles have been GMs. She currently drives a '16 Yukon. We do seam to have had more issues with the GMs though.
Heck, I still own one Chevy truck!!
Have been a Ford man all of my life so far. I sometimes think that I may bleed Ford blue... My dad worked for a Ford dealer for 42 years before he pasted away in 2005. I've been working at a Ford dealer for over 30 years now and don"t need to change. Yes,Ford products can't cost more to upgrade as far as performance but I'll do it.
I had a 2007 Honda Ridgeline RTL that I planned on keeping for several more years. All I ever had to do with it was standard maintenance and I loved the AWD on that thing in the winter. We had a kid and the only way to fit the child seat in the back was for my wife to put her seat all the way forward which put her knees in the dash. Since Honda doesn't make a full size, I was left to look at the others. Everyone I know that has had Chevy/GM has had problems, and their trucks are just ugly to me. Ram didn't seem to have near the reliability that I had with Honda. My grandpa always had F150s down on the farm, so I always grew up liking the look of them. Ultimately though, the large backseat was what we needed for the child seat. I bought a '15 Screw 145" 3.5L eco XLT with 23k miles on it a month ago. I love driving it and I'm getting 2-3 mpg better than I was getting in the Ridgeline, even though the new truck is much bigger. The green gem metallic turns a lot of heads as well since it is in uncommon color in my area.
Been wrenching all my life 35+ years now and still counting, 11 working as a Ford dealer line tech. Made less money fixing Fords than I did everything else, yeah even working at Ford. They just don't break down as often as the others and when they do, I know how to fix them. Was an easy decision for me. A little more expensive but a lot better quality than the others.
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I had a 2007 Honda Ridgeline RTL that I planned on keeping for several more years. All I ever had to do with it was standard maintenance and I loved the AWD on that thing in the winter. We had a kid and the only way to fit the child seat in the back was for my wife to put her seat all the way forward which put her knees in the dash. Since Honda doesn't make a full size, I was left to look at the others. Everyone I know that has had Chevy/GM has had problems, and their trucks are just ugly to me. Ram didn't seem to have near the reliability that I had with Honda. My grandpa always had F150s down on the farm, so I always grew up liking the look of them. Ultimately though, the large backseat was what we needed for the child seat. I bought a '15 Screw 145" 3.5L eco XLT with 23k miles on it a month ago. I love driving it and I'm getting 2-3 mpg better than I was getting in the Ridgeline, even though the new truck is much bigger. The green gem metallic turns a lot of heads as well since it is in uncommon color in my area.
It really surprises me you didn't have enough room for an infant seat in the Ridgeline. I had in infant seat in the rear of my Frontier for a year and I only had to move the passenger seat to about the middle of it's track, which still left plenty of legroom for my 5'5" wife. And the Ridgeline has more rear legroom than the Frontier does in the second row.
04-04-2018, 10:57 AM
