AS most of you who have been reading my posts since I joined this site last week know, I'm in the process of buying a 99 F-350 XLT PSD 6speed 4x4 53K $21K. I was driving around, looking at some other options, making sure this was the best one for me. I found a 2001 Chevy 2500 LS Duramax Auto. 4x4 66K $24K. Both are SC LWB. I'm really thinking about this. Can someone give me advantages of one over the other?? My main points of purchase are price, fuel mileage, and longevity. Neither of these is at a dealer that carries the brand, so I can't get reports or anything from them. I also found another Ford that is within my limits, but I'll post that one in the Super Duty forum. I appreciate any help I can get.

Here are the Links:
http://www.maczuk.net/indexfacade.cgi Pre Owned, 99 F-350

http://www.joemachensford.com/frames...vehicle_search 2001 Chevy Silverado 2500 (not 2-door/standard like it says)

 

I won't tell you which one to buy because i'm biased a little but I will give you some tid bits of information that are at least important to me....

1. Chevy resale value is usually higher, so after spending more on the chevy you will probably be able to get more for it if you decide to get rid of it later.

2. You mentioned durability. the 99 7.3 have proven to be very dependable along with the rest of the 7.3's before it. 2001 i believe was the first year for the D/max and with only 66K on the clock, its too soon to tell if its gonna hold its weight.

3. You are looking at 1 ton pickups, again durability: ford uses the dana 60 solid front axle with a leaf spring suspension, chevy uses front independent suspension utilizing torsion bars as the front end weight bearing devices under a diesel engine, in my opinion not very desirable although i don't know of any problems of yet, again its still early considering the age of the truck.

4. Although i have no data to support it, i would almost be willing to bet you the normal maintenance items on the new chevy diesel are going to be considerably more expensive than on the been around the block PSD IE fuel filters, oil filters, air filters and all the little components that with a ford you can call international and get them for better than half price of the Ford house, can't really do that with chevy and Izuzu.

Having said that, I used to be a die hard chevy guy and up until recently i liked what they were doing with their trucks, so my advice to you is take in as much information as you can and then buy what you want to and whatever makes you happy. They are probably both solid trucks so choose with confidence and enjoy.

 

Sounds like a great deal on the Chevy but it's only a 3/4ton compared to the 1ton Ford. Will that do the job you need it to do? If so, I'd sure go for the 2 year newer truck. My 01 dmax/allison was awesome. Quiet, dependable, easy and cheap to get maint parts for and very powerful. You still have 34k left on the engine warranty so, if anything does go wrong, you won't be out of pocket much.

 

The front end on the Ford, rather simply, will hold its weight alot better. It has a Solid Axle, less part to break. The 7.3 as said is a proven engine, and people are putting 300k+ on them before its first tear down.

I dont know a whole lot other than these two things, except taht Ford typically also has a better built interior.