You already know more than I do about vinyl siding. Good luck with it.

WE are building two homes that I designed for my girlfriend and for her brother. We looked at both and I preferred the certainteed for the realistsic looks and color. The grooves were deeper and shadow lines heavier and felt a bit heavier but I never really checked the actual weight /thickness. The GP was about $50/ square less if I remember right and it was decided to go with GP. One went with a tan or taupe color I cant remember exact name. My girlfriends house is on the lake and we chose the steel blue /gray color. It wasnt as deep blue as the certainteed but we used a white trex pvc trim for all the rakes, fascias, freiezes etc and this helped make it read as a deeper blue. All in all Im still very pleased with the look. The quality appears to be pretty decent as much as one can tell with it up less than 6 months. Fading apears to be less of a concern with modern manufacturing techniches. I personally love the look of cedar shingles but this gives that look with out the continuous maintainence of staining /painting. It also gives options for some fun colors. The texture is nice either way and its about the same cost as stucco we found. Everyone thats seen it loves them both. Some colors look better than others and certainteeds looked better in some and GP in others . There are several other manufacturers out there but these are the two I found looked most realistic. I had a client use the certainteed and likes it as well. One other I really like is by quality edge. It was also a bit more expensive but I liked therealistic look and colors pretty well that I saw a few years back at a trade show. Good luck