Ill try to make this short and sweet. I have an ’03 3500 4x4 at the present time. The truck is in immaculate shape, not a scratch or ding in it and it only has 40,000 miles on it. Here’s where it gets a little interesting. I leased the truck ( don’t even get me started. I NOW know that was a huge mistake. I went in to buy the truck with 10 grand cash, and got talked into putting 5000 down with the promise that my payments would be 465.00 a mo. First payment came in: 620.00 edited by admin But since I signed the lease, I had to pay 620.00 for 4 years. ) Now its time to either pay the residual 20,000, or turn it in. I was also told at the time of purchase that the residual would be negotiable. I was told yesterday that it is not!

At this point I either pay 54,000 for this truck, or turn it in and get something else.

There are numerous pro’s and con’s to my situation: I like the Cummins motor, no smog bs., and sfa. I don’t like the 48re, the ride, and a few other small things. I am seriously considering a …….. chevy with the duramax/ Allison. My dad has one and I really like the way it pulls my trailer. There is more to this story, but I think you get the idea.

So I guess what I’m asking here is, (I realize this is a dodge site) what do you all think of the 07 classic chevy with the d/a. I am well awhere that all makes have some type of inherent problems.

 

I have both, 2004.5 cummins and a 2007 duramax/allison. The Dodge is a much more substantial truck and handles a load much better than the Chevy. The Chevy rides and drives better and the allison is so far ahead of the stock Dodge tranny it is unreal. Really depends on what you do with your truck. I think my dodge will outlast the chevy 2 to 1, at least the truck and motor, not the tranny. Chevy seems to be made cheaper and lighter. The chevy is about 1200 lbs lighter and are both same comparable trucks. Sheet metal seems to be really thin and everything seems lightweight.

 

How do they compare when pulling something?

 

I think you will be just fine with the Chevy as far as the engine and the trans go. I have some friends with them and they pull their trailers just fine, even with the automatic transmissions. They have had very few problems with them. The previous body style was not too bad, but the new ones on the lot are puke ugly! (just my opinion) If you can stand to see that ugly S.O.B. sitting in your driveway, go for it. But really, it is a matter of what you are going to be happy with. The Chevy's do ride a lot softer than my truck, but I don't mind a truck riding like a truck.

 

What is a low miles used '06 going for. That's what I'd be looking for.

 

I agree, thats why i am looking at the 07, not the 07.5

 

why an '06 ?

 

I have a 03 dodge, and a 07 (classic) duramax. I love my dodge, it is a great truck. That being said, I really like the new chevy, it has awesome power, pulls my trailer incredible. I like to drag race. My dodge with a 100hp bullydog powerpup ran a 16 flat. My duramax with a 100 hp evolution ran a 14.6 quater mile. I have a bigger trailer now (by about 2 feet) with 2 more slides on it, and the duramax pulls it like nobodys business. The ride is excellent and the seats are comfortable...... OK thats the good points,,, the bad points,, there is no storage inside the chevy, the fit and finish is not as good as the dodge, I dont think that the front suspension would handle much abuse, and the layout of the controls is kinda weird.,.... so it is a crapshoot. In MHO you cant go wrong with either,, depending on what you do,, just do yourself a favour and stay away from the fords..

Kevin

 

I just traded in a 05 duramax/Allison GMC on my 07 Dodge. Lets just say that I will never own another GM product the rest of my life. I drive alot. I had to replace the radiator(35000) and the front huds(twice). The killer was the injector pump was out at 49000 miles. It was covered under the Duramax warranty (100000). I went to 3 dealers and no one wanted to fix my truck. I called the 800# for GM and they would do nothing. I got my truck started with them on the phone and drove and traded it in on the Dodge. I have never had any vehicle towed in my life. I had the GMC towed twice in 1 1/2 years. The Dodge is more of a real truck. I feel I can abuse the Dodge alot more than I could the GMC. Oh by the way, the Duramax overheats real bad when towing. Go to one of the Duramax boards and find out. Another thing is that the Allison name is great, but I know of 2 guys that live within 5 miles of me that thier tranny exploded. These were in stock trucks also. Sorry so long.

 

i would go to a dodge dealer and buy a 06 or 07 dodge with a 5.9l if you can find one, i had a dodge and saw a chevy i liked, i bought the chevy kept it for a month and traded it on another dodge, the chevy had a 26gal tank and got 13mpg empty on the interstate, it was in E every 260mi or so, i got sick of filling it up, the dodge has tons more power than the chevy (to me anyway) and alot more useable RPM range

 

Dang man!

I bought a new one and IMO with 5.9% financing and your original downpayment at 10 grand you should be able to get into a 60 month note close to what you wanted, maybe a little closer to $500... Probably like a 33,000 truck with TT&L added on. If you can find a 5.9 that is a reasonable price for one that is optioned up.

Best of luck!

 

When I was looking for a new truck I bought the chevy for 4k less than the dodge (same options) and at 0% interest over 60 months, the dodge was 5.9% interest. That was ultimately what made me buy the chevy.... And as for fuel mileage, I have the LBZ engine, which is probably the worst of the duramaxs on fuel, and I am getting between 19 and 21 MPG, the lly engine which is what was in the 05 should have been getting easily in the 20's.

And to put this straight if you think that the chevys have less power, race one,, you will see that this is not the fact (the lbz has 360 hp and 650 lbs tq)

Dont get me wrong here, the dodge is an awesome truck, I really really wanted one of the new 6.7 trucks,, but after a test drive and they hit me with the numbers,,, I just had to buy the chev

loyalty can only go so far.....

Kevin

 

how much did you get the duramax for? was it the LT?

 

Price is going to be location specific. I can tell you diesel equipped trucks around here tend to go for several thousand more than the same in more rural parts of the country. So when comparing prices take that into account.

 

Ok, after reading morkable's post I thought I missed a great deal on the D-max and checked.

I'm assuming the LT1 is comparable to my Laramie... FWIW Chevy has worktruck, LS, LT1, LT2, and LT3. Only options I can think of on mine are tow mirrors, chrome wheels, and limited slip. The only option I picked on the LT1 was the power package (diesel, allision, limited slip) and on edmunds that came within a few hundred of what i paid for the dodge.

So the Cummins and Dmax are pretty comparable in price. I bought the dodge because I wanted the cummins 6cyl diesel because they have a good reputation.