Diesel drivers

Thanks for the help,
Bruce

Bruce

Bought a 06 Duramax 2500HD in December. I love the truck, love what it is capable of doing. I drive around 25 miles one way too work and usually average around 20 MPG. The new duramax's have a double overdrive and 3.73 gears so MPG is a little better than some of the others. Honestly if I were to do it again I would of gotten a Honda Civic, VW TDI, or Toyota Corolla and gotten a beater truck. But if you need a truck for work then I guess you do not have much choice.

I know buickanddeere will argue wth me until canada unthaws but diesels are well worth the $$$ over a gasser. Look at the last post or check the numbers out at dieselplace.com. Know a guy with my same truck and he get tops 14MPG on the freeway. I think he figured it out that at 75 - 80k mile the duramax would of paid itself off. Yes the maintenace is a few $$ more due to the amount of oil and having to change a fuel filter every 15k miles.

Thanks,

Scott

• Gas vs Diesel.....THE NUMBERS DO NOT LIE

Don't get me wrong, I really like the VW TDI's (my brother has a Jetta TDI SW), but the price of admission is up there. I wonder if the cost per mile would be all that much lower for the TDI than a little economy car with a gas engine? Cheaper to buy initially, cheaper to do recommended servicing, and cheaper per gallon fuel.

My old F250 with a 460, which usually gets about 10 mpg doesn't get many miles any more, unless I need to haul something that won't fit in the cars we have. I put most of my miles on an old Mazda Protege or my wife's new Pontiac Vibe, both of which are getting more than 30 mpg, just driving around. They are comfortable enough for me, and a whole lot easier to park than the big old pickup.

There was a time when I drove the F250 most of the time, using it just like a car, with the rationale that I needed to have the hauling capability (which I still do), but it didn't make sense to pay insurance on another vehicle to save a little gas. But $3/gallon gas changes the equation a lot. And when you consider the price of tires and other consumables and wear and tear on the pickup that might last the rest of my life at the small use rate it now has, having a little car for most of the miles makes sense to me.

I sure wouldn't be driving 60 miles a day using an empty 10 mpg pickup long. Or even 18 mpg at $3.50/ gallon and making payments on a $40K pickup. But different strokes for different folks!

Note my savey insight into predicting the current price of fuel... :)

Where did I get my average mpg numbers? I got them from reading numerous mpg threads on many different forums over the past 4yrs and should be a pretty consistant fuel mileage average from reports of people who use miles driven divided by gallons used, a known accurate method for computing fuel mileage.

They did not come from anyone using the factory computer to report fuel mileage as some puters are off quite a bit. How? Example; engines being chipped are known to have extreamly high false mpg numbers because of the chip.

Want to read 99mpg? Reset the trip puter at the top of a mountain then descend the grade without using the fuel pedal and when your close to the bottom of the grade take a puter reading and mpg be up there in no mans world. :)

Why? The fuel is shut off too the engine when the RPM is above idle without the fuel pedal depressed.

Why do some people report extreamly good fuel mileage while other report horrible numbers? You need to compare apples with apples. Alot has to do with the way the truck is driven. With a light foot and 60mph maximum towing speed will yeild better fuel ecomoney than pulling at 70mph with a heavy foot. A truck pulling 16000GCW will get better fuel mileage than one pulling 20000GCW. A 3:73 axle ratio will get more mpg than a 4:10 ratio. The point is to look at the whole ball park just not the number you want to here or see.

Note: Those are only ball park figures although I did try to gather realestic numbers to work with. Example: my acutal truck cost less T&L

V10 towing 20,000lbs GCW @ 8mpg average using 5k oil changes for 10,000 total miles
Oil and filter= $16eh= $32net
Fuel $1.50gal average= $1875

PSD towing 20,000lbs GCW @ 12mpg average using 5k oil changes for 10,000 total miles
Oil and filter= $32eh= $64net
Fuel $1.50gal average= $1250

100k= PSD total fuel and oil change cost $13,140
100k= V10 total fuel and oil change cost $19,070

Diesel wins by $5930 per 100k miles
My 2K2 diesel cost $3,450 vs V10 $500= $2950 diff

$5930-$2950= $2,980 diesel savings the first 100k miles.

Assuming fuel prices will stay the same (ya right) $1.50gal for 300k miles a PSD saves $14,840 in fuel.

A V-10 cost for the same truck as spec'd below $30,900 or $.103/mile for 300k miles, I already dicounted the up-front cost of the diesel engine.

I paid $30,900 for my PSD truck so my net cost per mile is $30,900-$14,840= $16,060 or $.0535/mile for 300k miles or 1/2 the V10 cost.

Lets take it one step more. Lets say the average price of fuel, gas and diesel, in the next 5yrs averages $2.10/gal, from 5yrs to 10yrs averages $3.10/gal, using 30k total miles/yr at 70% empty and 30% towing 20,000lbs GCW, V10 8mpg towing 14mpg empty, PSD 12mpg towing 20mpg empty, then we get:

V10= empty fuel cost= $39,000 Towing fuel cost= $29,251 or $68,252 gross fuel cost for 10yrs

PSD= empty fuel cost= $27,300 Towing fuel cost= $19,500 or $46,800 gross fuel cost for 10yrs

PSD saves $21,415 in fuel cost over a V10

Have fun in your hunt for the new TV :)

I have not even considered how a PSD will out pull a V10 towing 20,000lbs as to make a V10 last 300k miles one would have to tow at 60% of rated HP RPM.

The diesel wins hands down in cost and towing power no matter how you run the numbers.

T_Bone

As T-Bone says so well but we rarely hear.

"Where did I get my average mpg numbers? I got them from reading numerous mpg threads on many different forums over the past 4yrs and should be a pretty consistant fuel mileage average from reports of people who use miles driven divided by gallons used, a known accurate method for computing fuel mileage.

They did not come from anyone using the factory computer to report fuel mileage as some puters are off quite a bit. How? Example; engines being chipped are known to have extreamly high false mpg numbers because of the chip.
Want to read 99mpg? Reset the trip puter at the top of a mountain then descend the grade without using the fuel pedal and when your close to the bottom of the grade take a puter reading and mpg be up there in no mans world."

I also noticed that when I bought my 02 F350 DRW as Chevy wanted $7k more for the same options.

I wanted another Dodge but the dealers raised there prices when the new models came out and wouldn't honor the lower price.

As it was the F350 was $2k cheaper and so far I'm very happy with it.

My last Dodge lasted me 27yrs and cost $6100 out the door. My 02 F350 was $34200 out the door or a 557% increase in price.

Funny thing is my wages had only increased 335% over the same time period had I kept working.

T_Bone

If you actually figured it up I'm betting the diesel may actually cost more to operate. If you don't haul much a diesel may be a waste. I have a 360 in a 1996 Dodge and it does very well for mileage and when needed can pull a pretty good load too. The price of gas today I just let it sit and drive a small Toyota Rav4.