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Always have been a Chevy guy but........
neacpa
Member Posts: 2,711 ✭✭✭
Every new truck I have bought since 1985 has been a Chevrolet. I currently have a 2013 2500HD with 93k miles on it and have been thinking about replacing it with a half ton since I sold my place in the hills and really don't need the 3/4 ton anymore. In all reality, I really didn't need the 3/4 ton because I didn't pull my JD4500 tractor very much anyway but I wanted it. I have been rolling around the idea of trying a Nissan Titan. I know the fuel mileage is not good, but I don't buy a truck for the mileage anyway.
We bought my son a 2016 Silverado in May of 16 while he was still going to college. It has 94k miles on it and the transmission went out yesterday. $3,400 to rebuild or $3,700 for one from Chevrolet. Chevrolet would have 3 yr 100k mile warranty. Unbelievable that a tranny would go out with only 94k miles on it and not pulling hardly anything except maybe a lawn mower on a trailer. I guess Chevy knew there would be problems with them when they changed the powertrain warranty from 100k miles to 60k miles beginning in 2016.
I did some googling and apparently Chevrolet has a significant problem with the transmissions now.
I can officially say that I have bought my last new Chevrolet vehicle.
Minor rant over.
We bought my son a 2016 Silverado in May of 16 while he was still going to college. It has 94k miles on it and the transmission went out yesterday. $3,400 to rebuild or $3,700 for one from Chevrolet. Chevrolet would have 3 yr 100k mile warranty. Unbelievable that a tranny would go out with only 94k miles on it and not pulling hardly anything except maybe a lawn mower on a trailer. I guess Chevy knew there would be problems with them when they changed the powertrain warranty from 100k miles to 60k miles beginning in 2016.
I did some googling and apparently Chevrolet has a significant problem with the transmissions now.
I can officially say that I have bought my last new Chevrolet vehicle.
Minor rant over.
Comments
Myself I have a 2000 ford with almost 300K on it without any drive train issues. I don't know if the new ones will do that or not. I have rode in my uncles's Nissan and it is a nice truck. Though I prefer American, (Fords due to the bailouts) If I found one at the right prices I wouldn't have any issues buying one.
If I had bought extended warranties on the new vehicles over past 20 years, I would have wasted $10-12k.
I may be a bit of an unusual case here, but in all of my years of car\truck ownership and driving since 1971, I have not done a single thing to any transmission maintenance wise. Never had any issues or problems either.
A few of my early vehicles needed added tranny fluid at times but that was all.
Let the stones fly!
That being said, I bought one of the Nissan NV3500 Vans as a work truck a couple of months ago. Yeah, fuel mileage sucks, and it doesn't have the resale of a Toyota, but this van with the 5.7 hauls a hell of a load better than any vehicle I've ever owned (except my Duramaxs). It's geared right and shifts right.
If you think any of the other companies that make trucks don't have transmission problems then you are in for a surprise. I'm betting the last owner of that truck was towing a lot more than a lawn mower.
My 2003 Silverado doesn't have a lot of miles on it but it's towed it's share of 35 ft. travel trailers all over the South including the mountains and it's never had a transmission problem. And she still looks as good today as the day I drove her off the dealer's lot over 16 years ago.
Edit:
Your truck does look exceptional for a 16 yr old truck. My 02 doesn't look anywhere that nice. I have driven it through places I probably should not have over last ten years or so while hunting and it shows it.
Oh I thought you said the 2016 was used. Sorry about that. Then that makes a really big difference. You've had one truck that you bought new in 34 years with a transmission problem. Yep I'd dump Chevy to if I had that many problems. :roll:
He told me the Nissan out performs his Chevy by a lot. Pulls the camper up hill without issue etc. "
Well, considering the Chevy could be a 5.0(or maybe even a 4.3 V6), I don't doubt the Nissan "out performs" it. I do question (and seriously doubt) the part where the Nissan pulls the camper uphill w/o issue. I've pulled a 24' TT behind a 6.0 with 4.10 gears and at times there were "issues". Long, steep slopes will always be an issue unless you're OK with dropping 2 or 3 gears and running up to 4K rpm. The smaller motors aren't going to pull as much as a bigger displacement.
One of our farm pickups is an 8.1 with the Allison transmission. It pulls most things w/o issue and I don't doubt it will pull the TT with minimal strain.
I'm assuming you don't listen to Dave Ramsey.
LOL, I was thinking the same thing when I first read that...
Kind of hard to argue the facts huh...
Let's see. In my post I mentioned the Chevy truck had a 350 in it. I was wrong, it's actually a 5.3L, but it still isn't what you listed. Certainly not a v6 which was plain if you read my post. As for the Nissan not having issues going up hills with my uncle's camper behind it. Well it doesn't. "Without issues" doesn't mean it runs like on flat ground. I am sure there are hills that can pull it down, but the Nissan is not straining like his Chevy does on the hills in his normal routes. The Nissan is simply a more powerful, stouter 1/2 ton pickup than his Chevy, IIRC it has a 5.6L v8 which helps, both are 4WD.
Again, it's an older Chevy and a newer Nissan, maybe not a fair comparison. I'm sure transmissions make a difference too. A person can only expect so much out of a 1/2 ton truck. I'm not an expert on the matter, (just relaying what information I had related to his post). But I have worked a lot of trucks and pulled quite a bit with them, not so much anymore as I am no longer in construction and haven't had horses for several years.
When I am pulling something with any weight to it with my 5.4L 150 Ford I take it out of overdrive when approaching a decent hill. It will pull a lot of hills in high that will make it shift to 2nd if left in overdrive. Seems it will drop 2 gears when it gets in a strain in overdrive, quite aggravating and probably not best for the truck. It should down shift to high sooner on it's own, but it doesn't.
serf
My wife had a trans go out on two vehicles at under 35k miles. One was a supercharged Gran Prix GTP. It was probably flogged hard before we bought it. Not surprised with that one really. Her 2nd one was a 2013 Lincoln MKX with a 6 cylinder. It didn't have much power so it didn't do much good to try to hot rod it. Anyway, we were just driving down the highway and it started to shudder a bit. Within about 3-5 miles it blew the seal out and it started spraying transmission fluid everywhere.
I have had one GM transmission that no one could figure out at all. I finally had to give up on the whole vehicle. It was a S-10 Blazer. It originally had a 2.8 4 cylinder in it and I dropped an aluminum block 4.3 liter in there. I converted it to carb, and had the trans rebuilt at the same time with the electronics bypass, etc. Very long story short, from then on, it'd work for a few weeks, maybe a month then once the vehicle was warm, it would up/down shift from OD constantly for a bit then eventually OD would only work while cold. I had it back in countless times. Everyone looked through all our kickdown, wiring, etc but no one could find anything. Finally, we even switched out the actual transmission case because we thought perhaps something was warped. 5 different shops over the course of 3-4 months. Since this was supposed to be my daily driver, and we didn't have a lot of money at the time. I had to give it up. It's a shame because that was a fun little vehicle. It was peppy enough for fun, but not so much to get me in trouble. It was still light enough it was still balanced for off roading and mudding.
My truck didn't come with a transmission temperature gauge so I purchased a ScanGaugeII that plugs into the computer outlet under the dash. It was a lot cheaper than putting in a new dash cluster with the temperature gauge. Plus the Scangauge shows a lot more than just the transmission temperature.
I KNOW what a pickup will pull and what it takes to pull stuff and I wince at some of the wild claims made about "pulling power". With this knowledge and experience I also own a Kodiak 6500 that will pull (and stop) one heck of a load.
The automatic transmissions, as a whole, just keep getting better. The technology is better at keeping the truck operating in the right range for the situation. You can pull more with the same class of truck now than you could years ago. Still, you can't expect more than your equipment is built for, a 1/2 ton pickup can't do the work of a ton truck, no matter how hard you ride it.