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Who thinks a diesel engine won't pay for itself?  Let's just see here:

 

To get the same power out of a gas engine as the diesel has (in the

Dodge, I have a Dodge, and yes I'm *still* paying for it and will be

for the next 2.5 years) you'll need the V10.  Those V10's get about

7 mpg. 

 

Let's say you put 150,000 miles on your truck.  For the V10, that's

21428 gallons of gas over 150,000 miles.  The Diesel gets upwards,

of 20 mpg, but let's just say 18 for comparison.  That's 8334 gallons

of diesel over 150,000 miles.  The difference is 13094 gallons of fuel

over 150,000 miles.  At, say $1.80 / gallon, that's $23,569 just in

fuel costs!  The diesel engine option in my truck cost $3500.  That's

still a savings of $20,000 over 150K miles.

 

Then, let's look at engine longevity.  At 150,000 your gas engine is

probably in it's twilight years.  At 150,000 miles your Dodge Cummins

Turbo Diesel engine is just about getting warmed up.

 

I actually met a guy who had put 1,100,000 (yup, 1.1 Million miles)

hauling cross country on his first Dodge Cummins Diesel.  Dodge

put a new engine in it (so they could keep and disect the first one)

and he sold that one and bought a new one.  He said in the future

he plans on turning them over when they hit 300,000, just because

they hold their value so well. 

 

The price tag is daunting, but make sure you find yourself a deal.

I paid $99 over invoice for mine.  These days you can get a great

deal on 0% or 2.9% financing.  Also, your esteemed prez passed

tax laws that allow businesses to write off large purchase items...

up to $100K for stuff like a plane, work truck, or, race horse.  Yup,

that says race horse.  You might want to check with your accountant.

 

That is, if you are one of the lucky people who actually have the $$$

to buy a big ticket item and then get the write off...

 

Kathy Myers

in Santa Fe, NM

... Someday Stumpy will be paid for and I'll still have some of those

million miles left in him...