Originally posted by Masherbrum
Hey guys, GM ripped off the 2005 Mustang with the 2nd Generation GTO.
Karaya
PS - Ford trucks are overall the best on the planet. "Heavy Duty" is NOT Independant Front Suspension, it is a Solid Axle.
The GTO was an Australian Holden years ago. They took the floor pan and moved it around, and put the old Camaro drivetrain in it.
Ford truck front suspension is the worst abomination in the entire light truck industry. The "twin I beam" won't stay lined up more than a month at a time. That's why Ford was FORCED to go straight axle on the "heavy duty" version. GM has a straight axle light truck by the way. The ONLY thing Ford has going for it is the straight axle 4X4 in the Super Duty. GM does need to put a straight axle in the 4x4 3500HD. The Duramax and the 8.1 will both break the front axle.
Ford has the worst automatic truck transmission, and the worst stick shift as well. The E4OD (later known as the 4R100) is the weakest, most unreliable piece of junk ever put between the frame rails of a light truck. It is failure prone and expensive to fix. More than TEN years after it was introduced, it STILL isn't fixed. It's worse than the old GM 700R4 ever was. Don't even think about that piece of junk ZF manual. There's a whole segment of the transmission repair industry dedicated to keeping that junk in some semblance of repair.
The Ford 460 gas engine never could hold a candle to the old 454 Chevy, and that V-10 wasn't any better. And the 8.1 Chevy is in a class by itself in light truck gasoline engines. That V-10 wouldn't even keep up with my old 81 454 and got half the fuel mileage.
You want a diesel? The Duramax is twice what any Powerstroke ever dreamed of being. I've yet to see any Powerstroke that was near as reliable, powerful, or efficient as a Duramax. They did good to keep up with the old 6.5 GM. The 6.5 was nothing to write home about either. It had its share of problems. On the other hand, we put over 300K miles on one, with a 36' enclosed gooseneck trailer behind it. Hard miles, it was never shown any mercy. Never got passed by another stock diesel until the Duramax came out. Couldn't say the same for any of the six Ford Powerstrokes in the bunch.