I daily a diesel excursion, i don't know why. Its a 7.3 and mpg are better than my xjr so lol
I daily a diesel excursion, i don't know why. Its a 7.3 and mpg are better than my xjr so lol
I daily a diesel benz and average about 30mpg currently
My daily is a 2010 Tundra, rated for 10k towing. I've definitely approached that number. It doesn't like the tongue weight. if I did more heavy hauling I'd want to add air springs out back.
I'd rather daily 10 miatas.
I just drove around a friend's F150 King Ranch. It's just about as nice as the R63, has a lot more tech and massaging seats. I don't know what mileage he's getting with the 3.5 Ecoboost, and frankly the massaging seats make me not care. The only downside being that it seats five and I have a family of six. Did I mention the massaging seats? They were lovely.
With your budget you can get a nice, modern, 3/4 or 1 ton turbo diesel, so that would be a no brainer in my book. Get new enough and you can get an extended warranty to ease your diesel concerns. I recently upgraded from a 2002 Silverado k3500 crew cab longbed dually to a 2013 k3500 extended cab long bed dually. Both duramax/Allison. The 13 is still under warranty and after talking to a local Chevy dealer today I can extend it up to 6 more years. I swap up my DDs now days, so don't have dedicated, but the big trucks have always been in the rotation and I have no problems DDing a big truck.
If something happened to my daily the Benz that's probably what I would end up doing. As long as those warranties cover injector stuff et al. The 06-07 Duramax I guess holds its value insanely well simply because it was the last one pre- emissions.
My F-150 did not have massaging seats, hell my mercedes does not have massaging seats. I do know I love heated seats, a nice sound system, and the radar cruise/pre accident braking on the benz
What seems to happen to me is I think that I have a ten year plan for keeping a vehicle and then within 3 years our life changes and something else is appropriate. IE I am commuting 60 miles round trip a day when gas is 4.25 a gallon and my DD is a F-150. Or we have a second kid and need bigger cars.
I always said when I had my F150 tho if I could get 25+ combined I would definitely always drive a full size pickup and that number might be more reasonable now
I've been pondering a similar problem for months now, though I could live with much less towing capacity (say 5k-ish min, though 6500+ would be ideal) and the kicker is I would REALLY like 3 pedals. That leaves me with 3/4 ton diesels, Taco, Frontier, maybe an FJ Cruiser or 3rd Gen 4runner, and some other stuff not produced within this millennium, all of which are less than ideal for one reason or another. SWMBO similarly prefers this to be a one vehicle solution for me as well.
I agree with what everyone else has said, there really is no silver bullet. Banging gears in a diesel rig seems like it would be fun, for a while at least, but the buy in for even a high mile rig and threat of catastrophic repair cost are off putting. A mid size truck is probably the sweet spot, and I really like the Tacoma, but again the value of used examples is a bit ridiculous, and the Nissan just leaves me feeling cold for whatever reason (still need to actually drive one.)
End of the day, being the cheap skate that I am and seeing as how I can't seem to fall in love with anything enough to want to pony up the dough required, I'll probably end up with something old, cheap, and thirsty and then ultimately use that as reason to convince SWMBO I need a more efficient (and fun) DD.
For cheap-ish, thirsty and fun, Ford sold V10 F-250s and 350s with a manual through 2010. The 05+ have more power than the 99-04 trucks.
RAM trucks seem more common in manual than the other two of the big three. I never really thought to look for a manual in a truck but I guess it does solve the auto trans wearing out issues clutches being cheaper I imagine
Jaynen said:RAM trucks seem more common in manual than the other two of the big three
Probably because they're the only one that still offers a diesel / manual combo. Ford last offered it in 2010, GM stopped years before that.
rslifkin said:Jaynen said:RAM trucks seem more common in manual than the other two of the big three
Probably because they're the only one that still offers a diesel / manual combo. Ford last offered it in 2010, GM stopped years before that.
GM offered the ZF box behind the Duramax up through 06. Rare as hens teeth, but I see one come up for sale every couple of months or so, though they're usually work truck spec.
Good tip on the V10 Fords, didn't know they offered the manual behind that engine for so long. Any idea what kind of MPG one of those would pull down? Not like thirsty is a goal of mine, just a compromise that comes with a lot of low budget tow pigs.
Reason I want a stick has nothing to do with practical considerations, I just loathe the thought of driving an auto every day, though that's something I could overcome at the right price point.
In reply to Furious_E :
I'm not sure what the V10s will pull for mpg. Definitely worse than the diesels, but the V10s will pull just as well as the diesels (if not better with a 3V V10) and they're a good bit cheaper to buy. And no 6.0 problems to worry about (a 7.3 won't break, but it's pretty damn slow with any real weight behind it).
My guess is 8-10mpg
Still intently following what you end up doing.
I just drove the company's F250 6.0 CCLB with a 20ft car trailer we picked up. Acted like nothing was back there. Makes me want to get rid of the Tahoe once again. You can definitely get a 6.0 ~$10k, some may even be bulletproofed at that price. I'd totally daily the company truck after a little more maintenance.
Banging gears in a diesel rig seems like it would be fun
Well, it's less like banging and more like pulling on the shifter and waiting. Some of the big manuals are really not very fun to drive.
However, one time i drove a 5.7/manual ram 2500 and really enjoyed it in spite of the slow shifts and odd gearing.
I used to drive two manual transmission fuel trucks. 1500 gallons of 100 octane avgas, and 2500 gallons of Jet A, I can't say those were banging gears :P
Yeah the aftermarket has definitely figure out how to make the 6.0's more reliable, how reliable is still a question mark. I still think you are more likely to be able to take a 6.0 gasser chevy or 8.1 to 300-400k miles with less issues
I think a newerish but higher mileage truck that maybe saw a lot of highway might be the way to go since it depreciated the vehicle but wear on key components may be less in terms of all the crap that starts to fail due to age
I had a taurus when i bought my 2500hd silverado gasser. I was asking the same question, but backwards. Do I keep the taurus for cheap daily miles, or sell it off and drive the truck only? After doing the maths it wasnt worth keeping the car around. As stated above, it will burn fuel also, just less. But it will also need plates, insurance, maintenance, and take up a parking spot in front of the house. I should point out that my commute is shorter than yours, but still, decide how much your willing to spend on the gas saver, then see how much fuel that same money would buy.
Vigo said:Banging gears in a diesel rig seems like it would be fun
Well, it's less like banging and more like pulling on the shifter and waiting. Some of the big manuals are really not very fun to drive.
However, one time i drove a 5.7/manual ram 2500 and really enjoyed it in spite of the slow shifts and odd gearing.
Admittedly, I have yet to drive anything with an industrial grade manual box and may very well end up hating the experience. Won't know until I try it, but what I do know is that I find living with an auto every day to be boring and find even the clumsy 5 speed in my XJ to be preferable. I can't yet bring myself to drop real coin on an automagic truck for fear that I'll end up getting bored with it a few months in, yet be stuck with it for several years. However, the lower the price point, the less of a concern this becomes.
Sorry for the thread jack, Jaynen! 
Which is funny because after spending as much time in traffic as I do I have come around a lot more to liking having an automatic
HD suspension package GMT900 1/2 ton with a 6L80e isn't bad as a daily. I'm not sure how close you plan on getting to that 10k number and how often. But it's handled all of mine and my dad's open trailer duties just fine. Heaviest thing we've hooked to it was probably an MF35 tractor with a bush hog hooked to it on a home built flat deck trailer that's probably pretty heavy on it's own. If you plan on getting close to that 10k number often, I'd probably go for a similar year 2500. I haven't personally driven one but I doubt you'll be giving up that much as a daily other than slightly more expensive consumables.
EDIT: I just remembered here if you aren't getting the diesel, the other upside to the 2500 is that the 6.0 doesn't get cylinder deactivation and the 5.3 in the 1500 does.
In reply to Jaynen :
If I spent any significant amount of time in stop and go, I'm sure I would feel much differently. My commute is ~60mi round trip on rural two lane secondary roads, so traffic is almost always moving.
rslifkin said:In reply to Furious_E :
I'm not sure what the V10s will pull for mpg. Definitely worse than the diesels, but the V10s will pull just as well as the diesels (if not better with a 3V V10) and they're a good bit cheaper to buy. And no 6.0 problems to worry about (a 7.3 won't break, but it's pretty damn slow with any real weight behind it).
I have an 06 F350 with the V10. We just got back from a 1600k trip towing a fully loaded three horse gooseneck trailer that came in a little north of 8800lbs. I averaged just over 9mpg. The truck is great when it's hauling a trailer or fully loaded but a complete pig to drive empty. It'll be used again this weekend to haul to a local show but then it'll sit for several weeks before it's needed again. I went with the V10 because, in my experience, diesels don't like to sit for extended periods of time.
Vigo said:Banging gears in a diesel rig seems like it would be fun
Well, it's less like banging and more like pulling on the shifter and waiting. Some of the big manuals are really not very fun to drive.
However, one time i drove a 5.7/manual ram 2500 and really enjoyed it in spite of the slow shifts and odd gearing.
I had a 1984 f250 6.9l diesel with a 4 speed. It was fun to drive for about 10 minutes, after that, an autobox (even a 3 speed) would have been better in 99% of situations. stop and go was quite awful.
Not by any means a modern truck or modern trans, but my guess would be the situation is still relevant today. As long as you can lock the trans in a gear to prevent overshifting and overheating, the auto should serve a truck much better. Especially on a daily, where you might want someone other than yourself to be able to drive it occasionally. ie "Sorry mom, we have an extra car while you are staying with us this week, but you can't drive the manual trans so go rent a car please while all my extra cars just sit around."
I owned a 2000 F250 7.3 manual trans extended cab 4x4 for about two years. I loved that truck, but I ran in to the two cars vs one car math as well and used the F250 to pay off a credit card. I used it for my sales route more than occasionally, which is almost all in city driving, and it was fun to me. I didn’t have a 8000# boat to tow though
For a daily driver that’s gonna see less than 10k miles a year, I’d buy the nicest/newest gas 3/4 ton truck I could get with your budget. OP is in Florida so unless he’s hauling that boat cross country he would probably be fine with any gas motor.
At your mileage, The difference between 10 and 15mpg is $80 a month, and between 10 and 30mpg is $160 a month. Insurance and maintenance will eat that difference fast if you want to have 2 cars...
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