Dodge Half Ton Diesel

[SoonerP226]

Meh...

....it's a Dodge. In other words, government and union owned.

The unions still own their share, but Fiat bought out the shares owned by US and Canadian gov'ts.

 

[SoonerP226]

It may be plenty capable but most people are going to buy it expecting the pulling power that they can get from the current cummins, powerstrokes, and duramax. ... People are going to over work that poor half ton suspension and braking system I expect.

I once talked to a contractor who said he'd tried Cummins-powered Dodges, but switch to Chebbies. His workers thought the Cummins made the Dodges bulletproof, so they tore them up trying to make them do more work than the rest of the truck could handle. He said he hadn't had any trouble with the Chebbies because his guys all thought they were gutless wonders, so they didn't overwork the trucks.

None the less more diesel is more better! Now let's hope Chevy and ford follow suit!

Ford canned their small diesel for the F150 because they couldn't make a business case for it. They are going to be putting a small diesel in the new Transit van (not to be confused with the Focus-based Transit Connect), so there is a possibility that it could make its way into the F150, but I wouldn't hold my breath waiting on it.

 

[Old Fart]

People are going to over work that poor half ton suspension and braking system I expect. But I could be surprised.

I would hope that those that use their trucks as a work truck everyday would know the limitations of the 1/2 ton chassis.

I have to agree, this will be the biggest problem. I've seen folks hauling large heavy 5th wheel trailers or a big backhoe on a heavy trailer behind thier half tons more than a few times. Sudden stops can be bad for all involved.

 

[sting75ray]

I will stick with my 07 and 06 Duramax trucks. I get right at 26MPG empty with the 07 and 19 to 20 pulling my car trailer.

 

[kroberts2131]

This is why I was so excited about the possibility of a F150 diesel. Plus lifetime of the engine seems to be higher for well maintained diesels over gas engines. As much as I despise dodge I'd be there in a heartbeat. 14 to 15 on a good day in my F150 just sucks.

I love my f150 but yeah 17 mpg sucks! I had an older FX4 and it got 12. I drove 60 miles round trip and that was killing me. I justified my new one for the mileage haha

 

[doctorjj]

I will stick with my 07 and 06 Duramax trucks. I get right at 26MPG empty with the 07 and 19 to 20 pulling my car trailer.

Haha!! Good one.

 

[j-black]

Meh, stick with the Hemi. It'll be cheaper in the long run.

 

[TerryMiller]

The unions still own their share, but Fiat bought out the shares owned by US and Canadian gov'ts.

I don't think Fiat bought out all the shares owned by the two governments. This from a news story:

"Here's the bottom line on the federal money: In exchange for a $12.5 billion bailout of Chrysler and its financial arm, the government got $7.1 billion in debt and a 9.9 percent equity stake in Chrysler. Chrysler has repaid the loans and parent company Fiat bought the government stock. The government got back $11.2 billion, but it won't get any more.

At GM, the government is $27 billion in the hole on a $49.5 billion bailout. Although taxpayers own 26.5 percent of GM stock, the shares are trading for less than half the $53 price needed for the government to recoup all its money."

The source of the story is an AP story at Yahoo! Finance

And, because of the story in the link below, the unions may soon lose out as Fiat is considering moving (at least some) of the auto production overseas and then importing back to the U.S.

Auto Bailout Bombshell

 

[Shadowrider]

I think we can thank GM for ruining America's trust in light duty diesels. The 5.7 converted Oldsmobile V-8 in the '80's was an epic failure, the 6.2L was just gutless and didn't get that great of mileage, and the 6.5 was also completely gutless and unreliable as hell. So nobody wanted to buy them. Add in uncle sugar's antics and one can see why they don't want to build one for the U.S. They have all built them for sale in other countries for years because 1) they sell there and 2) they don't have the asinine regs on emissions until somewhat recently and frankly I doubt that the other countries would have passed them if diesel technology didn't exist to comply with them in the first place. Kind of the other way around from the way we do things. I'm waiting in anticipation of the Obama CAFE mandates of 39mpg. He deemed it so, so they have the capability to comply right? He was claiming that while campaigning anyway. Where's my popcorn?

 

[SoonerP226]

I don't think Fiat bought out all the shares owned by the two governments.
...
"Chrysler has repaid the loans and parent company Fiat bought the government stock.

One of us is failing at reading comprehension. We can argue about whether or not the Gov't got all of our money back (or not--I agree that they didn't), but it sure looks to me like Fiat did buy out their shares of the stock.

Edit: According to this press release from Fiat, they bought out the shares held by the US Treasury as well as those owned by the Canadian gov't on July 21, 2011.