Should I buy a diesel pickup?

So I'm considering buying a diesel pickup. The last diesel I owned was a 1986 chevy with the 6.2 detroit, so you could say I'm a bit out of the loop. I'm looking at between 5 and 10k for the budget. I really don't know what I want. I could go with any of the big three. My only stipulation is that if I get a ford I want a 7.3, not a 6.0. So please, give me your input. What kind of real world fuel mileage do you get? Was the extra torque and mileage worth the extra buy in and increased upkeep costs? If you had it to do over would buy another? Thanks

These threads are always very predictable. 

Round here (Wisconsin) $5-8k gets you something you would not be proud of.  Double that figure and you can get something decent but with 250k miles on it.  20k plus for anything worth a E36 M3 with under 200 spins on it.  

SVRex has some sort of flux generator/rotary girder in his truck that lets him get slightly better economy than a Gen 1 Prius, but in reality you end up with around 12-18 MPG no matter what you do for a typical truck with 4x4, auto trans, etc.  

I am finally diesel truckless after 15 years (Went 6.5 Chevy -> Duramax Chevy -> 12V Cummins -> Ford 7.3 -> Ford 7.3)  Resale and power were great, maintenance was not atypical of any heavy duty truck.  Hundred dollar oil changes sting a bit considering it was just a daily commuter and not a breadwinner.

After 2 years of commuting and grocery getting with a 7.3 Crew Cab 4x4 Manual Trans Lifted Up big man truck  I sold it and bought a 2006 Land Cruiser.  Significant improvement in everything for my purposes.  

In reply to 93gsxturbo :

Haha!

93gsxturbo said:

Round here (Wisconsin) $5-8k gets you something you would not be proud of.  Double that figure and you can get something decent but with 250k miles on it.  20k plus for anything worth a E36 M3 with under 200 spins on it.  

That is what I was thinking also until I started looking at ads. In my area prices are coming down on them. I think the fad is fading away and the market is somewhat saturated. Don't get me wrong, 10k doesn't buy a 50,000 mile creampuff, but there are some trucks for sale at that price that aren't ready for the junkyard. I'm okay with a 2wd so that helps. 

The desirability of 2WD and 4WD varies by region. Around here, everyone wants 4WD so the 2WD trucks are cheap. Head for the South or California and that inverts. Might be worth a road trip depending on where you are. Mine's a 4WD and I mostly use it when I'm trying to get the trailer moving on dirt It has saved my bacon a few times.

For a towing truck, I like diesels. Not because of fuel economy - although they do better than gas there - but because they're just well suited to pulling. They're a lot more relaxing on long interstate hauls. For running around town or dealing with anything you can load in the bed, gas is just plain easier to deal with.

My 6.7 Dodge gets about 18 mpg when it's unloaded (like that ever happens) and 10-13 when pulling a two-car trailer over mountains.

I'm getting about 12-13mpg when towing on my '96 F250 4x4 Powerstroke and 18-19ish on longer solo runs. It's about as stock as these things get. Mileage recently has improved thanks to it riding piggyback on tow trucks, though . 

I bought a Diesel because I wanted one, not because I needed one. For the amount of use this thing gets, I would've been better off with a gas big block (nicer, newer truck for the same money). I still like the old beast though and as Keith said, they're rather well suited to towing.

It'd be easier to answer your question if you tell us why you want one.

I searched for a Ford diesel for a few years. I wanted a 4X2 with the 7.3 and those that I found were either over priced, a standard cab, or junk!  The only one I ever found that I would have bought was hundreds of miles away and came up for sale just when I couldn't travel to go buy it.

I did consider getting a Ford with the 6.3L diesel. Their  selling price will usually reflect the lower value many put on those trucks but they can be expensive to fix when something goes wrong. The later the version the better. These do have a better rep  for staying together and a friend has one of these and has had no issues to date.

I ended up with a gasser. A 2013 Ecoboost V6.  It had high miles for it's age (145K) at the time of purchase so I got it for less than what they normally sell for.

20-22 mpg empty highway and 9.5-12 mpg towing a 20 ft enclosed. The truck is still stock.

Keith Tanner said:

The desirability of 2WD and 4WD varies by region. Around here, everyone wants 4WD so the 2WD trucks are cheap. Head for the South or California and that inverts.

Not as much as you might think here in CA, at least for 3/4 ton diesels.  4WDs are a few grand more than 2WDs, and 2WDs are also pretty rare, single digit percentages of the market.  My latest truck I was shopping for a 2WD but there just weren't any.

I'll second the general info keith mentioned. I have a '00 7.3 F-350 dually (not 4x4) with auto and get 15 around town, 17 highway empty, and 12-15 highway towing 24' enclosed depending on terrain and speed limit. Rear wheel only drive is fine here in South.

codrus said:

Keith Tanner said:

The desirability of 2WD and 4WD varies by region. Around here, everyone wants 4WD so the 2WD trucks are cheap. Head for the South or California and that inverts.

 

Not as much as you might think here in CA, at least for 3/4 ton diesels.  4WDs are a few grand more than 2WDs, and 2WDs are also pretty rare, single digit percentages of the market.  My latest truck I was shopping for a 2WD but there just weren't any.

 

 

Interesting. I was basing that on the SoCal track guys (Andrew, Emilio, Moti). They all buy 2WDs. My brother in law bought a 2WD when he was stationed in NC, he had to drive it back there to sell it - but he got a great deal there on a 4WD to replace it. Colorado is 4WD pretty much exclusively.

I have a 99 F350 Dually 4x4 with auto and get 14-15 empty highway, 10-12 loaded highway.  no clue on around town - it really only gets used on long trips where I need the capability.  I probably didn't need a diesel for what I haul, but it's been fun learning about diesel engines, and trying to get used to the stink of diesel fuel 

I had trouble finding diesel in my area, which was enough of a pain that it offset the diesel benefits (not completely). YMMV.

Another downside that I'm currently experiencing it that quite a few shops at least around here won't touch a Diesel. So unless you can and are willing to do all the work yourself, make sure that you have someone trustworthy who works on Diesels.

BoxheadTim said:

Another downside that I'm currently experiencing it that quite a few shops at least around here won't touch a Diesel. So unless you can and are willing to do all the work yourself, make sure that you have someone trustworthy who works on Diesels.

That’s true. 

D2W said:

It'd be easier to answer your question if you tell us why you want one.

Fair enough. I currently have a 2002 chevy 2500hd with the 6.0 gas engine. It's my daily do everything truck. It is getting rough and I am undecided if I want to buy a cheap gas saver car and keep the truck for "truck only" stuff, or just replace it with a nicer truck.  My dad used to have 6.5 chevy diesel that got 20 mpg. I thought if modern diesels did that it could be my new "do it all" vehicle. I don't mind dailying a full size truck, but I don't like the 12 mpg of my silverado. I didn't put all this in my original post because I don't want to have the 1car/2 car debate, and I didn't want people lining up to tell me I need a dodge minivan or a miata. I was going for real world opinions of diesel ownership from real owners, so I could make up my mind. The mileage numbers I'm seeing so far isn't pushing the needle towards diesel ownership to be honest.

I wouldn't buy a diesel for the mileage. Those numbers just don't work unless depreciation is a factor, and in the sub-$10k range it's not a factor. I'd buy one because they do hard working truck stuff really well (I DID buy one for that reason). I'd buy a gas one if it was an only vehicle and I wasn't doing interstate towing.

One thing I have noticed is that the 5.9 Cummins is a much sportier feeling engine than my 6.7. I'm sure it could be awakened with a tune and some parts, but it just feels like it has more inertia in stock form. This is comparing a 2006 3500 vs a 2010 2500, both sticks. The modern diesels are a lot cleaner and more powerful than the old ones, but they do pay for it in efficiency so you don't always see the ridiculous mileage that I've seen in claims for older trucks.

It's by no means an answer; it's anecdotal, and if you did the math, it still would probably be a far distance from an argument for a diesel. But having recently bought a 7.5L gas F-250 because it's hard to find a clean, cheap, good-condition 2WD regular cab truck, I do have some misgivings:

EDIT: I do have a pair of locking gas caps on their way from RockAuto. When the 318-powered van dipped under 10mpg that helped, though I did wind up with some retribution graffiti on the side.

Just pulled up my logs for each fillup. Average 12.25 mpg, max 20.99, minimum 8.02 (two car trailer, headwind across Kansas).  Something like 80% of that mileage is with the two-car trailer. Interestingly, it's 13.5 over the past year.

Believe it or not the old 6.5 GMs did return incredible fuel economy for something so big, (used to have a 3500 dually auto and it would do around 18 MPG, my friend had a RC/LB 3500 with the 5 speed and it would do 20-22 empty).  But they only make something like 160 HP so its pretty believable.   Horsepower and economy are somewhat mutually exclusive.  

In reply to gearheadmb :

Keep what you’ve got. It’s a known quantity in decent working condition, and you won’t use it enough to matter. 

I just did something similar- sold my nice newer truck (which still had value), and kept the old beater (which would have had no resale). I don’t need a truck for my current job. 

SVreX said:

In reply to 93gsxturbo :

Haha!

Did you end up buying his truck?

In reply to spitfirebill :

No. Wish I could have (and I may regret it). 

He’s just poking at me because everyone has trouble believing I get 22 mpg from my 7.3L. 

But the specs are different, and lots of people get 22 out of trucks like mine. 

If you are not going to use it alot for what it is meant for (towing, hauling, work stuff), I don't see how you can justify the additional cost. You aren't going to make it back. If you are buying because you like a big powerful truck (I can understand that), then that is a different argument.