I love Ford trucks, the biggest reason is I abuse mine like crazy, always off-road with them, and I never have problems. The only major issue I had was a cracked head on my first truck, an 89 F150. The only reason it cracked is because I cut the lower radiator hose muddin and didn't know it. I drove it for two days without coolant in the Texas heat. On the second day I noticed it was bogging down and couldn't figure out why. I pulled over and found out it had no coolant. Other than that it was a great truck, over 200,000 miles on it. All of our trucks at work are Ford Super Duties and we abuse the hell out of them too, over 70,000 miles a year and lots of it off-road and pulling goosenecks. We haven't had any problems except with the new ones which I hate.
In GM's defense my Mom had a 97 Chevy 1500 that went 250,000+ with both doors banged up from wrecks but still running like a champ when we traded it in. It blew a head gasket once but that was around 225,000 miles and an easy fix. But I don't like the newer GM's at all, they drive and ride like crap, like the new Dodges. But Ford is way over priced, so you win some and lose some.
It sounds like your dealer is an ass. I would call the Chevy phone line like someone had suggested earlier.
