Can you be to Picky?

Super_Dave wrote:
Can I order a Cummins diesel with an Allison transmission? There are pluses and minuses to every make and model. Congrats to anyone that got EVEVRYTHING they wanted on their truck.

No, you can't get a GM transmission in a Ram pickup truck. And given that pickups are the best sellers from all three of the big three, it should be self-evident why GM isn't racing to sell their transmissions to the other two.

If you buy a big enough commercial truck, you can probably get an Allison with a Cummins engine, though.

mkirsch wrote:
What I don't get is the "DON'T want" part. People will angrily complain because a truck has options they steadfastly DON'T want. People will angrily pay more for a truck with fewer options, or for a custom-ordered truck they have to wait weeks/months for, in order to get it without options they steadfastly DON'T want.

What's not to want?

I did not want an electric-shift transfer case. I wanted a mechanical lever. 4wd is something you rarely use but when you do, it's pretty critical. That electric motor sitting down there is just waiting to corrode and not work. I would rather just not have it; using the lever is just as easy as the electronic shift anyway.

I did not want a sunroof. When it rains, they're noisy. When they're old, they leak. Even if they didn't, I would have never opened it anyway. I ordered the truck without the sunroof.

I did not want the navigation they were offering. It was a $1000 option in 2005. In 2014, you can buy a nice GPS unit for $100-200 and if you want an in-dash one, there are a number of radios that offer that feature for far less expensive and the key part--far more upgradeable than the factory. So I ordered the truck without the navigation.

Most importantly, I would absolutely not have an automatic transmission. Not because I really care if others like them or whatever--I just find it boring to drive an automatic. I am also thoroughly convinced that they are unreliable and also fairly certain that no technology change that will happen in my lifetime will change this--automatics are better than ever but the brute reliability of gears and bearings, they have not yet achieved. So I ordered a truck with leather, a floor shift transfer case, power windows and door locks and the whole nine yards, but with a manual transmission.

I wouldn't want it any other way. There are some features I could probably deal with having or with not having. The paint color is somewhat negotiable--I prefer blue but paint doesn't make the truck function any different. But since I'm so picky about other features, I wouldn't fuss too much about the color.

If I was 30 years older and I could trade the truck in every few years, it'd be different, but I can't, and so I've had my truck for over 9 years and I plan to have it at least 10 more. It has to have what I want; I'm going to practically live in it during that time. Hell, I have spent over 50 hours traveling in it just since August. It's like a desk chair at work--it has to fit.

Long winded but that's just the way it is. Money may sway some on these things, but the marginal difference in cost spread over a very long period of time is a small price to pay for having exactly the truck that best fits your intended use.

Now if I could just go back to 2005 and get my same truck with dual rear wheels!