My daily vehicle is a 2003 Dodge 2500 Diesel, 2 wheel drive, 4 door, long bed pickup. It is one big truck, and that is no lie. My wife made me buy this in December of 2003 and it is maybe the best purchase I ever made. When I bought it, diesel was about $1.25/ gal while regular was about $1.50 / gal as I remember. A long story, but I was driving about 1000 miles a week for over 2 years, then a number of trips since then for business. And heck, I live in Texas. It is nothing to jump in the truck and drive 100 miles to go somewhere.

At this point, after 3.5 years I have 190,000 miles on this truck. But that is just a start on an American made ¾ ton diesel pickup. Especially if it is mostly highway miles.

Let me tell you about this truck. I got 165,000 miles off the Michelin tires that came on it. That is no typo…165K miles. And the spare never touched the ground. I probably should have replaced them at 160K, but I waited. Oddly, when I got to 60K miles on the truck, I was starting to think about having to replace them, so I bought a set of new take-off tires and wheels from a guy who was putting big tires on his truck. That cost me $400. So I put these on and now have 5 almost new Michelin truck tires on that truck.

I just got the first brake job last week with 189,000 miles on it. I OK’d it then the dealer called and said that they didn’t need to do the rear, just the front. I said…OK.

Now, it has not been flawless. I had some kind of problem that caused it to not shift into drive. I paid to have that fixed in a hurry for a trip, then it turned out I got some bad advice and it was something else…that was covered by warranty. The water pump and the seals on the rear axle needed to be replaced. I had a front hub go out last week. All said and done, I have spent about $2200 dollars on repairs since the 100,000 mile warranty ran out, but about $800 was replacing the wrong thing, so let’s say $1400. I guess I am not thrilled with that but, it DOES have almost 200,000 miles and the engine runs like a top.

The most amazing thing about this truck is the MPG I get out of it. Driving in Houston rush hour traffic every day I get between 20 and 22 MPG, day in and day out. I read somewhere that this engine gets maximum torque at 1600 RPM. So, in my wisdom, I said to myself…”Self, if you run this engine at 1600 RPM, that should probably give me the best mileage.” Well, I tried it. On the open highway with no one around, this truck runs at 59 MPH at 1600 RPM…and gets about 26.5 MPG. I tested this all the way from Mississippi to Houston late one night, stopping only for fuel.

WOW, you say. Yep. And I was much impressed myself and was known to brag on it. Until the other night I was driving about midnight, about 100 miles. I tried it at 55 MPH. Well, I didn’t get 26.5 MPG. I got 29.9 MPG. JESU CHRISTO!

Ok, yes, *I* said WOW that time.

Now I will bet anyone a quarter that you won’t get 19.9 MPG in a gasoline powered ¾ ton pickup at 55 MPH. But let’s say you do.

If you calculate the difference in fuel costs between a gasoline engine at 19.9 MPG and a diesel at 29.9 MPG for 200,000 miles, it works out to be a pretty fair chunk of change. That gas powered truck would take about 10,050 gallons of gas, while the diesel would take about 6689 gallons = 3361 gallons difference. Assume over the 200,000 miles an average of $2.00 / gallon x 3361 gallons = $6722 saved. And that is assuming that diesel and gas cost the same. Admittedly there was a while when diesel was more than regular gas, but the vast majority of the time diesel is around a quarter a gallon less then gasoline. If you factor in say 20 cents per gallon savings for diesel over gas and assume $3.00 per gallon, the savings is a whopping $11,421. The truth is somewhere between, but in any case it has been a significant savings.

That more than makes up for the cost difference for the diesel engine originally, and I still have this engine that will likely go 500,000 miles.

So I can comfortably say that I recommend the Dodge diesel pickups. I would also recommend the Chevy, Ford or GMC, but the Dodge has that killer Cummins diesel engine that will pay for itself several times over in the life of the truck.

Now one of the things that I did and do with this truck is get it serviced regularly. You have just read about the results if you change the oil frequently and keep the right air pressure in the tires. Also change the air filter regularly. Make sure they check all the fluids and keep them topped off. Another thing is to make sure you replace your automatic transmission fluid per spec. If you keep an auto-tranny cool and with good fluid it will last forever.

Ok, let me give you a big tip. Stop using department store oil. Oh, it will work and if you change it frequently enough, it will work well. But the tip is to use the same oil that the diesel trucks use…like mine! It is a better oil package and will protect your car better. If you take your car to get the oil changed at Spiffy-Lube or some such, they will almost certainly have a diesel oil available. It will cost a few dollars more, but it will give you better protection when you drive in heat, stop and go driving, etc. Below is the best article I have ever read about motor oil. If you want to learn about motor oil, go read it. If not, remember; get diesel oil if you love your car.

http://www.calsci.com/motorcycleinfo/Oils1.html