Hey folks
I have seen a lot of animosity between Ford and Chevy owners on this board and at work as I sell used trucks in Dallas for the 8th. largest dealership in the US.
I have people that are actually insulted if I show them a Chevy and vis versa for a Ford.
I have had the unique opportunity to own and drive daily both. Saying that let me set some myths to light!
The Ford has better styling and a hell of a lot better finish (exterior and interior). They dumped the twin I beam (thank God) and took Chevy's L frame independent front supension to the next generation thereby surpassing the ride and handeling of any Chevy truck on the road!
The Chevy however does not suffer the transmission soft shift that for some reason Ford thinks we should have (hunt for the gears) unless you install a Superchip! It can drive you buggy!!
Chevy Trucks does have a better trans and shift pattern.
Chevy dosen't have a deasel thats worth a damn.
However the 5.3 (look out!!) is nothing less than a 327 stroker moter ie: 350 block bored to 327 with a 400 crank.
Fords 4.6 overhead cam while a very good engine with lots of staying power is not really a truck engine but just a modified version of something off the shelf!! This info comes from the Ford insiders. As a modular engine it's great for the bottom line but unlike Chevy it wasn't designed from the start as a truck engine.
The 5.4 however is a diffrent story.
Chevy unlike Ford puts a good raido and amp in there units so you don't have to change out the whole unit if you want really great sound.
Chevy unlike Ford decided to keep their basic body design and that will cost them!!
Ford has the best looking truck on the market today!!
The main reason we beat them is because of gearing. Chevy in a effort to get ahead of future EPA guidlines does not gear there trucks as aggressivley as Ford.
This folks is only the humble opinions of one Truck salesman and does dot reflect the beliefs or opinions of many.
And I hope everone will forgive me my miss spellings as I just finished 14 hours on the lot and it is now 4:30 in the mornining!!

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Nastruck1-4.6-377 rears-Superchip-K&N GenII-Dynomax RaceMag With Roush tips-MPC bug shield-40-60 black tint windows-bed liner-class3 drawbar hitch-polk speakers.

 

I test drove a new silverado before purchasing my F150. I already had Ford on my brain, but I wanted to give the Bowtie a fair shot.

I liked driving the Chevy better. It had a better, more modern feeling shifter shifter. My F150 shifter is quite vague, and quite honestly feels *exactly* like the one that was in my '87 Ford Ranger. Not a lot of advancement in 12 years. Also, the chevy 6-cylinder seemed like it had more power.

That's all I liked better. I bought an XL, and the Chevy trucks in that price range look no where near as good as the low end F150s. It had only 3 doors. The interior was cheap looking and ugly. The exterior was very low-budget compared to my XL. It had no carpet, no sliding rear window, no polished aluminum . . not much of anything. And it was STILL about $4,000 more than my Ford.

I think the drivetrain technology in the Chevy is more advanced, but I bought my truck for its value, style, and build quality, all of which outshine the base model Chevy.

I like the upper line Chevy, with the Z71 package. It think it looks as good as the Lariat, but on the low end Ford offers a much more stylish, better value vehicle.

The fit and finish on the Ford is much better as well.



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'99 XL 2x4 4.2L SC 5-Spd SC Black over Silver
Penda Liner, Chrome Tubular Step Bars, Prime Designs Bug Deflector

 

ok, heres how things are as I see it:

Chevy is cheaper, easier to work on, and more oriented toward road driving.

Ford is tougher, has more pulling power, looks better and holds better value.

It's that simple. you want tough, hardworking truck that will last, buy a ford. you want an easy to fix highway truck to move furniture in, buy a chevy. (or a toyota)

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97' F150 XLT, 4 X 4, Auto,4.6L, Vortech Supercharger, jet-chip, Gibson Cat-back Duals, rear Posi, 4.10's, jet shift improver, Tonneau cover, Rancho RS5000's, 33's on American racing rims, Rhino brushgards and pushbumper, Stull Billet grill, Dual Fosgate 800's w/Alpine head,
and musty smelling A/C system. Lookin for Chevy's to eat!!

 

I agree and appreciate unbiased reviews. Especially from people with experience in both vehicles. Ford really needs to do something about the auto tranny in the trucks. Even the new 4R100 is soft. The 5.4 is an excellent engine for a truck in my opinion. It pulls great at low rpm and hauls butt at high rpm. I believe the soft spot in the truck is the auto tranny. I've heard a rumor that Ford will offer a 5-speed auto Alisson tranny in the Super duty as an option next year. While I don't expect that in the light duty trucks I wish they would offer some sort of option for a more truck-like tranny. Throw the 6-speed manual in too, why not. In my opinion Ford is really close to having a really perfect truck line. Just offer some more tranny options please. My 2 cents.

1998 F-150 4x4 ORP 5.4 regular cab Moonlight Blue

 

Lovell1 made some excellent points, and I would like to expand on one of them, and that is, the rather mushy shift characteristics of Ford automatics.

Both GM and Ford are implementing "soft-shift" strategies, which are aimed at pleasing the female buyer. This is because the automakers realized that over 50% of all new vehicles have been purchased by women, or so my contacts inside Ford say. So Ford uses a shift delay, to elongate and soften the upshift, they don't use enough line pressure, and they also retard the spark advance significantly after the upshift. As Lovell1 mentioned, the Superchip takes care of that on the Fords, using higher line pressure, removing the spark retard after the upshift, and the end result is a more positive upshift with better acceleration.

GM, while also implementing a "soft-shift" strategy, in general seems to do a better job of transmission programming in *some* of their vehicles, though I can't say all. In GM vehicles, you generally don't have quite as delayed or slow upshift as you have in many Fords, but it's still too soft for an "enthusiast", IMHO.

What happens as a result of Fords transmission programming is that it induces slippage at heavy throttle. Slippage generates heat, which is the worst enemy of an automatic transmission. Once the tranny fluid gets over 200 degrees, you can start to have fluid and seal breakdown.

I am not here to try and sell everyone a Superchip to improve their shift characteristics, that is not my point. What we *do* recommend, is to make sure you have an auxilliary automatic transmission cooler on your Ford, which is part of most towing packages. Auxilliary coolers are generally very cheap, and easy to install, and is the cheapest form of insurance you can buy for your automatic transmission.

This affects *all* modern Ford automatics by the way, whether you have the 4R70W, or the big 4R100 monster used in Powerstroke diesels, V-10's and the supercharged Lightning. They all exhibit the same shift characteristics as a result of Fords soft-shift strategy. In fact, some Ford passenger cars, such as the 94 & later Ford Thunderbird V-8, and all Lincoln Mark 8's, do not adequately cool the automatic transmission fluid in in-town driving, and are known to actually burn transmission fluid to the point of causing serious transmission damage. There have been several TSB's released about this, with a retrofit of an auxilliary cooler included for these specific vehicles. My own vehicle had this problem, and it existed long enough to warp the valve body, trash the solenoids, glaze the clutches, etc. Now before you get alarmed, I have no knowledge of this happening in Ford trucks, just the vehicles I mentioned, which are specifically the "MN12 platform".

I just wanted to share a bit of insight on this issue of soft shifting, why it is done, etc., to let everyone know that it isn't just Ford, and also to let you know that you might want to think about an auxiliary automatic transmission cooler, *if* you don't already have one.

Our bests to all,

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Mike Troyer
Performance Products, Inc.
National Distributor of Superchips
(540) 862-9515
Email: mtroyer@compuserve.com

 

lovell1: I had a question about the "327". How come the CID on the papers say 317?
Pnutfishn: Boy if ford puts an Allison Auto in a pikcup Ill have an order in the next day period!

 

Someone correct me if I am wrong. The new chevorlet motors (4.8 & 5.3) are corvette motors. They are LS1s that have a different displacement but same firing order, valve angles etc. as the 5.7 corvette and newer camaros and firebirds. So I don't think they were designed to be truck motors. Think about it a 5.3 only making 315 ft*lbs of torque at 4,000 rpm, who would design this for a truck. Ford has aggresive gearing, I don't think so. Not compared to chevy or dodge. They come with 3.08s or 3.55s and for 99 with the ORP they had 3.73s.
I don't know what chevys lowest gear ratio(numerically) is but everyone I have saw on the 99s are 3.73s and they even have 4.10s optional. Thats what I call aggressive. If you take the 5.4 against a 5.3 the 5.4 will smoke it with 3.55 gears while the chevy has 3.73s. A chevy with 4.10s may outrun a ford with 3.55s but I don't buy a truck to race. I just get one to do my chores and pull trailers and play in the mud. I got the most reliable one, that is going to get me where I want to go. I am not saying it is perfect or I like the way the mushy transmission shifts or brakes but I do feel overall it is the best truck.


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1997 4x4 5.4 ORP XLT extended cab Dark Toreador red Westin nerf bars tint HARDER THAN A ROCK AND FASTER THAN A HEART BEAT

 

I have noticed that alot of magazines state the wrong numbers. Ford does not put 3.73 gears in a 2wd 1/2 ton maybe with the 7700 payload but not the ones sometimes compared. The 5.3 chevy is a 327 not a 317 as stated in some magazines. Think about it dodges 318 is a 5.2 so how does 5.3 equal 317.

 

I forgot one thing: the Chevy's back seat is much better than the Ford's. There's more room back there, and it has a better back rest angle (although I know Ford improved the angle somewhat for 2000).

Still, it only has 3 doors. A big minus in my book.


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'99 XL 2x4 4.2L SC 5-Spd SC Black over Silver
Penda Liner, Chrome Tubular Step Bars, Prime Designs Bug Deflector

 

Thanks Tough, I guess that does make sense. So is there a big difference in the old 327 vs the new one? My dad has several friends who have the new Silverado's and they compare their old 350's to the new 5.3. They say that their gas mileage is worse. Ride is worse. My dad has a 1998 Chevy 1500 extended cab and he swears that his truck gets 21-22 mpg. His parter has a 1999 F-150 sport with the 4.6 and he never gets more than 17 mpg. Why?

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Thanks!

1993 F-150 302/e4od/355 gears. dual exhuast w/o mufflers, accel plugs/wires. Alpine cd player and Pioneer speakers.

1989 F-150 XLT 4x4 302/aod true duals with turbo mufflers, wild country tires.....

 

The 5.7l and 5.0l have never seen 20 mpg. There is error in the math work or something.
The new 4.8l and 5.3l trucks are easily seeing 18-20 mpg combined driving. On all highway travel trips, some are even getting 21-22 mpg.

I get a consistent 19 mpg with my 5.3l 4X4 extended cab with 3:73 gear diff. combined driving. Even when I pull my 4000 lb boat and trailer, I get 17 mpg. My truck pulls that 4000 lbs very easy.
The misconception that the Silverado trucks are undertorqued is just that.
Don't get caught up in the numbers game. The Silverado 4.8l and 5.3l ARE real truck engines and although may not shine over the 5.4l torque comparisons, it is still every bit a truck and will work all day along side the best 5.4l.

My .02.

 

BassCat
1- I know of MANY 5.0 Chevy's that can get an easy 20 mpg. The old GM 5.0 and 5.7 were/are far superior truck engines to the 4.8 and the 5.3
2- It is NOT a miscinception that the 4.8 and 5.3 are undertorqued, it is FACT. I can think of at least 4 tests that compare trucks, and in each one the Chevy was the quickest empty. But when towing or carrying a payload they were waaayy behind Ford, Toyota and even Dodge! This is FACT.
3- I owned a 98 Silverado 5.0 and would have kept it 100 years if it were not stolen and recovered (partially) at a chop shop. Thought I'd give the new 99 silverado a try and it IS the biggest mistake I have ever made. Sure it rides nicer than my 98 and is a little quieter, but it is a gutless, poorly built pig that is going back to the dealer next week, for good!
Should'a bought a Ford.

 

decided to buy a truck this year. sold my old chevy blazer that was beginning to break more then it ran. i talked to hr at work and learned that we get the gm employees discount on chevy. woo hoo better go get one... took one out for a drive then thought about it..then thought some more . seen a used 97 f150 stepside at a local dealer. drove it, liked it, bought it, all in less then 24 hrs.
love this thing even though the 97 cost me as much as the 99 chevy would have or at least very close.
wouldn't change my decision for anything. but then again chevy's are easy to work on. i know because every one of them i've had has needed much attention LOL

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'97 f150 rc, flair side,4x4,v6,5 spd, k&n air filter

 

lovell1 I too do the sales job in the field of trucks. Some will die for Ford and some will die for a chevy. Very few are Dodge fans. For the most part Ford is more Heavy duty. They are most used by ranchers, constrution, or Rver's. I Love my Ford and I have had 7 trucks of all kinds. It just rides performs and holds up the best.

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97 F-150 4.6 auto, 4x2, 3.55 LS, trailer tow pkg, Air box modification with K&N, Dynomax Super Turbo exhaust.
Oh yeah, it's Oxford White with crome wheels, Legacy shell & custom grill, mlaugh-Meridian, Idaho.

 

I'll tell you one think that no dodge or chevy engine has, a distinct Triton sound!