As much as the idea intrigues me, buying a diesel truck, It's hard to justify the extra cost, unless you tow often.
There is no way I would buy one that only produced 200hp. I have no desire to go backwards in power. Sure it has a good amount of torque, but I can buy a gas engine 1/2 ton that produces nearly 400hp and 400 lbft of torque. Yes, they get higher mileage, but here in Kalifornia, I see diesel at $4.79 a gallon and that few extra mpg you get, doesn't seem so tempting.
Add to that, more frequent oil changes, more oil to change, fuel filters to change on a frequent basis, and it really steals the thunder of a good diesel, much less, a weak one.
Something like the GM 4.5L Duramax is more like I would expect, at 320hp and 520lbft of torque, plus GM is claiming mpg that pretty well matches what the tiny cummins puts out. I cannot understand When todays gas engine trucks, with engines in the 5.6 and 5.7L range, can tow 10,000lbs +, a new truck with a diesel that tows only 7-8000 isn't very appealing.
My '06 Tundra with a 4.7L engine tows 7,000lbs and gets me 17-18 hwy. That's a double cab 4WD truck. bought it used in '06 and have yet had to do anything other than change the oil and tires. I have not even had to take it back to the dealership.
Now I can see that engine in something like a Jeep wrangler, where one is not so worried about hot rod acceleration, but could really use all that torque.
