thank you for taking the time to run this test roadrunner

 

Ever since I picked my truck up the roads here have been either wet, snow packed or icy so I haven't been able to really play with the go pedal too much - until yesterday! With 2000 miles on the clock now I did a non-boosted WOT start on flat dry pavement, traction control on (3.55 axle, SRW) chirped the 35's in 1st to 2nd shift and 2nd to 3rd shift, hit 4th and was forced yet further into the seat. Butt dyno says that this thing has way more get up and go than my 2012 6.7 did, and I always thought that thing had more than plenty.

 

I tried not to say anything negative about the GM in my post so I wouldn't seem to biased toward my Ford, but since you asked. I have the F350 CC King Ranch Ultimate and the Chevy I drove was their best High Country. The seats in the High Country looked good and were comfy but the rest of the interior looks so outdated compared to my King Ranch. The buttons and dials GM uses just look so cheap to me. The way the dash goes around their screen seems cheap. The way the dash down to the glove compartment shape is old and outdated looking. Obviously their instrument panel screen doesn't come anywhere near the Ford instrument panel with all the digital and custom views available on the Ford. I instantly noticed the GM steering wheel felt thinner, lighter, smaller and less comfy to hold on to. The steering on the GM felt more car like. My truck has the adaptive steering so that may be why my truck feels more smooth or linear in the steering. Looking out on the hood bulge was not great after seeing my hoodline for a month. Seeing duramax on the hood while driving seemed tacky. The Ford front grill is much more awe inspiring with the LED lighting option. The Gm seemed quiet going down the road, but no better or worse than mine. I could tell I was shorter in the GM while driving compared to mine. I have automatic running boards that this one didn't have. But I did think the fixed running boards helped hide the frame and DEF tank on the GM. The wheels on the High Country are ok but just blah compared to Ford wheels. No double panel moonroof on GM. It was daylight so not sure about ambient lighting. The little bit of wood GM uses in the interior isn't noticable, kinda just blends in so you don't see it unless you look for it like I was. The center console on the GM where the cup holders and stuff(phone) holders are is cheap and crap compared to Ford. I also noticed that in my Ford in 6th gear going about 65mph and I slowly pour on the fuel so it doesn't downshift I can feel the massive torque being applied to my back on the seat. I tried several times to get that torque feeling out of the Duramax and couldn't do it. I honestly left that GM truck wondering why anyone would buy that over the new Superduty except for being a little cheaper or they are true diehard GM fans.

 

In fairness, GM does have an optional 8" digital display between the gauges with reconfigurable gauges. You can actually configure it a fair bit more than our Ford displays, but it is still not as nice...somewhat ugly, and the top instruments seem jammed together.

As for the wood trim, GM has as much or more wood than our Fords. I think the Lariat wood trim looks somewhat ugly and is utterly fake. KR and Platty models have a nicer wood veneer, which is also actually real. I think the Denali / High Country wood is nicer than the Lariat wood, but not as nice as the KR/Plat wood.

I *love* the new oversized Super Duty steering wheel and I'm starting to like the heavier steering. It feels like it should be heavy in this piece of machinery.

I'm also with you on the Powerstroke torque surge. Ease into the throttle in 6th gear just enough to prevent it from downshifting, watch the boost gauge quickly rise, and feel the shove of all that torque. One of my favorite parts to this diesel.

I was partial to the round diesel badge on the 2011-2016 Fords, but our new door bar is still infinitely better than the goofy hood-mount Duramax badge.

Thanks for your thoughts.

 

In the pic I posted of the one I drove, is that not the best instrument panel they have? I was going by the one I drove, didn't know there was a better optional one. I thought High Country would have the best instrument panel available.

 

Nope my buddy's denali has the one troverman was talking about it's perrty nice

 

Here's a pic -

There are also several "themes" they can change the middle section to, which can make the round gauges bar graphs, etc. It doesn't seem as large or spacious as the Ford cluster, even though they claim it is 8". (RAM has a 7" but it is fairly boring)

Love the old-school, non-lit hazard light switch...not.

 

Ok I looked up the Denali Dash on the GMC website. It's definatley different than the High Country. But if you look left to right across the entire dash as a whole, it's ugly and cheap looking(compared to Ford). Look at that plain plastic looking area on the left for the brake controller, which is way out of the way when you need to manually operate it. Across the center area down to the center console is all cheap plastic, to the old cheap looking area on the right down to the glove box. Yuck. Of course this is just my opinion, I understand some people don't even think twice about stuff like this.

 

On the GMC website it says 4 inches

 

4" is the small display that your picture showed. This one is actually 8", but with a lot of that cut off by the speed / tach gauges.

If the High Country doesn't have this display yet, it will soon.

But I'm with you, the GM interior isn't really that nice.

 

That is also different than the pic on the GMC Denali website that show a large round center digital cluster.

 

That's what I mean by their cluster being 'reconfigurable' to different themes. The round center cluster is a theme. The pic I uploaded is another theme. There is one more that is also different; 3 themes in all. My pic is the default theme. The pic I snagged was from a 2016 Denali diesel.

 

I gotcha now, sorry for being so slow. I should have known what you were talking about because my new Escalade(GM) is a totally digital instrument cluster with different themes to pick from.

 

I actually kind of like the look of that, but im a sucker for traditional looking gauges. I like the fact the speedo has 1 mph increments too. Rest of the trucks i am not too fond of.

Anyone know why ford did away with voltmeter?

 

The tiny 1mph increments are rendered kind of useless by the large digital readout, no?

Voltmeters are basically irrelevant nowadays since electrical systems are so strong now.