Posted by Paul in NY on Friday, February 01, 2002 at 7:17PM :
In Reply to: Which Dodge Diesel 1 ton would you buy? posted by Eric B. on Friday, February 01, 2002 at 1:48PM :
Eric;
Bought a Dodge Ram 2500 on the first of the year. I was considering a Diesel and ended up buying the V10. I based it on the following; I do not want to own the truck past 150,000 miles. The engine may be like new, but the rest of the truck will start to nickle and dime you to death. I want to be able to pull my PW's on a Gooseneck so It was the Cummins or the V10. Since they are so close to being equal in power for my type of towing, I looked at the fuel costs for the 150,000 mile life of the truck.
The Sticker price on a Ram 2500, Quad Cab, 4x4 nicly equiped was 32,150.00 with the V10.
To go with the Cummins it was an additional 4600.00.
I figured the fuel on the 150,000 for the V10 at 13 mpg at $1.29 per gallon. That fuel cost was $14,884.02. The fuel cost for the diesel at 18 mpg at $1.39 per gallon was $11,582. But to run the 150,000 miles for the $11,582, you must add $4600.00 for the cummins. That raises the fuel costs to $16,182.00 vs the V10 at $14,884.02.
This gives a delta of $1298.00 saved by buying the V10.
You can look at used Dodges 2500, 4x4 nicly set up with a V10 with low miles in the $14 to 15 K range. Same used truck with the diesel is $19 to 21K.
If you plan to keep the truck for 150K miles or more, then a diesel may be a better investment.
The V10 is an awesome engine in the Ram 2500.
Paul