Toyoda diesel under test
linc Looks like another diesel 1/2 coming down the pike
Forum Discussion
OH48Lt wrote:
The spread between 87 octane gas and diesel is over $1 a gallon presently. Regular gas here is as low as $2.769, most places locally at 2.899. Diesel is $3.899, except for one station at 3.799 and the Pilots at 3.979.
A 1/2 ton diesel pickup will never take off. If you need a diesel, you need more than a 1/2 truck. The $$ spread between diesel and gas, both the fuel and the initial purchase, will never pay off, unless they invent a diesel that gets 40+ mpg in a 1/2 ton truck. Even then, you still have a 1/2 ton truck.
Good observation; diesel sales, car and truck, are not going to be helped along by that big of a spread in fuel prices.
What it's going to cause is a lot of consumers to pencil it out-- if I get 30mpg paying $3.80 a gallon is there any savings over getting 24mpg at $3.00?
The fuel price spread is going to prevent folks from knee-jerk reactions of "30mpg! Gotta have it!" as would happen if diesel & 87oct were priced the same.
Back in 2008 I sold my 2002 7.3L F250 simply because I couldn't stomach $4.85/gal or whatever obscene price they wanted for diesel fuel at the time. No other reason-- liked the truck just fine, just couldn't justify the operating cost vs the benefit.
