There is not “zero evidence”. On top of the pages upon pages of forum posts detailing gen 2 problems, I consulted friends that own dealerships prior to buying mine and found that they themselves had seen far more gen 2’s with powertrain failures than gen 1’s, including numerous near 100k with turbo failures.
That’s all anecdotal evidence and frankly, ********. You’re trying to make an assertion with zero actual data or facts to support it; claimed 3rd party statements from random people is meaningless. Especially “owners of dealerships”, they don’t spend their time in the Service Department nor do most have any technical experience.
There have been far more Gen 2 trucks sold than Gen 1’s, so it’s a given that you will see more posts and dealers may see more vehicles in for service. That is not conclusive or indicative of the vehicle’s overall reliability. As far as turbochargers, they don’t just “fail” at high mileage unless the vehicle has had poor maintenance or has been modified.
You act as if common Gen 1 issues such as Fuse F27 melting, blend door actuator failures, 6R80 leadframe issues, cab corner rust, and valve spring failure at high mileage don’t exist. Yet I’m not making statements that Gen 2 is “more reliable” than Gen 1, because there is not empirical data to support those kinds of claims.
Both Generations are reliable vehicles; to claim otherwise is baseless and misleading, and that doesn’t help the OP or anyone else on the forum looking for information.