I think buying an infrequent-use vehicle at the bottom of the depreciation curve is the key to that issue, be it diesel or gas. I'm fairly certain the old diesel truck I bought will be worth more when I sell it (IF I ever do) than it was when I bought it. Newer diesels still have some time to get to the low point. The low point for diesel will also never be as low as it will for a gas motor, but that's more of an up-front cost issue than a lost-value issue as long as you buy at the bottom of the curve.
I would rather buy a vehicle that had been used infrequently than one that was only used for short hops.
The reason pickup truck owners like to idle their trucks is because it lets them pretend they're driving a Kenworth. Modern pickups hate this, it causes all sorts of problems.
My 2010 Dodge gets hard infrequent use. It's gone 60,000 miles in 5.5 years, and almost all of that is on the highway towing a two-car trailer. I think the average speed so far (odometer divided by engine hours) has been something like 45 mph. It's never had a problem starting. Of course, it's a pretty new vehicle that's been well maintained - but so far, having it sit has not shown a problem.
I bought it new because the initial depreciation on a diesel is almost nil, and my wife's company gets a wholesale plan that basically got us a new truck for the price of a 30k truck.
I have driven a kenworth.. nice trucks if rough riding in cabover configuration. I used to shut them down too, when sitting for any length of time
rslifkin wrote:
They shouldn't suffer any more from sitting than a gas engine. It's light load, short trips and extended idling that they don't like, as that can carbon things up pretty badly.
Please tell that to the people who leave their truck outside idling for 30 minutes while they sit in the office BS'ing with the manager, but don't shut the thing off because it's "bad for the engine".
I idle my truck because it's an oil cooled turbo and e-stopping that puppy right off the highway can't be good for it. I also like to pretend I'm driving a big mack truck and calling for rubber duck on channel 19.
By the time you've come off the highway and found a place to park, you're okay to shut down that turbo.
Knurled wrote:
rslifkin wrote:
They shouldn't suffer any more from sitting than a gas engine. It's light load, short trips and extended idling that they don't like, as that can carbon things up pretty badly.
Please tell that to the people who leave their truck outside idling for 30 minutes while they sit in the office BS'ing with the manager, but don't shut the thing off because it's "bad for the engine".
as somebody who is actually allergic to diesel fumes.. (they give me the rip roaring E36 M3s) I rejoiced with they passed the law saying that idling was illegal.
Keith Tanner wrote:
By the time you've come off the highway and found a place to park, you're okay to shut down that turbo.
Especially with a Diesel with its really, really cool EGTs, which is most of how they get away with non-watercooled turbos in the first place.
The first time I read an EGT gauge on a Diesel, I thought it was broken.
