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considering change to Ford

I have a 99 Silverado, extended cab, with 5.3 engine, 4x4. I have 62k miles on it. Most of my driving has been city, with 4x4 for snow once in a while. I'm wondering if the amount of problems I've had are similar to what a 99 Ford F150 owner has seen :

1) 10k miles, steering column replaced for free, related to 99 truck re-design

2) fuel sending unit went bad at 60K, causes fuel gauge to not read correctly when completely full (I haven't fixed this one yet)

3) throttle assembly needs to be cleaned, causes pedal to almost stick in open position sometimes, just have to press harder (haven't fixed this yet either)

4) suddenly developed a small oil leak from somewhere, doesn't appear to be from engine (still investigating this one)

5) seat belt recall also related to 99 truck re-design, replaced for free. Also fixed a problem related to brake line hoses for free.

Additionally, I have a few design complaints:

a) DRLs suck, and I know Ford doesn't have them. Chevy even uses a cheap bulb that burns out every 20k or so, so it's a big headache.

b) There's an auto 4x4 feature that will kick in automatically when it detects slippage. But the problem is I have no way of knowing when 4x4 has kicked in or out. I just have to assume it knows what it's doing. It always reads "auto 4x4".

c) chevy engineers have decided that we like our fuel gauge to lie to us: it reads full for a very long time then races down to empty really fast. So when the fuel gauge reads in the middle, that doesn't mean the tank is half full.

d) plastic grill front end is cheap and discolors easily (the plastic chrome part)

thanks

chris

Reply to
chris
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The things you are describing are things that happen to many of every brand of car and truck on the world market. You may have better luck with another brand, but don't count on it. That said, I had a Ford the 2 times before, and bought another Ford. ;-)

Tom J who's last Ford had the fast decent gage, the oil leak, the discolored grill, but no problems in over 60,000 miles on newest Ford

Reply to
Tom J

I couldn't tell you about the new Fords,they seem like a very nice truck, but being how it is a completely new design, I would wait a while to make sure the bugs are worked out. I have test-driven a 2004 F-150, and I can say it is by far the nicest, quietest truck I have ever driven. The 5.4 3 valve engine seems to have plenty of low-end grunt, and it accelerated effortlessly to normal highway speed. There was no wind noise, funny bump sounds, rattles, or anything. Every manufacturer is going to have troubles now and then, I just seem to have had fewer problems with Ford trucks than others. I have owned Dodges, (never again!), Chevrolets, (had fairly good luck with them), and my current Ford, which has nearly 500,000 miles on it.

Reply to
J Grant

I have been very fortunate with Ford trucks. My present 93 Bronco has 243000 miles on a 5.0 and I only had to replace the pan gasket and the right side manifold. Everything else is original. My last Bronco II had 280000 on a 2.9 V6 motor. On the other hand my niece bought a Sable and nothing but troubles. a couple of transmissions and alternators. She went Audi from then on. I guess anything production is a hit and miss. Once I bought a Grand Marquis and someone decided to leave a hammer in the fuel tank! Everytime I hit a bump I would get a loud bang!

Reply to
Ron and Diane

I bought an F150 4x4 in '87. Drove it for 130,000 miles with no problems. The paint had that peeling problem common in that time frame and Ford did a Warranty repair on it even though the truck was many years and miles out of warranty.

My '92 Bronco 5.8L has 180,000 miles one it and still looks like new. I did rebuild the Tranny at 175,000 miles for the first time. Can't really complain about that. During that time I also pulled a 7500# travel trailer for about 4 years.

Now I own a '99 F350 4x4 CC V10 (and the Bronco) with only 80,000 miles. No problems at all. I really like this truck.

Now, I can't bad mouth a Chevy at all. However, with my Ford experience, I could never take a chance with another brand truck. I would say that your chances of being happy with a truck are better with the Ford than another brand. You will get opinions from both sides of the fence. Make your choice and don't look back. I will say that the Dodge seems to have more than its share of problems.

Reply to
Mellowed

You seem to be getting fairly objective advice from the others considering that this is a Ford group.

Given your concerns, the best thing to do is to pick up a Consumer Reports book/magazine that has repair histories and reliability ratings on all of the major manufacturers.

IIRC, on *average* the Fords were the most reliable of the big 3 and got the best ratings. Dodge has done poorly for years. Chevrolet was fairly competitive, and depending on the model/features you want, might still be a good choice.

I was planning to buy a slightly used full sized p/u, so when I read up on this Toyota/Nissan didn't have comparable models. I ended up with a '99 Lariat extended cab, and definitely prefer it to my friends similar style Dodge. YMMV.

-- Josh

Reply to
JDub

I'm a Ford man, my dad was a Ford man, my whole family drives Ford trucks.

In fairness, I've had bad Fords and I've had great Fords (mostly great). I even had an '86 Bronco II that actually turned me off Fords for a while. I followed it with a Jeep Comanche (awesome truck) and then a Nissan Sentra (fantastic car); but eventually I came back and bought a '92 Ranger (140K) that had lots of problems early; a '94 Taurus (190K) that never had a mechanical problem until the water pump went out at 190K if you can believe it and finally a '99 F150 that has it's first problem (needs new plug wires) at 75K.

Personally I don't think you can go wrong with Fords, but never buy in a year they introduce a new design.

Reply to
McQualude

I have had two of the 1999 F series diesels, a 250 and a 350. Lost the first in a head on crash (walked out of it) and now have the second. I finally replaced the front brakes and batteries at 126,000 miles and replaced a sensor at over 100,000 miles. Great truck. Susan Ravan

Reply to
Susan Ravan

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