I think the balance can change every few years, but believe the Ford will generally be better with meticulous maintenance than the Dodge. Which suits me fine as I like staying on top of things.
Every once in a while a manufacturer will go off on some bonehead tangent which just precludes anything I'd have to do with them. Such as a turbocharged V6 (ford), or excess bling electronics (most manufacturers these days), or garbage cheap pressed bottle-cap ball joints (dodge dak), or two-thread spark plug head ports (ford), or CVT trannies (6-cyl Subaru s), etc... But if you catch one of them in the year that you're shopping in where all their components are mostly sane, that will generally make for a positive purchase decision.
Problem is, you might not find out about some catastrophic manufacturing or design decision until owning the vehicle for several years. Remember the 2-piece Ford plugs? A horrible mess if you leave them too long, but not bad if replaced relatively soon after new and installed with nickle anti-seize down around the probe part. And I'd much rather replace an F150 starter that have to tear apart half the engine in a Tundra to get at one. Replacing F150 fluids twice as often as recommended and the VCT solenoids once in a while will prevent cam follower, chain guide, and phasor problems - but you wouldn't know that the day you took the test drive.
I test drove a new F150 and a new Dodge 'hemi' years ago when buying, and decided on the Ford despite similar purchase pricing. That's because the Dodge engine and exhaust noise reverberated like you were sitting on top of an earth mover engine. Couldn't image driving that thing for very long without getting a big headache. If a manufacturer has to resort to cosmetic crap like that for sales, I'll go elsewhere.
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