It depends on what you expect to do with it. I have had trucks for 26 years and just got my first 4wd last year. There have been times when 4wd drive would have been nice but I lived without it and $4k just for the initial investment can buy a lot of nice things. Also, you generally lose a few hundred pounds of towing capacity and a mile per gallon while adding maintenance cost. You need 4wd with a diesel more than a gas burner because of the extra weight you are pushing around. On the other hand, my new profession involves dragging an equipment trailer off road quite a bit and I am finding 4wd to be very useful and am glad that I finally have it. I really like the auto 4wd feature on my Lariet. I can just turn it on anytime that I suspect traction might be an issue and have the traction without worrying about damaging my transfer case on surfaces with good traction.
