New Truck....Diesel or Gas?

[Col_Sanders]

Still have the Blazer but this weekend I am going to get her cleaned up and ready to sell. Gotta replace the battery and I'm going to do a complete fluid change since its been sitting a while.

Unfortunately, I cant wait until November for the rebates. I got a ticket (a BS ticket) and the officer wrote me up for having TX tags and being a resident of LA. To register the damn truck here would cost me over $1000, which is why I am going to go ahead and trade it off now instead of this fall like I had planned.

 

[KirsL]

I bought my dodge back in 05, truck was only two years old with any 19k miles on it. Bought it for just over 30k, which was way better then almost 50k for a new one. Truck was in awesome shape and the best part was the 1st owner never towed with it. The hitch didn't have any marks on it. Which was a very good sign to me. I've made several mods to the truck over the years some performance some not but the truck does everything I want it to do.

So I would look for a truck that is a couple years old with low mileage. Someone else takes the deprecation hit and you get a good truck, usually with some warranty too.

 

[Col_Sanders]

That was my plan, but buying a 2-3 year old truck (searching within 500 miles of here on Autotrader) is only a couple thousand cheaper than buying new. For that difference I will just buy new and know the entire history of the truck myself. I will test drive a new Ram and F-150 this week and will probably make my purchase in ~2 weeks.

 

[KirsL]

True, when used prices are that close to new. Then I can't blame you for going new then.

 

[Swampy79]

there is no reason nowadays to buy a new gas truck unless its an import.

the diesel will hold its value way better, get better mileage ( not as much anymore but still), tow better, have way more grunt/power.

benefits of gas... its cheaper initially. sounds good with the right exhaust.

New Chevy's and GMC's that cut 4 cylinders off at cruise sound like chit, don't ever ever ever put exhaust on them, you will regret it as my buddy does for the rest of the time you own it.

As for diesels, if you're going duramax, lurk over on DieselPlace it is an awesome forum with every thing you need to know about them.

a good used 2006-2007 classic will be your best bet (LBZ with 6 speed ally and no emissions crap), next best bet is a 2004.5-2005 (like me but you need to change out the intake + turbo inlet because the LLY's is really restrictive) or a LB7 WITH the new injectors that fixed their problems.

Anything past 2010.5 stay away from it, and that goes for Ford, Dodge, or Chevy. The government is killing these trucks with their emissions requirements and they all have the new Urea exhaust injection (urea is a chemical injected into exhaust after the engine that burns off excess pollutants). This crap is about 5 to 6 dollars a gallon around here, and if you run out and forget to fill it (atleast on chevys) truck goes into limp mode, every time you start it after it has limped itself it will restrict you another 5mph (limp keeps you under 55? initially) until you're crawling along at 5 mph back to the dealer.

I can't say enough good things about the cummins 6BT, that motor is ridiculously strong, I would own one except I hate Dodge transmissions with a passion. That last part is personal, don't use it to make a decision.

As for Ford, straight from my Ford loving friend's mouths, they've been going down hill since they ditched the 7.3 (this is there opinion, I have none of my own on this issue).

and since we're pic-whoring, here's my LLY baby with the few small mods I've done to make her scoot a little farther...

Chipped, leveled w/ cognito A-arms, new shoes, and new bumper thanks to a suicidal doe

 

[6.2Blazer]

For what the OP stated he would be doing in regards to payload and towing, he definitely does not NEED a 2500HD and especially does not NEED a diesel. Not saying he shouldn't look at them, but not required.

Kind of surprised about the comments on the price of used trucks. Just last summer my dad purchased a used 1500 Chevy. He wound up with an '08 with 20,000 miles on it for $10k under sticker (and this was from an actual stealership). I helped him look for trucks and you basically had your choice of what color and options you wanted there were so many around. On the other hand the 2500HD trucks are a lot harder to come by.

I own an '03 2500HD 6.0L gas truck that was bought new. For daily driving the 6.0L has plenty of power IMO, and at least in '04 I thought the empty performance was comparable to the D-max (the low end torque is not as important) but won't deny there was a big gap in towing power. Granted, the diesels have a lot more power now then several years ago for empty performance.

If you are just using fuel mileage for the decision between gas and diesel, then it's going take a lot of miles before you even break even. That's taking the extra $6k-$8k initial cost plus the higher cost of diesel into account.

 

[gt1009]

Agreed with most prior posters. If I was buying a new truck for that purpose then I would go with the gasser. If I was buying an older squarebody truck, I would go diesel for sure. In those trucks you get about twice the gas mileage which heavily offsets the expense of diesel. In a new truck with the 6-8k investment on the truck and the extra 50 cents a gallon on diesel it takes a lot of towing to make that money back.

 

[tch777]

I only read the first page but diesel all the way and new half tons are just not up to hauling much of any weight especially not all the time. JMHO
That and if you find a low mile 07 you can still have an almost new truck without the emissions poo for less $$$$