First drive Ram 1500 diesel

jus2shy wrote:

Wow, that has to be a worst case scenario on Diesel to Regular price spread. All over the PNW, I've only observed a 10 to 15% price increase in diesel. So regular here is around $3.30 and Diesel is around $3.75.

However, lets get realistic. I'll site a source, the EIA. Here's the US' Average Fuel Price Spread: $3.30 regular vs. $3.87 diesel. So roughly a 57 cent mark-up or 17% mark-up. Not too bad. so using your numbers above:

909 gallons of regular: $3,000 bucks
652 gallons of diesel: $2,524 bucks

So that's an annual savings of $476.

For me that is a realistic interpretation of Gas vs Diesel prices here in PA. Maybe we get hosed on Diesel but I would think a truck stop (in a huge trucking town) would have competitive Diesel prices. Other stations in the area seem to be above $4 for Diesel vs $3.33 - $3.36 for gas. You can check out Gasbuddy and use zip 17013.

Don't forget DEF which I think you need a couple gallons of it every 10k or so IIRC it's about $2.50/gallon.

And I've also used a worst case scenario for fuel economy too. With my Taurus (Also Ecoboost) in the summer it's pretty much 21-22 mpg in my mixed driving and in the winter it's 18-20 in the same loop. I'm expecting once we see warmer temps around here I'll also get better MPG in the F150 which will also wipe out the savings of Diesel.

Cummins or Powerstroke. I honestly don't know how much oil it will take. However, I also notice that nobody sites that modern turbo-gasoline engines site the need for a semi-synthetic while you can still use good ol' dyno oil in a diesel. Oil alone, I spend only $40 bucks. On my F-150 that demanded semi-synthetic (I ran full-synthetic anyways, but I'll use semi-syn prices that I personally observed), I spent about $30 bucks per oil change (a jug and a half). So I spend $10 more bucks on oil for my diesel. For my oil filter, it only costs $7 bucks more

Curious on this one. For the Ecoboost it doesn't require the semi-synthetic. Pre 2011 car applications get 5w20 and post 2011 car and truck get 5w30. Holds 6 quarts of oil and can go up to 10k between changes (per Ford). For the Taurus I pay $40 at the dealer for an oil change and tire rotation. I'd expect the F150 to be the same although I'll probably change it myself and throw in some Pennzoil Ultra to clean things up as I bought it used.

The potential for costly service is there though, I will not deny that with the new high pressure common rail fuel injection systems. However, you have similar issues on the gas side with HP fuel pumps ran off the cams, DI fuel injectors and turbochargers (and in some cases 2 of them). Sooted-up intake valves. However these costly services are rare and the issues that happen on the net make it sound like the issue applies to all of the respective vehicle (gas or diesel).

I think repairs on, say an Ecoboost will be less than a Diesel due to the sheer volume. I was curious so I went to fordparts.com to get these prices:

High Pressure Fuel Pump for the 3.5EB: $381.52
Motorcraft Fuel Injector for the 3.5 EB: $77.12
Turbocharger - $820.00 or $754 (depending on which side)

Those are dealer prices and I'm sure there will be other sources for parts as these vehicles age. The sheer # of Ecoboosts running around guarantees that.

I think even as things age you will see less maintenance and repair costs for an Ecoboost vs a Diesel. Look around the net for the teardown pics of the EB - it is surprisingly simple.

It will be interesting to watch but I think Diesel will remain a niche. People will see the $2k add on, look at the price of Diesel and buy the gas version. Diesel makes sense in the small cars where you can get 50 MPG (vs 30 or so) in a car but not here where the fuel economy gains take so long to pay back.