My first truck was a new 1984 2.2L naturally aspired Izusu pickup. All 65 HP of it. The only thing I towed was my dune buggy, and it was a big load when going up the hills in 3rd gear of the manual 5 speeds. It would get 30 MPG, it was very light too. Curb weight was around 3,000 pounds.
I also owned a Honda Civic 1.5L car at the time, and I guess I replaced the 230 cubic inch inline 6 Ford Fairmont with both the truck then the car. Later I went to a 1975 F-350 gas 460" engine for more power and more pulling capacity. Back in 1987 when I bought the F-350, the more powerful engine that Ford had was the 460" recently fuel injected V8. The non-turbo F-350 of the time was only 180 HP while the 460" was a bit over 225 HP.
So I owned and drove all three of those cars and trucks at the same time, never to work, I had a company truck for that. The F-350 was mostly for vacations, the Honda to go to the store, and the Izusu for side jobs and any time I might need the 25' extension ladder I carried on it's ladder rack.
No I don't think I would want another diesel vehicle, unless it is a DP motorhome. The fuel is more epensive, oil changes are a lot more, and the oil is REALLY black. The oil filter for my Izusu was something like $18 back then, and a regular Phram filter for the Ford 460 was only about $3.50 on sale once a month. I would buy the oil when on sale the other part of the month.
I drove a GMC work truck with a 6.2L NA engine in it, that was not much of a huge improvement over the 350" diesels that GM put into the cars a few years earlier. GM single handedly changed what people thought about diesel cars in a few years with the 350" diesel engine.
Fred.
