New England B.S. Thread

I'm super indecisive too... That's why I never let go of vehicles. I just add more

I've been kicking around trading the STi for a Mustang GT... The V8 noises make my underwear tingle

 

The Titan XD 5.0 Cummins and the 5.6 gas model got similar fuel economy. The diesel did a little better, but it wasn't night and day like it is with most other vehicles. The half ton diesels are pushing upper 20's for fuel economy, the 3/4 ton diesels are hanging right around 20 MPG and the 5.0 Cummins was 18ish (all unloaded). The 5.6 gas wasn't doing much worse and it had the 7 speed to help it out. The Titan XD had the Aisin tranny which didn't help things, there were a lot of complaints about it as well where as the 7 speed in the gasser was smooth and seemed to do really well.

I think Jethro had it right, GM's are shit. The cylinder deactivation isn't a good thing for the 5.3 engine also.

Can't refute that, although the new GM HD trucks got absolutely throttled with the ugly stick. They be U-G-L-Y! The Duramax and Alison combo is solid though. I tease my dad about his but, in reality, they're good trucks. He keeps saying how well his tows, I keep telling him he should have bought a Ford so he could have had all the power (since GM seems to be the bottom of the pile for HP and Torque). The coating GM uses on the frames is complete and utter dog shit though and has been for a long time.

 

[QUOTE="Pugga, post: 24395776, member: 39131"

I think Jethro had it right, GM's are shit. The cylinder deactivation isn't a good thing for the 5.3 engine also.

[/QUOTE]

I don't really think the cyl. deactivation is a problem. You are the only one I have heard of with problems regarding that, and you are only assuming that is what killed your uncles Tahoe motor prematurely. But maybe? That certainly isn't a known problem like these transmissions.

 

One of my tech's parents have a newer (2018 I think) GMC 3500 DCLB dually. With 56k, the trans did what most GM products do, it replaced any forward or reverse gears with neutrals. The people who are still devoted to GM products blow my mind. How can you pay THAT much for products with such a long running history for piss-poor reliability? I suppose the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, expecting a different outcome.

I'm actually kinda interested in the 3.3L powerstroke. I want to road test one of those. I would never get a half ton truck, but I just want to let Ford know that they should keep building them lol.

 

MUST BE NICE. Adding vehicles in RI is ridiculous.
MV Tax based on the NADA CLEAN value, minus 2k in my town. So even if it's a 15 year old new england rust bucket, NADA Clean says it's worth 10k so we get to pay tax on 10-2=8k in value. I traded in my mazda for 3.5k (I regret trading it in now, should have just kept it!) and was paying taxes on it being worth about 7 or 8 I think.

And insurance. I had a normal mazda 3, my wife has a normal '15 camry, for the two of us it's 200/mo give or take a few bucks. Let alone if I got a BRZ or something.

55/2 years for inspection. Registration I can't remember off the cuff it's about 100/year I think.

Everyone who calls it "Taxachusetts" has no idea - RI is concentrated Mass. Talk funnier, drive worse, taxes are worse. Our houses are cheaper though, probably because our schools are shit. I don't have kids though so

Forgot about that. I'm very much so not a fan of it, I know it was way worse when it started, the newer setups aren't as bad but still gives me the heebies.

 

To be fair to my old man, so much of it comes down to personal past experience. He had Fords for a long time, but owned them when they weren’t at their greatest... he had a Bronco, which was cool but a fuel pig, a 150 with the 5.4 (which actually did pretty well), a 250 with the 5.4 which was a complete dog, a 7.3 diesel which he actually had really bad luck with, damn thing wouldn’t stay running. It was then that he switched to the GM lineup and the Duramax. He’s had pretty good luck with the 3/4 tons since then. He had a Tahoe blow and engine at 150k due to the cylinder deactivation (which would have irritated me a lot more than it did him but oh well). He likes his Chebies.

I’m curious about the 3.3 as well. Right now, strictly talking engine and performance, GM, in my opinion, has the best half ton diesel option. The in line 6 was a good move. Ford and Ram need to step up.

 

I was always amazed at that. The 5.4 in the F150 had plenty of power, but in the Super Duties it was a boat anchor. My former boss had a F350 5.4 with an 8 foot dump body on it briefly, and that thing was so underpowered it was insane. You'd step on the throttle and it would just say "You want me to what now?" and nothing would really happen aside from more noise.

 

Have a 3500 diesel we just got. 58k miles. Lights on all day. Old owner is a buddy and said the lights would come on for all the diesel crap and the dealer would just reset and say it’s normal.

I had a lot of nice non gm trucks in great shape lined up to buy or look at, but my brother and dad fucking love that shitty company and have zero reason to. Never had a good truck from them.

I got it descaled and coated for them and told them I don’t want to see it again.


Only thing I’ll say after about 80 miles in it, it handles the steel dump body better than the old gas on we had from 2003.

 

You could be right and it's more of an issue than I'm perceiving it to be. That said though, if I can avoid buying a vehicle with it, I'm going to. At least the start/stop crap can be deactivated with a button.

 

I wish the start stop stuff would remember the last setting at least. That’s the annoying part with it, they reset it to on when you turn off the car.

 

Ouch. We pay tax on vehicles at the time of registration. When new, my $36k STi was $800-ish to register for the year, then dropped to $700, then $550, and I paid $300-ish this year (yay depreciation!).

As for insurance, I have my STi, F250 with full coverage, and my Harley on Geico. I pay $162 for the whole lot. When I remove the Harley for winter, and swap the STi for the Crosstrek, I'll probably be at $70-80 a month.

Inspection varies depending which shop you go to. Typically, it is $40 in NH.

Their choice to go with a V6 diesel was a head scratcher for me as well. Granted, diesel makes better torque than gas, no matter the cylinder layout, it is a proven fact that inline motors get down and dirty. I could only imagine the benefits of having a 3.3 inline 6. That thing would get shit done! Then delete it, crank up the fueling, and let that 10 speed crapomatic destroy its insides like a freshman on spring break.

The 5.4 is laughable at best. So incredibly useless in a 3/4 ton application. The 6.2 has been very dependable and provides decent performance for the need. I've been even more impressed by the 7.3 gasser, though I haven't driven one of those quite yet.

A guy I just met locally has an 06 F250 with a 5.4 in it. Two years ago, we replaced the plugs in it. Only had to extract 5 broken plugs to the tune of $900

 

With Ford, you can easily jump out the plug on the dash so it 'permanently' shuts off the start-stop nonsense. With other manufacturers, I think it's more of a challenge. There's also the ForScan option, I'm sure you could program it out also.

Only bad thing I've heard about the 7.3 is tranny related. The Gen 1 10 speed seems to have an internal issue with a chain-driven pump. Sounds like Gen 2 is already out though, Gen 1s are being replaced and the power plant itself is doing pretty well as a diesel alternative.

What I haven't heard a lot about is the 6.2 mated to the 10 speed. I really did like the 6.2 engine, I'm curious to see how it does with the 10 speed.

 

We have a 2008 F-350 at work with the 5.4. It's so anemic it's almost funny. I had maybe 3000 lbs behind it a few weeks ago and was having a hard time maintaining speed on hills.

 

It does fairly well with the 10 speed actually. I have driven a few and it performs well. You hardly notice its shifting almost as much as the Fast and Furious movies...

 

I miss NH registration. It’s the cost we pay to be near a city and civilization (thst isn’t Manchester)

Yeah I’ve seen those and also you can do it with forscan I think. I wouldn’t mind having it as an option but would just want it to remember the last setting instead.

 

The problem with the Forscan option is I believe it disables auto stop start by disabling battery monitoring which supposedly hurts the battery over time. @Pugga's option is the best way to go.

 

@Pugga is typically the wizard of electrical hacks!

 

Bipeds or bivalves?

Nah, my 2006 Colorado puked the top end at 5 years-70K. The motors suck an egg too..my brother in law puked the engine in his 2005 last year with only 100K.

Pretty much yeah. it's not so much that it happens, but GM went out of their way to fuck me over on their "warranty", both the powertrain which I was still under when the initial issue popped up plus the additional bulletin that nobody knew about on that truck..such bullshit.

Re insanity, you might remember GM tried the deactivation thing in the early 80's with the Cadillac. The more things change...

 

Next truck honestly will probably be a RAM. 36k Bumper to bumper/100k powertrain. I don't think I will own a domestic vehicle without a warranty on the powertrain again.

 

You're stupid if you own one without a warranty!

edit: @jethro not saying you're stupid, just the general rule of thumb for domestic vehicles, especially RAM's!