How good is the 2nd Generation Dodge quality. I know they have a good engine, but what about the rest of the truck. I am considering the ford or the dodge. They way a hear the ford has a nice engine and an exelent drivetrain. Also a kick *** interitor. So how does to dodge compare to the ford? What should I buy?

 

I'm biased, but I like the dodge interior quite well. I never have liked the seats that ford put in the earlier superduty trucks. I bet though that you will have lots of "votes" for buying a dodge truck on a dodge froum though.

 

What year Ford?

Dodge trucks are not known for their interiors... but are built with top of the line components from Dana and New Venture, and seem to be a dime a dozen on the roads here in Ohio...

My buddy has a 2000 F250 7.3 - and really hasnt had a problem with it aside from the water pump... although the rear fenders are rusting and the bottom lip on the tailgate is getting bad as well... The interior on the Fords are very nice, and more inviting than my Dodge, but I'm not into the truck for the interior.

His tranny is going as well @ 130,000 with no mods and easy driving... (auto)

If I were in your shoes, I would get the Cummins powered Dodge...

JMO

 

I'm a ford guy, but here I am. Its hard to say no to the Cummins. For the quality of the truck, I've had many more problems with the dodge than I had with my Ford's (had a 97 ranger for 5 years, and late 70's fords for a couple years), but most are minor. Electrical gremlins is the big thing I've noticed. Sensors taking a dump, wires breaking, and most recently losing the starter, but a lot of this I'd guess would be wear and tear (350k km on the truck). My truck also has a fair bit of rust. No holes, just enough to bubble off the paint along the rockers. Just need to find a clean truck when you buy. Although I've had so many problems with it, if I were to do it over, I'd probably still wind up in a dodge. Unless I stumbled upon a Ford with a swapped in Cummins.

 

Gunnut. These newer chrysler products are good quality compared to the old stuff from the '70s- 80s .

We always had Chevys and fords. I remember how crapy the dodges were. Open the door and it practicaly fell off. Those old starter motors sounded like crap.

Chrysler stepped up and started producing some pretty good products. Knock on wood.

 

With 322,800 squeak and rattle free miles on my truck (interior rattles, I mean - ths suspension needed ball joints recently) I'm here to say this '96 Dodge has given me a new perspective on American quality. The interior of the earlier second gen trucks are driver oriented meaning that they actually thought about positioning of controls, gauges, etc biasd toward the driver. This has lessened since that time - it's now much too long a reach (in a 3rd gen) to the HVAC and radio controls. And black around the instruments and dash is your friend, expessing a driver-oriented vechile.

The older Fords - '97 and previous rode like a buckboard. I have driven many of them, gas a diesel, and they were very, very rudimentary as a vechile, even agricultural in refinment level. No offense to anyone who drives one - they are serious work truck, but impractical as personal daily driver vechiles in my view. The '99 and newer SD's are better, they too suffer from poorly designed dashboards and the outside mirrors seem odd or hard to adjust to. i do like the solid slam of the doors, however.

It really came down to the 5.9 Cummins and the driver-oreintation of the truck to solidify my decision. Yes, I've put work into it, but I've not looked back since.

 

I think Dodge picked up the pace a little when Mercedes bought it, but I still don't think the interior compares to Ford. I think the ford trucks are really nice and I like the way they look. If I was buying a new truck it would be a tuff choice.
I used to drive a 94 chevy 1500 350 auto, and I guess its because it was a liter truck but it drove 1000 times better. The suspension on my dodge is really stiff. I could drive @ 110 mph on the bumpy roads to college station with one finger on the wheel and a glass of wine on my hood in my chevy.
The dodge is hard to keep on the road sometimes especially bumpy ones.

 

I think that since the 1994 Ram total redesign, Dodge, Ford, and GM are fairly comparable to each other in terms of overall quality. The basic chassis are going to hold up okay, and each with have little stuff like switches, plastic trim, etc fail. I was more interested in which had what I considered the most durable drivetrain, which is why I chose the one equipped with the 12v CTD/NVG/Dana components.

 

I've had a 1996 Ram 3500 V-10/47RE dually and my current 2002 Ram (see signature). Both were Mexican-built trucks that exhibited excellent assembly quality. Neither has required more than routine maintenance, and both held up extremely well spending 90% to 95% of their working life towing 5th wheel RVs.

Rusty

 

if u wanna compare interiors then u gotta get the lariat top of the line from ford to get the interior benefit...thats expensive...the base interiors are just like the base dodges...and the engine is troublesome....u may have luck and get a good one...but guys with powerstrokes are selling their trucks with less miles on them then guys with a cummins...just look at in the autotrader...its a trend...the auto in the ford is on par with the auto in the dodge so i wouldnt ever give it points there....the only thing i would say i like about the ford is that they tend to have a couple more leaf springs on the back from the factory...200$ later u can beef up the dodge...and I am a fan of the leaf springs oin the front and their front end steering setup on the 4x4s ...a 2001 or 2002 F250 crew cab with the 7.3 would have been my 2nd choice of truck

 

I dont like 94-97 Dodges interior at all, 98.5-02 look like toyota corollas interior with st/ws base level, but when you buy slt or slt+ with simultanious wood dash and leather interior, there's seriously something to watch!

It's awesome,awesome and awesome.

Edit: To be specific, this is just my opinion.

 

OK, what about 3rd generation?

 

I'm quite happy with the body integrity,interior and exterior. Maybe being built in mexico helped,I can't say. Yesterday,I drove an '06 CTD and was super impressed with the build quality. Quantum leap over mine. Great fit and finish,superior steering and braking. Unfortunately it was a dog compared to my '99 but Smarty can fix that.

 

I've got a 96 Ram with 175K, i'll say the engine is top notch. I bought the truck with 36K and 3 years old. Actually the transmission is still all original but is starting to show some signs of age. I personally love the interior and seats, i've got the SLT Lariat and i've driven straight through to FL from CT, about a 19 hour ride and I had no back issues. Its still got no squeaks or rattles.
The body is another issue, my truck gets occasional use in the winter and when it does it pulls a snowmobile trailer to Maine so it sees some salt dont get me wrong. But so far the bottom of my doors have been fixed, a cab mount has been rebuilt, extensive sand blasting to the rocker panels, bed floor and tailgate. All those spots I put the POR 15 in hopes to slow down the rust. The bed floor has rust coming up from the bottom where the underside supports spot weld to the bed floor.
Let me add that every possible chance I got which is usually 4-5 times over the course of the winter season I take the garden house and completely spray the underside of the truck, inside the cab mounts, up into the rocker panels, up over all the wheel wells and I still get this. I'm less than impressed with the body integrity. And to boot my brothers got a 2000 Dodge 24V with only 90K miles and the bottom of his doors are shot and his truck was undercoated. So do with that what information what you may. Good luck!

 

I used to have a 97 1/2 ton, I loved that truck . Never any issues with it.