The difference between All-Wheel drive & 4 Wheel drive

[gnappi]

The Fords and Chevy's still don't get it, IMHO.

Sadly, +1

 

[New River Rat]

It isn't that we don't WANT to buy US vehicles, it is simply, at least for me, that the foreign competition is so much more reliable.

The Fords and Chevy's still don't get it, IMHO.

~ 650k on three trouble-free Silverados since '84,

What am I missing here? FWIW, I can't drink your kool-aid, Rich. It seems artificially sweetened. [-X

 

[richg99]

I can only speak to my personal experiences. No cool aid here.

 

[jethro]

I had a lot of good, trouble free miles with Toyotas, but they can't tow worth a **** based on GVWR. Owned 2 Tacomas that I bought brand new. And I can't afford to fuel up or buy a Tundra or Titan. So I got a GMC Sierra and now towing my enclosed snowmobile trailer and 4500 lb boat is no problem. I get 22mpg unhitched and with the sled trailer towing about 75 or 80mph I get about 13 which is very good. I would own another Toyota product in a heartbeat if they made something with reasonable fuel economy that doesn't cost half a hundred thousand dollars.

My only issue with my Toyota Tacomas were the frame... this truck- looks good yes? Good shape! Right?

Well this is what the frame looked like that same day:

Truck ran great for 220k miles, nothing but brakes, fuel and filters, but what good is that when the frame rots out from underneath it? So I bought a GM product so at least I am not surprised when it rots out.

Also, Toyota design development is seriously lacking. My GMC has both 4 wheel drive AND all wheel drive. Yes they are different and do different things. Toyota spends zero money on development. My '17 GMC which cost only slightly more than my '13 Tacoma has so much more features it's not even funny. Toyota is simply riding the wave of success and have so many blind followers that will just buy a Tacoma. Their complacency will be their downfall, especially when cheap vehicles are now $40k and up. Much, much happier now that I am in a real truck:

 

[handyandy]

My Nissan was made in the USA. Toyota Tundra is made in Texas. Tacomas in Mexico and California. Honda Ridgeline is made in Alabama. Crew cab Silverados are made in Mexico.

all one ton and 3/4 tons are us made, regular cab, and ext cab 1/2 are us made. If I wasn't such a cheap arse and bought a new truck I'd buy ext cab. The new ext cab is as big as older crew cabs. Honestly if I bought new I'd give the colorado/canyon with the diesel a serious look have a buddy with one it's a nice truck pulls down decent mpg, has enough *** to pull a decent boat or anything I ever tow. Little spendy but no worse than what anyone else offers that compares. He has been getting mid 20's highway with it, has pulled a trailer with construction job boxes loaded with tools and some other crap with it without complaints. I'd say with a set of helper springs it's towing capabilities would be much better. The air spring helpers I put in my old suburban were the single best thing I did to it to help out towing wise. The old burb has been good to me not too long ago it made a 5k road trip we did for our honey moon through south dakota/montana/wyoming/north dakota has 230k on the clock now. I rebuilt the trans at 207k, but I haven't encountered too many trucks of any brand that usually didn't have a rebuilt trans at the kind of mileage I have on mine. I have to replace typical things that would have wore out on anything with the miles it has like brakes, u joints, wheel bearings, and ball joints. But I would have been stuck with those repairs on any truck that I would have had with this high of miles. I got initially with 170k miles roughly.

The titans have been good, but as it is with any truck they're bad on gas. Takes energy to tow and move a lot of weight that energy comes in the form of the ole gasoline. My suburban or any truck for that matter is the same way, if you need something with decent towing capacity it's not going to be the best on gas. I'm not a big tacoma fan have friends with them, and they don't get much better fuel mileage unloaded than my suburban does unloaded, but they can't tow as much. I'd really like to give the diesel the canyon or colorado a go with towing wonder what a dealer would say if I brought in a trailer to hook up to it for a test drive haha

 

[jethro]

wonder what a dealer would say if I brought in a trailer to hook up to it for a test drive haha

I brought my trailer in to the dealership to tow it on my test drive. They didn't even blink.

 

[LDUBS]

wonder what a dealer would say if I brought in a trailer to hook up to it for a test drive haha

I brought my trailer in to the dealership to tow it on my test drive. They didn't even blink.

That was Andy's question, not mine. But really, it isn't a bad idea at all.

HandyAndy, those Colorados are good looking pickups. I tend to agree in general that the Extended or Quad cabs (or whatever you call them) are the best looking. However, I still opt for all the legroom I can get so went with a full sized crew cab.

 

[bcbouy]

i towed boats and carried a camper on my f150 for 10 years.rebuilt the crappy ifs 3 times.never again will i buy anything but a 3/4 or 1 ton american truck with a solid front axle.anything less is just a grocery getter.some will say ifs handles better,but how can i tell ? it's a truck.but that's my preference and it works for what i use it for.

 

[onthewater102]

Suffered through a family of GM/Chevy drivers growing up maintaining everything myself. Never again. The component parts they use are trash. They wrap a coil of wire around the turns in the non-stainless brake lines which always results in them blowing brakes anywhere after 100k miles, fuel lines have the same issues. Automatic transmissions don't last much longer than that. Cheap sensors throughout constantly have to be replaced. Fuel pressure regulators fail and are a nuisance to get to.

4x4 models with the push button in-cab engagement use a vacuum actuator that has a vacuum hose routed too close to the exhaust so they tend to develop pinhole vacuum leaks that don't allow the transfer case to fully engage and you end up chewing the gears before the actuator failure is bad enough to throw a code. Complete junk.

Those companies failed for a reason and should have been allowed to die. That is the way of capitalism, you cheap out your product to the point that it's utter trash and your business dies and the competitor with the better product replaces you. The demand doesn't go away. Plain and simple.

The domestic auto industry in this country (perhaps with to the exclusion of Ford) is just another welfare institution.


Switched to a BMW X5 and haven't looked back. Would have gone with a Toyota but I couldn't justify the extra $$$ at the time.

 

[onthewater102]

Jethro - that frame rot was covered by Toyota. I know two people who have had the entire frame of their Tacoma's replaced by the dealer at no charge. One of them had over 350k miles at the point they swapped the frame out. Admitedly, it wasn't the best advertised program, but it was available and might still be.

I repeat...THEY SWAPPED THE FRAME OUT - removed the bed, the cab, the powertrain, cooling system, suspension, braking system EVERYTHING and moved it to an entirely new frame.

Find an INSTANCE where an american company did such a thing for a SINGLE customer and I will eat my shoe.

 

[ppine]

I think he was just joking that you might be going into too difficult places, and, therefore, getting stuck.

I've actually read that the bigger, higher, and wider your vehicle, the more you "test" it.

Ha Ha

The worthwhile places in the West are all difficult.
I made a living driving everywhere.

 

[LDUBS]

i towed boats and carried a camper on my f150 for 10 years.rebuilt the crappy ifs 3 times.never again will i buy anything but a 3/4 or 1 ton american truck with a solid front axle.anything less is just a grocery getter.some will say ifs handles better,but how can i tell ? it's a truck.but that's my preference and it works for what i use it for.

What's an "ifs"?

 

[LDUBS]

That's great and we need to see much more of our manufacturing base for many products that have been sent offshore over the last 3-4 decades come back and be American made and provide decent paying American jobs again.

Back in the 60's and 70's a person could finish high school and get a decent manufacturing job that paid enough to comfortably buy a house and raise a family and have no need to go to college and pile on tons of student loan debt. The sad part is today many of those piling on all that college debt are not making even the equivalent amount of money these working the manufacturing jobs did back then and they had 0 college debt and started work earning a living 4 years earlier in their lives.

We were just talking about how much things have changed. Kind of sad that now days college grads can't even afford to leave home (or pay their cell phone bill - Haha).

 

[New River Rat]

What's an "ifs"?

My guess, independent front suspension.

 

[onthewater102]

What's an "ifs"?

Looks like a typo for difs ie differentials...only thing that makes sense to me with the other reference to a solid axle.

 

[JNG]

"ifs" is independent front suspension. Fords version of this could be problematic at times on older Broncos and ptrucks.

 

[vfourmax]

"ifs" is independent front suspension. Fords version of this could be problematic at times on older Broncos and ptrucks.

Actually the older Ford IFS settings would change just by adding or subtracting the weight of a passenger in the cab on the other side.

It gave a good ride quality, but was not usually tire wear friendly because it failed to always maintain the optimum settings due to the design. Talk to any top shelf alignment person and they will tell you it is not a great design.

There were shops that did know the tricks though and could get reasonable alignments out of them but your run of the mill line up shops were a waste of time with the Ford IFS suspensions.

 

[sunshine]

My next truck won't be a Chevy. I'm tired of their garbage front ends. Doing ball joints every 2-3 years gets old.

You'd think that 4x4 sticker on the bed would come with more than two CV axles and a transfer case, maybe beef up the suspension parts so it can actually handle 4x4 conditions.

 

[jethro]

Jethro - that frame rot was covered by Toyota. I know two people who have had the entire frame of their Tacoma's replaced by the dealer at no charge. One of them had over 350k miles at the point they swapped the frame out. Admitedly, it wasn't the best advertised program, but it was available and might still be.

I repeat...THEY SWAPPED THE FRAME OUT - removed the bed, the cab, the powertrain, cooling system, suspension, braking system EVERYTHING and moved it to an entirely new frame.

Find an INSTANCE where an american company did such a thing for a SINGLE customer and I will eat my shoe.

Yeah, I know of that program, I'm a top poster over on TacomaWorld.com. I've owned two Tacos, both bought brand new but this one wasn't covered under the program unfortunately. Even with the frame issues I had I loved those trucks (or should I say cars). I would still own one if it could tow what I need it to.So far I've been pleasantly surprised with this GMC, it's been good so far but that is the question... will it be as good as my Tacos at 200k miles? Doubtful.

 

[onthewater102]

Watch the brake lines - especially seeing as you live in the northeast with all the junk we coat the roads with in the winter. By 100k miles or so they will be in really bad shape if it's the same as every other GM product I've had the displeasure of owning/ working on.

Enjoy that depreciation!

I wish kids in car seats would fit comfortably in the back of a 4dr Tacoma/4Runner. Alas, we're looking for a Highlander.