I agree, i mainly went with the diesel for longevity reasons. I plan on owning this truck for a long time and put 30,000 miles on the first year. I love my diesel and i am sure the V10 is a great engine. Do what your gut tells you and you cant go wrong with either engine.

MotoX

 

Welcome to the site. I am new here too. I bought the new 6.0 Diesel in my 03 F350. Why? Because I tow a race car to different events around the midwest. Lots of milage. My hope is that I won't have more miles on it than what the warranty covers before I get it paid off. I have a 95 F250 with 7.3 Powerstroke, and over 200,000 miles, still runs and pulls great. If you trade often, the extra cost of the diesel may not be for you. But if you want something that will hold resale value, last til you just can't stand looking at it any more, get the diesel. And that is with any kind of truck make you go with. I drive 100,000 + miles a year just to work, and typiacally wear out a car in two years. I wish ford made a diesel car again, like the old escorts, only larger than pregant roller skates (escort).

 

My buddy in Calif and I have almost the exact same truck but he has the 7.3 and I bought the V-10. As many have said, do the math. Big difference in the result is the cost of fuel. My buddy says that gas is 20 cent more in Calif and out here in Colorado gas is twenty cents less. Makes a big difference over the 150K miles or whatever you project out to.

I visited near the Bay Area in Calif and when I filled up the rental car, gas was about $1.90/gallon. At the same time in Colorado at my local Costco station gas was $1.35. I have to admit I would not have bought a V-10 if I thought I'd be paying close to 2 bucks a gallon. Hope this helps.

 

Before long, we will all be paying $2.00/gal for gas, probably that for diesel as well.
It is true that diesels are adding about 5K to the sticker price, but if you tade it in you'll get about 1/2 of that back - or so I'm told.

I sold my diesel and didn't replace it, for many of the reasons you see here. In hindsight I consider it a mistake that I will need to correct, but not before the 04MY.

One of the issues that went into my decision was that I was moving from Washington State to Minnesota. I heard all the horror stories of people not being able to start their diesel vehicles because of the Minnesota winters. Well there are a lot of diesels here, they all seem to run in the winter and I consider this assertion as another case of hyperbole. I could see the problem if you kept diesel formulated in your truck for summer and tried to use it in winter, but who fills up their rig once every 6 months? They get good mileage, but really...

One thing that I had considered is that vehicles here in Minnesota rust out way before the powertrain becomes an issue. Although it is true that there are a large number of Flinstones cars (ones without floors) here, if you take care of the paint on your car it shouldn't be a problem. I just had the pleasure of sandbasting and painting select areas of my Expedition to prevent further issues.

Bottom line -

If you want to get a new truck within 4 years, buy gas and risk abusing it by pulling a trailer.

Otherwise, buy diesel only if all the operators of the truck will excerise the discipline it takes to operate a diesel. They are different than gas and need to be treated as such.

Just my $.02

 

I have a 1999 F350. Tonight I started the truck to go home from work and I noticed that the ABS light came on. I drove for approx 10 miles and stopped to gas up and when I took off I noticed that my speedometer was not doing anything until I got to 20 mph and when the trans shifted it did it hard. Soon after that the check engine light came on?? anyone have any ideas?

 

Tom M P,
Need to pull the codes, could be a problem with the speed sensor, or another internal trans. problem. When the speed sensor has a problem, or is working correctly and picks up a slip, the computer can send full line pressure from the front pump through the trans; resulting in your hard shift.

Tim

 

Will all of that effect the ABS and the engine idiot lights to come on? Is this a pull the trans and fix it type of job? or is it a sensor that is bad pull and replace it thing?


Thanks for your input! I do appreciate it!

Tom

PS. this is a V-10