Diesel Gas Mileage and Reliability???
I am researching a new truck and am considering a diesel (not sure which one yet) or a Toyota Tundra with the 5.7 liter engine. Whatever I get, it will be a used one. I have read about all of the ma...
Forum Discussion
You can't make the blanket statement that diesels are more (or less) reliable than gassers because everything depends on whether the manufacturer did the job right in the first place. IN THEORY, diesels should outlast gassers by virtue of lower operating speed AND the fact that in order to withstand the higher compression ratios, the block, head, rods, etc HAVE to be stronger than they are in a gasser. But as GM proved in the '70s, it is possible to build a diesel that will blow up within 40,000 miles because it was designed all wrong.
My advice here is to research the reliability of each of the candidates, and not rely on any vaunted class theoretical reliability hocus-pocus.
Now, my TV is a diesel, albeit a Jeep Liberty. It has a 2.8 liter, 4 cylinder diesel, and I get around 26 mpg overall not towing, and sometimes as high as 34 mpg. Towing the 5,000 lb full-height/width TT that is the maximum it is rated to pull, I average about 14 mpg, but I have gotten as high as 16 and as low as 9 (albeit towing that rig into a 50 mph head wind, a mistake I'll not repeat).
I also have to say that this particular vehicle has been the least reliable vehicle I've ever owned in my 50 years of driving. But that is NOT due to it's being a diesel, it is due to it's being one of only 15,000 in the US, a test marketing vehicle, that was poorly thought out. I've worked most of the bugs out now, and plan to keep it, but I wouldn't buy another one.
My advice here is to research the reliability of each of the candidates, and not rely on any vaunted class theoretical reliability hocus-pocus.
Now, my TV is a diesel, albeit a Jeep Liberty. It has a 2.8 liter, 4 cylinder diesel, and I get around 26 mpg overall not towing, and sometimes as high as 34 mpg. Towing the 5,000 lb full-height/width TT that is the maximum it is rated to pull, I average about 14 mpg, but I have gotten as high as 16 and as low as 9 (albeit towing that rig into a 50 mph head wind, a mistake I'll not repeat).
I also have to say that this particular vehicle has been the least reliable vehicle I've ever owned in my 50 years of driving. But that is NOT due to it's being a diesel, it is due to it's being one of only 15,000 in the US, a test marketing vehicle, that was poorly thought out. I've worked most of the bugs out now, and plan to keep it, but I wouldn't buy another one.
