I see your point… But the advantage you speak of can work both ways right? Release a year sooner and sure you’ve beat the competition to the punch but you’ve also now set the bar for the competition to beat right? I know a year isn’t a long time to make major model changes but at least you know the competition at that point.
Think of all the people that jumped ship to Ford when they were comparing Ford’s latest full-size SUV model to GM’s “latest” 1-2 year old model refresh.
Ford can have and keep their V6TT full-size SUV’s. GM has made the better choice by sticking with the V8 and offering a turbo diesel option.
Now if Ford were to wise up and offer their 5.0 V8 as an option for their full-size SUV platform that’s a different conversation.
I don't think a year or less is enough time for Ford to respond to GM. Perhaps a software update/change is feasible in that time frame, but physical changes take far more time to implement.
While I do prefer GM's naturally aspirated V8s, Ford has largely worked out the design problems with the V6TT. It seems GM has gone backwards on reliability in terms of their naturally aspirated V8s.
I wouldn't consider a turbo diesel for a non HD application. It's not worth the complexity for a 1/2 ton chassis that someone is keeping over 100k miles in my opinion. Turbo diesels aren't a problem under warranty. Once they're not under warranty, one small problem on a turbo diesel powertrain leads to a cascade of fails that ultimately costs far more money to repair than even a turbo charged gas powertrain.
