New Truck - It's a jungle out there

[Starlight Mike]

Originally Posted by Peter C

My reasoning for a diesel truck has more to do with the weight of the truck. I do not like my trailer pushing the truck around. We also live close to the mountains and it is pretty nice to be able to pull up a pass with out straining the truck and using up half a tank of fuel.

Unfortunately I took our Nissan Titan XD Diesel in for some routine maintenance which included some brake work. They were unable to bleed the brakes and had to replace the master cylinder. Apparently we got the last master cylinder in Canada however it was programmed for an armada and they couldn’t get it to work on my truck. We had a family vacation scheduled … A few weeks later my truck still sits there waiting for the part.

Fortunately a local dealer just dropped the price of a slightly used 2020 F350 with low mileage and all the options I was interested in. The only problem was that it had the tremor package and my wife is not too keen on climbing up into a truck. However the power running boards on the tremor drop down quite a bit lower than fixed running boards. Within about four hours we were driving away with the Ford. I couldn’t be happier despite having zero negotiating power.

I headed to the Nissan dealer, transferred all the stuff from my other truck, adjusted the hitch and was loaded and ready to go the next morning. We only lost one day of vacation which necessitated a nine hour travel day. It was a long day and broke many of my travel rules however with adaptive cruise control auto engine brake and the capability of the F350 it was a dream.

Incredibly F350 Has Way better fuel economy than the Nissan. Hopefully when I sell the Nissan I’ll make back some of the premium price I had to pay for the Ford. This truck market is crazy.

Very smart decision you will never regret

[BillFurst]

Originally Posted by TankerIP

I am just starting to research this Tow Vehicle forum. We are thinking about replacing our '09 Ram Diesel - tough to do but maybe necessary. And, now the dilemma: 1/2 ton gas vs 3/4 ton diesel (or gas?). We now have a 2019 FC 25RB, I think wt is about 7000#. Apparently there are some 1/2 ton gas options that will pull our 25'. I'm just started going through posts. Interesting stuff to consider. A new diesel engine is easily a $10,000 upcharge over a comparable gas. And what about costs of driving diesel vs gas? We live in Texas so flat land driving is the norm. But we like to go west now and then and appreciate the way our diesel gets us up and over the occasional 9,000 feet. I guess my current mileage is low side of 14mpg.

Just pondering. Need to start looking at internet. Ford, GMC, Ram. And the pandemic -- I hear that's made truck buying worse?

In FL the dealers are charging over sticker because supply is low.

[uncle_bob]

Originally Posted by BillFurst

In FL the dealers are charging over sticker because supply is low.

Hi

If the vehicle is brand new on the lot, it's a very rare bird these days. You will pay a bit for that reason.

On a factory order (at least in some areas) dealers are still knocking a bit off of MSRP.

Bob