Posted by Dan Shockley on Tuesday, January 07, 2003 at 12:51PM :
In Reply to: Alarming News & you're not going to like it.... posted by Marty on Tuesday, January 07, 2003 at 11:56AM :
I think that this issue has been greatly over broadcasted. The biggest problem with automatic transmissions are the idiots that drive them. Poor service and abuse leads to transmission failures. Most of the people that I know that have had problems are towing way over the advertised GCWR, are turning up the power with out increasing cooling/service intervals, or are not performing proper service, etc. Yeah, the dodge transmissions are probably not best in class, but they do a good job on meeting the demands of the average truck buyer. We have a 1999 3500 Auto ctd and pull a trailer that is 24k loaded. The truck has 98,000 miles and the transmission has been serviced regularly and that is all, no problems. There have been a lot transmission problems reported for all the automatics(including the allison). You don't see many peope swaping from one brand of auto to the other (even though the parts are available). That is because the aftermarket has stepped up and offers product to meet all but the most extreme applications. I have read a lot on this forum about how heavy power wagons are, but I would like to let you all know that they are pretty light freight compared to a lot of stuff that gets hauled by light duty truck all the time (unless maybe you are hauling three). I think that the high-output, auto availablilty has less to do with the auto taking the power than many think. I wouldn't be suprised if it has to do with emmisions quotas, or CAFE standards or some other regulation.
Buy what every truck you like, but you need to understand that the diesel truck hype on the net is very exagerated compared to the real world problems experienced. You have to take a lot of the info with a grain of salt and focus on claims that substaitiate their grief with authentic data. There is a lota crap.
Good luck,
Dan
P.S. the 99 mentioned above is being replaced tomorrow with a 2003 HO 6-speed 4x4 QC.
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