Preferred Diesel?

Ill be getting out of school in november and hopefully follow closely with a good job in the field. Once all of it is good and started i plan on buying me a diesel truck. Plan on getting me something nice since i havent ever had nice. Wanting a 4 door 4 wheel drive turbo diesel. Was wondering what you guys have had and how the trucks treated you. Please dont make this a chevy vs. Ford or dodge fight haha. Wondering about the mileage they can go up too and just any info that you guys can bring like what you liked or hated. Most likely it will be something around 5-8 years old hopefully if money is right.






-justin

95-2003 Ford 7.3L hands down.

Dodge fans, the cummins is great and all. But the trannys are junk. If you get a dodge, try to get a 5 speed. Alot of problems on the over drive and brake light switch locking converters out on the automatic dodges.

well im getting an automatic regardless of what i get. I have always had straight drives and am ready for an auto. My friend has a 7.4 straight drive and i hate driving it due to it being straight drive. Thats one of the things that is keeping me leary of the cummins.







-justin

For me it's a tie between cummins and powerstroke, I have riddin in and driving in both from a few different years, and I loved both. As for duramax I am not much of a fan, I am not really a fan of any of the newer chevy truck for that matter they just kind of remind me of bulldogs big up top and little on bottom.

So nobody else has opinons or experience with diesels?






-justin

Can offer a lot of input on 2008 6.4L Powerstroke motors. They get about 12mpg in mixed town / highway driving (which SUCKS). This is mostly because of the Diesel Particulate Filter on the exhaust. Think of it as a cork in the exhaust which needs to be cleaned OFTEN.

The previous model years had 6.0 Powerstroke motors which got significantly better mileage - probably because they don't have the DPF. Yes they did have there problems thou.

As Nick already stated the 7.3 is probably the most reliable and mileage friendly motor out there.

As for the Dodge trucks, yes great motors but to many problems with brakes, suspension components and trannys.

Chevy, great truck but it seems you usually pay a little extra for what you get.

Hope this helps some.

Does anybody have much info on the duramax? good or bad? I want a diesel but i dont plan on hauling 25000 lb tractors or 45 ft campers or things like that. Maybe a flat bed trailer with two vehicles on it and boats and things like that. Im at that point where i want something really nice inside and big. cummins interiors are basically just terrible and plain in my opinion. The 6.0 powerstrokes have great interiors with the 7.3 nice but lacking in some areas. Seems the cummins is all truck and no luxury which is not what im after. The powerstrokes are a pretty good medium. The durmax seems very nice inside (im a chevy guy at heart) and through my research they seem to be a great diesel truck just not as popular like the huge "would you rather be stroking or cumming" thing around here. I know cummins have crap for trannys and 6.0s have issues and 7.3s love to chew up alternators and small things like that. I havent heard any bad things about the duramaxs other than the typical "cummins or powerstroke would pull it all over the place" Im not looking to hook up to other peoples trucks? lol, Seems with the duramax i could get the best of both worlds. Guess im kinda thinking out loud here. Like i said any experience or advice on what to expect or look for would be awesome. Im leaning towards the 03 to 06 gmc sierra duramax 4door 2500 4x4.



-justin

Justin, I would have to say your better off with the ford or dodge than the duramax's. We have 5 duramax trucks at work and only one still works right. If I remember right they all have under a 100k. One has about 70k on it and it has a cracked ring or ringland in one piston(smokes all day everyday) they had it checked out by a few shops and they all agree about it. One has major throttle electronic issues(you cant drive it without whiplash) another truck has a bad flywheel clutch setup(will shake you out of the seat at idle) The other truck that sucks none of the fancy electronics work right, but it also had engine problems in the past. One of these dumped a turbo last year. There is a lot that craps out on them, I just don't use them enough to know all of the bugs.

I would also use something like autozone online recall on the trucks your interested in. That gives you a heads up on issues. Keep in mind that some of these problems could exist in a later model, or prior model year than a recall and if they were not a major number of failures they wont recall them.

I got to experience this first hand with GM on my last GM product I will ever own.

Also I remember ford had rear axle problems in the 05-06 era, I believe it was mainly dually's that were problematic.

In my industry there is a lot of guys that make a living pulling our new RV's and you see very little in the way of GM trucks making a living.

I know you said you don't care about power so much, but you will want 4x4 right? Keep in mind that is another deficiency in the GM corner, the transfer cases and diffs take over priced oil, and if you don't use it especially in the t case you will regret it later. there 4x4 engagement systems suck, the switches crap out encoder motors die prematulry.

No matter what diesel you go for just find one that is unmolested. If you find one that's all hopped up, you have no way of knowing if somewhere in the owners quest for more power, shortcuts were taken and beat on the motor more than necessary.

Also if your just running short little trips day in and day out your killing the motor, those diesels are meant to work not be econo cars.

Some good points there Sleepy - sounds like you have as much insite on the Chevy's as I do on the Fords. You do make an interesting point - in this area I do see a lot of Fords and Dodges. I see the Fords working and pulling a lot and the Dodges with big exhaust, big tires, big suspension but not really "working". Don't get me wrong though, my brother is an ASE mechanic at a Chevy dealership and has said many good things about the Duramax motors. On the other hand he has also talked about all the ones he has taken apart - not exactly sure if that is a compliment or not.

As for the Fords we have had just about every model year within the past 10 years. One thing I will say, the oldest diesel we have has like 350,000 miles on it, has been repaired a few times but nothing major. The steering box is shot, the tranny is getting tired from all the snowplowing, and the column shifter feels like it is about to fall off. BUT, it was the only truck that would run last winter when the temps dropped to -27 degrees. All the newer trucks gelled up and the old truck was sent out to rescue everybody. Pretty funny. I am guessing in NC you will not have that kind of extreem cold so the fuel gel problem will hopefully never effect you. As I said before, the Chevys do seem to be "nicer" on the inside than the other work trucks, but does that just mean there is more to go wrong? Don't know.

I wouldn't bother with a diesel unless you are really going to use it. The maintenance is higher and any fuel mileage savings you get will be offset by the higher cost of the fuel per gallon. A diesel compared to a gas is a whole hell of a lot more expensive and the lot, you will never recoup that, although you should be able to get more resale yourself.

I have a car dealer friend that uses his trucks to pull a three car wedge. He had a 99 ford with the powerstroke and then got like an 04(not real sure) duramax. He said the ford would out pull the chevy any day of the week, and the chevy had some mods. He used the chevy as a car and the ford as a truck. He eventually sold the ford because someone offered him way more than it was worth. Had over 250,000 hard miles on it and he never had to do anything to it. He got another ford to replace it, and he still has the chevy.

My brother has had 2 v-10s, the first was a 99 f-250. He managed to get it getting 16mpg's consistently. I think mostly it was 2wd base model, manual tranny, no power accessories. He put splitfire plugs and a k&n filter on it. He traded that one for his new one which is a 04(I think). It is around 14mpg's but it is 4wd fully loaded. He has liked them both and never had a problem with either motor. And they have more than enough power for pulling just about anything.