I've made my 6.2 about as inefficient as possible between lift, big tires and a short 2wd air dam. But I enjoy the hell out of it. When I tripled my daily drive for about 6 months, I did pick up a cheap gas getter. But, my daily drive is back down to about 12 miles one way, so I sold it. I'm currently saving for a mustang, but that's for a different enjoyment, and if I feel the desire to drive the truck when I get a mustang, then that's what I will do. I promise to mod the mustang to my liking, with no regards to cost of ownership, lol.

If you're a car enthusiast and your truck is what you like, then drive it. If you really don't care about vehicles, and you are more a practical minded person, sell it and get something more efficient. Do what makes you happy, not others. We spend a lot of time in our vehicles. As stated earlier, life is to short to drive something you don't enjoy.

 

I don't disagree with you entirely. I also don't judge people for driving what they want so long as they're educated enough to know what the difference in choices really is.

As for the trucks being luxury, I'd leave that to everything above XLT trims in my opinion. My XL is a great truck, enjoyable to drive, but it's no Lariat or King Ranch.

Yeah, I easily save 2-3k a year on fuel, oil, and tire wear. I've yet to get a tire that gets it's quoted/rated mileage lifespan out of it. Owned everything from top of the line michelin tires to bottom rack wal-mart tires. They always seem to get about half to 70% of the life quoted, even with rotations and proper inflation.

I paid about 7k on the Honda a few years back, it was used but in solid condition. Comfortable enough to drive to and from work for me. To each their own.

 

It's all perspective. We have 3 vehicles. They are the F350, Explorer, and the Sonata Hybrid. Wife drives the car. I alternate between the truck and the explorer. Out of the 3 vehicles 2 of them have had payments. The F350 and the Sonata Hybrid. Recently we thought about replacing the Explorer due to age and the cost of repairs. My wife and i both agreed on principle there will not be another vehicle payment in the house at this current time. So it nixed the idea of a late model vehicle. The decision was made to research repair costs on the Explorer. It was a number to get us through another 12 months since it is paid off. It gets better mileage than the truck but not by much at this time. If something were to happen to the Explorer, we would just collect the insurance payout and bank it for another day. The F350 would become a DD for the immediate and long term future outlook until all the vehicles would be paid off. It could fill the SUV roll with a vehicle.

At this time, the F350 is designated for towing and project functions. I will drive it once a week around town to keep all the parts moving. However, I do not want to avoid putting on as many commuter miles as possible dropping value on the truck. When my F250 was wrecked last year, it had 115K miles and paid off. We bought a truck with 21K miles and acquired a note. The F250 had more miles than I even intended to put on it. Around I would say 40K due to commuting early on in its ownership with me. That would up costing me a few additional insurance dollars due to mileage depreciation. However I got more than what I paid for the truck in 2013 which was a nice thing. My current note on my F350 is very reasonable to the fact I double it every month to get it paid off quickly. I paid the other truck off in 27 months. I am hoping to come close or beat the record.

 

 

I live in NWFL. I need to be able to bug out at a moments notice and drive up to 1000 miles away without any gas stations having fuel in the immediate area. I daily my 6.7 F-350 Dually with a titan 65 gallon tank. I also keep 55 gallons of diesel on the property for my tractor, but I could also use it if I needed to top off the truck to get outta dodge. I have up to 1200 miles of range on the highway if I'm not towing anything. I can fit all of our sensitive personal things in the truck. It's my bug out plan if SHTF.

I live in a super rural area, if I had to commute into a city constantly it'd be a little bit more of a PITA, but I doubt I'd give up my truck just for that reason.

 

I could drive an '05 cobalt and get 28 mpg, uncomfortable seats, no cruise control, and a heater... or drive my current truck, '00 F250 with 5.4 gas motor, 9 mpg, no heat due to no thermostat because the head gasket is blown or head cracked, but it has comfy seats, cruise control, and, simply put... Id rather drive a Superduty. I'll run it til the motor blows up then swap in a 7.3L/6spd drivetrain... which will make me like it even more, and nearly double the fuel mileage!

Drive what you want to drive...

 

And that's fair. There are plenty of people who make decisions without the correct or complete information. I think the discussion is important. Many people just go for a vehicle that's cheaper at the pump while not thinking about the debt they incur for switching. My girlfriend's step mother wanted to buy a Honda in addition to her QX56 which was a pig. I did the math and showed her that her purchase of that Honda, plus its maintenance and what not wouldn't save her any money at all. She'd have to have it for years before she'd save any money vs. just driving the QX56 and dealing with it's high fuel costs. Even if your fuel costs are something like $1,500 a year, buying a car for $5k plus, registration, maintenance, tires, oil changes, etc. doesn't make much sense. Obviously there are scenarios where the math can make sense.

I once bought a Honda Civic SI because the $300 a month payment and $100 in gas was cheaper than the $400+ I was paying just to drive my high mileage truck. Obviously, the truck had maintenance costs as well. I was driving a lot at the time and the pendulum swung the other way. Plus, I was paying for something that had high resale value and cheaper maintenance costs and was under warranty. My 200k mile truck was 8 years old, long off warranty and needed more and more work.

As for trim levels, I hear you. I had XLT's pretty much all my adult life until 2015 when I got my first Lariat and later my 2016 F-250 Lariat Ultimate. Its a very different experience. My point was in stating that these trucks can be luxury vehicles as well as things to haul people, cargo or tow things. For some people who are more on the "girthy" side, getting in and out of a truck can be much easier than some economy car. That alone can be worth the price of admission. When I was pushing 300lbs. I found it quite difficult to get in and out of my Mustang or that Civic Si.

 

I certainly don't DD my V10, but I use it for my work commute if rain/snow is in the forecast or if I just want to keep things lubed. The heaviest thing I tow is a 5,000lb travel trailer. I didn't get my F250 to tow, I got it because I take it on crappy Forest Service roads deep into the mountains and load the bed cab-high with oak firewood. Can't do that safely in a light duty truck.

 

When I 1st bought my '04 250 the plan was to use it as my daily driver. I had an approximately 20 minute commute. I then got transferred to another office which turned my commute into a 2 hour commute. Between the time I had the 20 minute commute and 2 hour commute I got rid of my '04 and bought my '13 250 PSD. When I got transferred I threw $3,000.00 at a 2004 Volvo S80 for some of the same reasons stated here. The other reason was that I knew my '13 was going to be it for me as far as new vehicles and didn't want to put the miles on it. I hated driving that Volvo. A lot of people name their vehicles, the name I gave the Volvo was the s**t box". I lasted a year driving it. Gave it to my son and used the '13 as my daily driver. I now work from home so NBD, but I just couldn't take driving a "car". I just love driving my truck. It may cost more money, it may be more expensive to drive but I just love driving the thing. IMHO it's a beautiful truck, I get bookoo complements on the thing, it's comfortable, yes, it's intimidating, ya can't always park it where everyone else can park but I dig the thing, it's fun to drive.

 

You also never know when anything is going to happen. We always drive my truck unless there's a specific reason we need to take my wife's Jeep.

Sitting higher and having a steel frame and sheet metal comes in handy...and it only has to come in handy once to make it worth it...

 

You're only getting 9 mpg? There's gotta be something I'm missing because my '99 250 with the 5.4 gets 13/14 and it's an extended cab long bed.

 

I DD my 13 6.2 CCSB in the city, maybe 18 miles round trip daily. The computer says 9.7 MPG currently and I don't really care, a tank of gas lasts me almost 3 weeks at that rate.

The truck is and has been paid for. Don't want another car, don't want more insurance or registration fees.

 

I like this thread. It helps me justify my ongoing search to replace my faithful '98 Suzuki Sidekick with a 3/4 or 1-ton pickup truck, even if 95% of my driving is somewhat less than towing and hauling. Especially now that I've been retired from big rig truck driving for 11 months.