2011 Duramax...still struggling..

[richc22a]

First Drive Review: 2011 Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra Heavy Duty, Part 1 - PickupTrucks.com News

With towing, hauling and power ratings that surpass almost every truck in the segment, GM has gotten closer to challenging Ford’s best-selling F-Series Super Duty lineup than ever before.

Read the review, main points;

We can feel the exhaust brake better than the Powerstroke, and uhm... well it is better than last year, noisier than the Powerstroke, wish it had more comfortable seats, better fit and finish interior, wish it had power telescoping mirrors.an LCD screen..the Ford 6.7 is snappier...

It has a nice ride???

[BlueF350]

The bottom line is that GM is tapped out and their HD is maxxed out. Same old tired interior, etc. Once Ford bumps the 6.7 power ratings it will be all over. GM and Ram can fight it out for the bottom half of the HD segment.

[powerstrokes only]

When are the power #'s going to get bumped higher than this new D-Max? I wish they would hurry up, I don't want to see the GM ads advertising "better everything". I want to see this 6.7 walk all over GM and Ram!!!!!!!

[kschmidt64]

If you're citing individual reviews only, Autoblog came to a pretty different conclusion.

First Drive: 2011 Chevy Silverado and GMC Sierra Heavy Duty trucks set new HD standard — Autoblog

Of note:

Of the two Super Duty F-350s, one was loaded with 3,000 pounds of ballast and the other was towing a trailer identical to the one hooked to the GM truck we sampled earlier. The first thing we immediately noticed was that the new 6.7-liter Scorpion diesel is simply not as refined as the Duramax. It produces plenty of power and torque, but at light accelerator applications, it still exhibits some of the traditional clatter traditionally associated with diesels. Put your foot into it at more than about 35-40 percent throttle (yes, we know a diesel has no throttle) and it settles down nicely into a similar growl to the Duramax. Since this is an all-new engine, perhaps the Blue Oval's engineers are still coming to grips with tuning it.

The other big difference we noticed with the Ford was in the area of ride comfort, which is clearly inferior to the Sierrado twins. Parts of the drive loop included some small, medium frequency waves that were noticeable but not intrusive in the Sierra. The Ford, on the other hand, felt jiggly over these same surfaces, even with 3,000 pounds of ballast in the bed. The Ford's steering was just as slop-free as the GM trucks, but on the demerit side, it felt distinctly overboosted.

We took out the Sierra and F-350 with identical trailers for some side-by-side testing on the short loop. While the Ford has exhaust-gas braking, it is of the traditional on-off variety rather than the variable control setup used by GM. Ford confirmed to us that there is no turbocharger control currently implemented in its tow-haul mode. The result is that while the system slows the vehicle on downhill grades, speeds can creep up unless you apply the brakes.

When accelerating, the Scorpion doesn't feel as brawny as the Duramax, even though the GM diesel only has a 7-horsepower and 30 pound-feet of torque advantage. Seizing the opportunity, we grabbed some of our colleagues and lined up the Sierra and F-350 (both with 9,000-pound trailers) for an informal drag race. The Ford did get an initial jump on the GMC, but then the Sierra quickly caught up and pulled away. Some seemed to think that Ford might be doing some torque limiting with its engine, perhaps to protect the transmission. Whatever the case, the GMC offered better performance both uphill and down.

As we rolled into our destination, the readout in the instrument cluster read a very impressive 19.8-mpg average for the diesel V8 – not bad for nearly 11,000 pounds of truck.

[Fantom]

As much as I love the new ford, if there's no Harley edition in the works for 2012, I might end up with a Denali 3/4 ton.

[Hotmetal]

HD Duromax .... new king of the hill... Good job GM.

But I prefer by far the look of the Super Duty. outside & inside.

[grunttorque]

I have to question how smart these testers really are if they are still referring to it as the "scorpion diesel"

[DetTigerS09]

Gm maxed out at 397 with 70 % new engine componets so just imagine what ford has coming.

[ExtremeFord4x4]

Same ole s h i t t y truck since 07. Thanks for cheaping out and only changing the front bumper.

[dereku]

Its a whole new frame on the 2011. I hate chevy but this whole truck is brand new. They just dont know how to change the way things look.

Well their engine is old.