WOW.....The price of Diesel is way to high.....!!!!!!

According to the "overhead computer", is averaging 18.4 MPG, the truck is one week old, commuting aprox. 44 miles round trip in city traffic, (will really improve with time...????) This week I drove a total of 470 miles since I got it from the dealership (Feb/25) with a full tank, that will be 470/34 = 13.82 MPG Is that correct....???

Wife is starting to believe that it was a bad move buying the truck...even with the 0% A.P.R. that we got. I told her that with time Diesels are a better investment and on the long run are cheaper to operate, but she wants more "real-life" facts..!!!

 

Well, millage will increase.....at 470 miles you shouldn't be dead empty, at 1/16th of a tank I still have 9 gallons so 470/25 = 18.8 mpg....a gas burner would get 15 at best so about 3 or 4 dollars difference per fill up in favor of diesel.

As for up keep I do believe the diesel is more expensive, oil changes cost more, filters cost more, the truck costs more. I think a diesel is more expensive to own up front but if you drive it till the motor is dead and take care of it properly it will cost you less.

 

I don't know about anyone else but I can well over 500 miles on a tank. If the guage is on E you still have 5-7 gallons left.

 

Buying a diesel made much more since 2 years ago. At the time (April 04) when I bought mine I felt the diesel was the way to go as fuel was cheaper and more stable than gas. Since then it has been consistantly MORE expensive.

Fact is that in todays world these trucks are a VERY poor choice for the commuter. The new trucks don't get anywhere near the mileage that the same truck got 4 years ago and the price of fuel has doubled. When ALL of the cost of buying and operating a diesel is figured in, there is no doubt that they are a poor choice for commuting or as an everyday vehicle.

IMO there are lots of people on these forums who like to fudge their MPG numbers or they look at the overhead at 55 mph and assume that their truck gets 21 mpg. Problem is that if you throw in a few stoplights and a hill or two and your nowhere near 21 mpg.. In my experience, what you are getting is right on par with my own experience and everyone else I know.

I'd like to help you by giving you some ammo to convince your wife. Truth is that considering that you primarily use your truck to commute, she is probably right. I'm in the same boat as you, I know I made a mistake and I hear about it often but I love the truck so much that I can't get rid of it.

 

18.4 in traffic, I'd say your doing better than most!
+1 on the diesel not being the best choice for a commuter. Pick up a 94 Civic for your daily driver and save the truck for the weekend.

 

Mileage will improve. It is even rumoured that the ECM uses sacrifical diodes to alter the computer program after some time to allow for break in. The rumour is the end result is better fuel economy and better power. I know I noticed a change in mine after about 10-12000km. Diesel isn't any cheaper to buy than gas but there is way more power, and much more grinning! I disagree with maintenace costs as there are no spark plugs, wires, coils, distributor caps, rotors, etc. It does take more oil but the recommended interval for oil changes is 7500miles (double what a gasser would be) and yes there is a fuel filter every second oil change but the last fuel filter I bought from Cummins was $18.00.

The biggest benefit will be in either resale cost (it will hold it's value significantly better than an equivalent gasser) or in long term durability if you plan on keeping it.

Most who have converted from gas to diesel would never look back again...if fuel mileage is a concern then that is why there are Honda's and such. Trucks (whether gas or diesel) just don't get astounding numbers regardless. 7500lbs of truck takes some fuel to get moving and keep it moving. I converted from a 454 BB Chev 1 ton dually on propane and on a good day unloaded it would see approx 6-8mpg, loaded was about 3-4mpg. I'll take my diesel any day over that! Oh and don't even talk to me about maintenance cost on that pig...I'm still bitter....

Wait for some decent miles on your rig before assesing fuel economy as it will almost certainly increase.

 

I,ve tracked my fuel milage since day one on mine. It has improved, by 1-2 mpg. If you're looking to get decent milage out of these trucks you've got to take off easy. Im averaging 17.25 since date of purchase. 15 - 18 around town and 17.5 - 20.5 highway.

 

Just one word on this: Geo Metro.

 

Look at it this way, if petroleum gets too expensive, a diesel can run on vegetable oil.(I know there's more to it than that) Mr. Diesel actually invented this engine to run on veggie oil, not petroleum.

 

Yeah....!!! Last night when I fill the tank the neddle was on 1/16th of the gauge. I only fill 10 galons, My previous car was/is a '97 Mazda Miata, now I'm not sure about selling it.... but it surely feels good driving the truck.
The tank in the Miata is 12 galons and normally fill it up with 10 galons and is good for all week.
I think I'll keep the Miata as commuter but driving the truck feels so good...!!! When I drive the Miata everybody is cutting me off and getting in my way...!!! Since last week I commuted everyday in the truck and really noticed a change of behavior with the other drivers, I'm in Houston, TX and traffic down here really sucks..!!

 

I commute in my Acura 3.2TL-S (23 MPG commuting) or on my BMW K1200GT motorcycle (40 MPG commuting). I pull a heavy 5th wheel with my truck. Horses for courses!

Rusty

 

If you purchase a diesel truck because you need it (towing hauling work) milage is not a factor.Fact is if you work your truck it will out perform a gasser anyday.

 

Good point....!!! But I got the truck for the "looks" factor...!!!! I never was a big fan of trucks, but I admit they are very practical (at least more than my Miata or wife's KIA Rio and the DODGE 2500 looks AWESOME I really like the look of the truck, the interior and the feeling of power when I'm driving around town, plus the legendary Cummins engine and his bulletproof reliability, really no need to tow/haul anything, also I think the 0% A.P.R. was a good offer.

By the way I just came up with the idea of seting up a "hauling" business on the weekends to afford the fuel...at least while I'm paying the truck the next 5 years.....Any ideas...?????

 

While I'd hoped for the type of mileage I've seen some of the slightly older trucks boast about, your numbers may be a bit better than my own. My truck typically sets in the garage all week while I ride my motorcycle 6 miles to work. When the weather is such that I don't care to ride the bike, I'm lucky to average 16 MPG with the truck (hand calculated or computer, the computer on mine is usually within a 1/10th of hand calculated). Its just more expensive than most of us are used to lately to move that big pile of metal around. Short trips, cold weather, etc. seem to hurt a lot. I don't like what it costs to fill the bike these days either.

I've got about 10K miles on the truck now. Possibly 1/2 of that has been with a trailer of one sort or another behind it. I pull a medium sized camper (about 5000 lbs, OK, maybe small camper for this truck!) at 70MPH and still consistently get 13.5 MPG. The Chevy gasser I traded on this truck would get about 8 MPG doing the same thing. With the Cummins, I can switch the cruise control on, don't even have to go into tow/haul mode, and it will just rumble down the road. With the gasser I couldn't run the cruise as it would just slam the pedal to the floor and red-line on any bit of incline to the road. All the Cummins does is spool the turbo up a bit on steep hills. Only very occasionally do I go into tow/haul mode with the trailers I have.

Which is probably the point to be made here. This is a towing machine. Its not going to make much of an economical commuter. And at least in my case, it is doing a bit better mileage (non-towing) than my last gasser did, probalby enough to at least cover the increased cost of the diesel. And doing way better towing. So as far as I'm concerned, much better towability and at least not an increase in cost (fuel-wise). It would have been nice if it got much more economical mileage than my gasser too, but that wasn't the main factor as to why I went to the Cummins. I wanted to tow without feeling like I was going to have parts flying out from under the hood.

Can you get 21MPG? Sure, on a flat road, no stops, no wind, no trailer, no load, etc.

I go over seas a lot. I've ridden in a number of 1 liter Isuzu diesel pickups and such. And they do get good mileage (some nearly as good as my bike). But you wouldn't want to drive one here; you'd get run over by everything on the road.

 

Remember too, you get most of that $5,000 premium (diesel vs. hemi) back when you go to sell it, so it's not like you threw away the money. Check values of 7-to-10 year old CTDs vs. Gassers on NADAguides.com, you'll see.