Trucks are sorta like people i guess, you gotta maintain them to keep them going.

 

This is a great post. For me my dad drove GMC Trucks. My first car was a 54 Packard, My shop teacher in High School was a Flathead Ford guy. I bought what I could afford as a kid in the 60s. Sometimes Fords,Chevys, etc. I have never been real brand loyal. I own an 86 F250 4x4, why I wanted a BIG BLOCK in a 4x4. My first choice was a 400 or 440 Dodge, after looking for over a year this 86 came along at a price I wanted to pay. In the 70s I worked as a mechanic for a company with a large fleet of Ford Trucks, 750 trucks. Why because Fords held up the best. My wife has bought a Dakota 4x4 & now owns a Trailblazer 4x4. She grew up in a Ford home her dad was big on Ford trucks, but my brother-in-law owns all Chevys. If I was to buy a new truck today Chevy would be my choice. I doubt I will replace my F250 anytime soon it's paid for, and for $35,000-$40,000 I can buy alot of parts and gas.

 

Grew up in a ford family myself. We all have taken our knocks, bad apples. Now we just buy whatever comes at a good price. Im the only one still driving a ford now. I still think highly of them. As does the rest of my family. The dealers wont work with me or them any more. We all have good credit so I dont understand. My dad has a chevy, one brother has a dodge, mom has a jeep. Two other brothers own foreign family cars. I have my 94 idi f250 with over 200k on the clock now. Engine is tired. Smokes bad if I get on it. Bout to retire the old dog. Rings got ruined from wetstacking. Wish ford still made the 300.

 

I grew up with my dad as a Buick guy and my grandfather is a mopar guy. I remember when I bought my first mustang. Oh, it'll break down, it's underpowered, blah, blah, blah. I bought it just because it was a musclecar and when you're a senior in high school that's all that you want, ANY musclecar that you can afford that's not a pile of rust. The 71 Mustang was driven over 80 miles back to my house after being bought without any overheating, missing, nothing.

 

i think it's pretty much said here. good luck with our fords, out of 15 new ones, i had only one bad one. a 1978 stang turbo and i don't think any one had good luck with that motor not burning up pistons.

 

You had a 78 Mustang with a turbo???
I didn't think they turbo'd any of those until 79...

 

Mr. Tim Lamkin,
OK Mr. Lamkin, what's your story? We all know you have a good one. Cough it up....

P.S.
Oh, and Tim, as sponsor of this thread, I request that your post on this subject be LONGER THAN ONE LINE! (LOL)

 

Well.........actually I grew up a Chevy man, then dad bought a 64.5 Mustang; it was wrecked by snow and a lousy driver hitting it in the rear, then a 65 Stang. Dad had all Chevy trucks. My first new car was a z-28, bought it when I came out of VN...dad bought another Chevy truck, same time I got the Z....never did like his truck seemed not to have any new technology in it…same old stuff.

At that time Ford IMO was working hard to change their trucks, and have never stopped. To me it is a progressive, forward thinking company, that I like, yes it does cause some problems, but so does never changing or shifting the paradigm of a company....so, I still own the car I rode home from the hospital in after birth...my Model-A, still own my T-bird, BII and Ford owns my 03 X and I am getting a 05 SD CC SWB 4x4 to replace it. I have also owned an original 65 K car. My entire family drives Fords many, many of them!
The best road vehicle... I have ever driven is the Excursion, had an 01/V-10 and an 03/6.0. Un-real traveling truck! Loved it! Yes I like Ford.

I am not brand loyal; I am loyal to my needs and requirements. I love the FvC forum because of the great differences in trucks and comparisons that come up. My Dads old trucks ran good and did not hold up or break down any more than a Ford or a Dodge, every manufacture will lay down a stinker.. once in awhile, ANY customer can get a bad truck or car or even electric tooth brush…it happens. IMO it does seem… from history, to be a bit cyclic.

 

Personally I wasn't "brainwashed" into believing one brand was better than the others. Owned numerous vehicles and from my experience I have had better luck with Ford than any other. My wife grew up in a huge dodge family and I find it really amusing trying to convince them that there are other good trucks out there besides the Ram. Good thread!

 

Thanks Tim!
Oh, and I almost forgot, Thanks Fordlover1951.

Carlene,
Still wait'n for you....

 

Well, I guess you can say I was brainwashed. Growing up my neighbors owned nothing but Ford, and my family never owned a truck, just all cars. So every time I would hear that Ford Powerstroke pull in the driveway, I would always LOVE that sound. So I guess I was "brainwashed" by them since I was small that there was no other truck that's any good but FORD. I bought my first ford truck at 16 (3 years ago) off the lot, ordered another new one 2 years later, and never looked back since.

 

My family is hardcore GM nuts for CHEVY. But my First Ford was an Econoline E250 with a 302ci, Nice van underpowered but reliable (sold it). Then my father gave me a 86 Dodge Ram 250 National Traveler Van when I was 18 years old. I threw in a nice bumping radio system but the looks was not for me. I could'nt get no play from the girlies in a van like that, but it had a 318 engine with a intake manifold leak and still ran o.k. except for the slipping tranny.

Then I had a '82 camaro with a 327ci that was modified, it was a good car but 5.0 Mustang Kept up with me. My cousin has a '82 Mustang. Being loyal to GM and saying in my mind thinking that FORD is junk just because of what a lot people had to say about them, so I stood away. I asked my cousin to let me drive his '82 Mustang, which is one heck of a car, my cousin swapped in a 1988 5.0 4V H.O into his 82 with a 4speed manual. The engine is stock no mods whatsoever. By far, the '82 mustang was one of the most fastest, funnest car I ever drove. Being that the '88 5.0 4V H.O. had a big role in it.

My father and brother grew me up GM. From our '53 Bel air, to my dads 73 Cheyenne to my moms 85 Cadillac Eldorado. I dug the Caddy, but tranny failed and a lot more other issues. My dad's '73 cheyenne blew the 350ci(blew a con-rod). The '53 Bel Air was sold because of a bad tranny, I had no idea why they sold it, but i was young, knew very little about cars. Then the tranny on the '86 Caddy pukes. Mother sells it and is now happy with her '95 Honda Civic 1.5L Vtec. At the time i was driving my '82 Camaro. It was nice car, especially the 327ci. But by far, the '82 mustang 5.0 H.O that my cousin modified had me sold to FORD MUSTANGS. I was in the market for a new truck, I asked my dad and older bro what kind of truck I should get and my older bro said Mexicans stick with chevy. I said riiiiiiiiiiight, I was born and raised in the U.S. Being that they are resident aliens from Mexico and I being from here I had second thoughts and decide to just go with my own instincts sincy it was my hard earned money.

In 2000 I had save enough pennys for a truck. I test drove a 1999 Dodge Ram 250 with the 5.9L engine. It just didn't have the power I wanted, and interior rattled a lot and I thought this truck wasn't going to last very long and hold up for that matter, and the 4x4 package really stunk my mind to just stay away from it. So, then I drove to the GM dealer, I test drove a Silverado 2500, it was o.k but lacked a lot of low end torque, and did notice a little knock it the engine it had approx. 20,000 miles. I really dug the chevy since my father is loyal, but I wasn't happy with IFS, 4x4 setup and a knock hit had, i asked the GM sales rep why it was knocking he said "oh it because it has to warm up", I suspected that many sales rep throw a lot of B.S. at you just to sell a truck. I wanted to build a off-road machine. The Silverado 2500 looked like it had a body lift and knock made me stay away. I dug the '99 Styling chevy but the new chevy trucks just puke me out. Nonetheless, I felt really shakey about going to the FORD dealer since everyone says it poodle poop.

But I did a little research on the Ford Superduty. Seeing tons of FORD TRUCKS on the road from old to new, I thought they must really be building a good truck. I test drove a 1999 F250, 4x4, V10, 4.30 Limited Slip. The sales rep looked at me and I knew he was thinking that I could not afford this truck by looking at my 19 year old baby face, he thought i still wore dipers. Having only $2500 dollars in cash for a down payment I knew I can take any car on the lot. I test drove the FORD. I was surprised on how well ford built this truck. The V10 had good power, good low end torque. I was sold. The truck just takes off from a start. No rattles or noises in the cockpit. It was the Superduty Styling that was awesome, it had all the looks of a rugged commercial truck and it just looked flat out tougher then MOPAR AND GM and powerful for that matter. I was sold, my hard earned bucks went to FORD.

So after driving a '82 camaro with a 327 and then a '82 Mustang with a swapped 5.0 4v H.O I was in awe and in shock. After driving the the Musclestang i was shaking a bit when I finished driving it, but then it was a real muscle car, I never driven a car with so much power in my life, and it being a FORD. I don't hate on FORD, GM or Chrysler I think they all make good reliable cars, but people over rate chevy way too much, beyond comprehension. But FORD is good. After a few years thinking I didn't want to put many miles on my 1999 F250 i said I got to get another car because I really dug the superduty and by far it is the best truck i have ever owned and will own. Will not buy another truck but a FORD. KUDOS TO FORD.

So i became loyal to FORD only because the Superduty really shined and my cousin's mustangs really showed me what muscle is all about. Boy was I hooked on his 'Mustang, he still has lot's of people offer him BIG BUCKS, but he says he'll never let go his two horses, '90 Bronco 351w with cobra heads, and his '82 Musclestang with that '88 H.O 5.0 4V, I swear when I would take off in first gear the mustang front end would rise up, he needed suspension work, but the power was amazing, it scared me for a minute around the block, the posi-traction was a major factor. I Wanted another car to save mile on Jane ('99 F250). I was in the market for a car. I was primarly looking at classic cars. Mustang came to mind, but everybody has a mustang. So, I started to look at a 65 chevelle (Chevy of 'em all) but the guy wanted big bucks and I was not planning on spending big bucks as it was already fixed up, plus i wanted something that can work on. I was driving one day around my neighborhood and spotted a '68 Mercury Cougar. Very nice car. I asked the 'ole lady if she was selling it, and she said "yes". She wanted $700.00 for it. This was last year. I was in awe. I opened the hood and it had the original 302 ci with a 2V Motorcraft carb. I started to look at the car more and wondered why she wanted very little. It has factory disc brakes, power brake and healthy 302 ci. So I took it off her hands. I drove the car for many miles then the carbuerator gave out. I Thought, it's o.k. fine, just buy a new one. Then I purchased a 4V 650 CFM Edlebrock Carb. The car really flies, then i find out that it has a mild cam in it, i could never get to idle smoothly until I noticed a cam was swapped in. But all around to me, the '68 Cougar is one heck of car, I grew on it, and will not sell, got big plans for it. 1st plan im think of swapping automatic C4 Tranny with a 5 speed manual (T5). It totally flies, almost died in it. But I'm very happy with my FORD, V10 running strong and the '68 Cougar awaiting it suspension ugprades and other do-adds. I was sold. Kitty (Cougar) and Jane (F250) are the two best things that ever happened to me. So, i think i'll stick with FORD.

 

F-Deuce50,
I asked for your stories, and boy did you give us one! Thanks 'Deuce.

 

MustangGT221,
Hello! We (this thread) were over in the FvC forum and we now find us here in your backyard. I'm sure you have a story behind your Ford loving madness too, yes?

 

But this could also go the other way. My late g-pa was a huge chevy fan. There are about 20 chevys of various years sitting on what is now my uncles property. My dad is the biggest ford fan youll meet. My other granpa will never own a chevy, and his dad only ever owned a chevys. So, I am just trying to shed light on a different perspective.