I'm not Mr truck, just posting my opinion.

The eternal question; do you like bow ties or blue ovals? Each one has many advocates, each one will work well. Which one can you get the best price and service? After sales service is very important in this expenditure, the reputation of your dealer would weigh very heavily in my decision. This would be the tie breaker for me.

BOL  Gard

Is this a trick question? It was easier a year ago. All three diesels will get you to 300,000 miles, well not all the Ford 6.0L Power Stroke's will get there without a new turbo and a few other repairs. But the bottom line was which auto transmission would get you over 200,000 miles of towing and the winner was GM with the Allison.

Now in 2007.5 with Dodge having a new 68RE 6-speed auto with nicely spaced gears and a cool factory exhaust brake in the 2500/3500 and the Aisin automatic in the Dodge 4500/5500, it's neck and neck with GM.

Not to leave Ford behind as the new 6.4L Power Stroke has done well so far with a dramatic improvement over the 6.0L with less recalls and "reaquired" buyback trucks. And the 5R110 auto tranny, though just a 5 speed has strengthened the auto tranny with 3 clutch surfaces instead of one in the torque converter lockup. Besides making the tranny quieter, it stops TC slippage with max capacity trailers. The external bypass filter is replaced back to the new sump pan direct filter that can filter all the oil. Ford raised the interval for servicing tranny oil and filter to 60k with a larger pan and filter.

Starting in January, the 5R110 automatic transmission has a 5 gear planetary instead of 4 of last year, picture right.  The torque converter has more oil pressure, a new spring damper and one way stator clutch.

So now, though I favor the Allison as the best tranny every produced, I'd say you could by any of the big three diesels and be happy.

Here's some good news, if it develops. We all need some good knews other than discovering oil in my back yard:

General Motors says it is investing in a ... company that claims its secret process could be able to make ethanol from waste in large quantity as soon as 2010 for $1 a gallon or less, half the cost of making gasoline. Bill Roe, CEO of 18-month-old ethanol maker Coskata, says the company's process uses bacteria developed at the University of Oklahoma and existing gasification technology to generate 99.7% pure ethanol, plus water. He says the method should leapfrog cellulosic production, which has been seen as the next step from today's ethanol production using corn. GM won't disclose its investment, but Roe says it's enough to make Coskata "a speed-to-market play. I don't think most people saw this coming," he says. "Most talk about cellulosic ethanol is futuristic." Source:  USA Today 

I just could not decide which truck to get so I decided to wait it out a little longer. My 2002 GMC gives me great service, but it has not been my primary pulling truck for the last 3 years. It is used just for local pickups and day riding. Out of 106K miles, 70K were hauling a 12K# LQ trailer. I am not one that needs a new truck every year but I do want to upgrade to a newer dually before hubby retires. I just can't decide which one. They all have their attributes!

So, MR TRUCK, would you wait it out or just jump on in and get one now? If wait it out is your option, just how long would you wait?

It's hard to predict, 1/2 ton diesels will start showing up 2010. 2010 is a number to remember because it's the next new emissions standard. Dodge Cummins diesels are already compliant, but you'll see GM and Ford have to go to some kind of Urea injector which will have to be refilled. We don't have all the details yet but will in another year. So I'd watch the truck news and see what 2010 will do to cost and maintance.

I was worried about the changes for 2007, thinking the power would be down and fuel economy bad. But the power went up after the emission rules for January 2007 on the new diesels. Ford did loose a little on mileage but Dodge went up a little. So it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be but the new diesels did go up in price of course with the new EGR's and Diesel Particulate Filters. So 2010 could be expensive. You just never know, if the economy keeps droping, fuel prices will drop and truck prices won't go up.  But I'd suggest you be ready to decide by 2009 if it's cheaper to buy the old system or gamble on the new changes for 2010. You have time to do the Ben Franklin close, put the good things about the truck in the left column and bad things in the right column and see which column wins.

Thanks Mr Truck! Your knowledge is greatly appreciated. I may wait until the 09's start rolling out, whenever that is.

I had heard thru the horse show grapevine ,that, they are going to try to make us upgrade our M2 like the big trucks. I am not sure how they can do that. Isn't it grandfathered in?

Mine is a 2005 that I bought new in April 2005.