Posted by Marty on Wednesday, February 04, 2004 at 1:01PM :
In Reply to: Re: Joe,... posted by Joe Cimoch on Wednesday, February 04, 2004 at 11:43AM :
Joe,
The reason I started this thread is because living in a big city with population 2 million & growing, it's humerous to see the number of guys driving Diesel trucks that don't tow with them & drive around in their $40,000 trucks going from coffee shop to coffee shop...we call them the latte crowd.
It's kind of sad because it seems Dodge no longer offers a fuel efficient V8 in their 3/4 ton truck. If you look at specs for the 1500 you'll see the 318 gets close to 20mpg.
When they go to the 2500 they don't post the fuel consumption which tells me they've boosted power to 345hp at the cost of bad fuel economy.
I've never driven one & so I can't say, but I can tell you that my 99F350 with gas V8 would tow a trailer & truck without problem.
Fuel economy would drop significantly while towing down to the 13-14mpg range.
Most guys towing with Cummins equipped trucks are getting closer to 16mpg with a similar load.
Now the point of my thread was this...if you only tow 1000 miles/year & intend to get a new truck when your warranty expires, as most people do, the gas truck will leave more money in your bank account than the diesel so don't buy the diesel because it gets better mileage.
If you want a diesel because it tows better, because you plan to keep the truck until 2025, because you drive 100K/year, you just love the sound of diesel, or even if you want to join the Latte boys, these would all be reasons to buy a Diesel over a gas truck.
Most guys on this forum would likely benefit from a Diesel but if your the kind of guy that's unlikely to hook onto your trailer & drag that 68WM300 to Holister, you'll make out fine with a Hemi V8 & save money doing so.
To compare a 2004 Cummins to a gas engine truck that gets 10mpg is rediculous & a bad comparison.
My 1965 W300 Crewcab gets 10mpg while towing a W500!
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