Well, I have had plenty of Suburban's with gas engines and traveled a lot to Arizona from California. In the industry I am in we tow a lot of specialty equipment and had made the conversion from gas engine trucks to Diesel's long ago. The Diesels always seemed to last longer and tow much better. I found i enjoyed the Diesel much better than the gas engine for towing. The issue back in that day was the Diesels were fairly low in horsepower but plenty of Torque, so we would go to Banks back then an modify them. It was like night and day difference. I
got my first Excursion in 2002. a 7.3 Diesel. And fell in love with it! The power was an issue for a vehicle that big. First Stop Banks for modifications. I still was not happy with the performance, eventually I went to a place Called RBP, Rolling Big Power, I became one of Roland's first customers back when he did modifications, now he more or less just sells his RBP branded Grills, Rims Etc.
He had a guy that was a phenomenal chip programmer, The truck became a beast and i was hooked! Several years later the chip died and Roland had stopped doing Engine work on Diesels. So I turned to Edge products, a great programmer, not as good as the RBP Chip. Was but still very powerful.
What I really liked was the dependability of the Diesel and the ability with the modified chips to up the horsepower to whatever i required. The Diesel has always been dependable and much faster than most expected for 2003.
The only way you will be happy with the Diesel though is to get an after market Air Filter and Filter Box ( I have one from Edge) A bigger exhaust system and a Tuner from Edge or someone else (Can add over 100 HP and even more torque on the highest settings) I always had it in the Tow mode for the majority of my time driving.
You will find the 7.3 is a pretty much bullet proof engine as far as Diesels go but is definitely not as sophisticated as todays Diesels.
I loved my 2002 and swore I would never buy another truck until they make another Excursion. It has been the oldest vehicle in our fleet and never left me stranded! My guys always teased me about it being the oldest vehicle and I needed a new one. The end of 2016 on of my guys found a conversion on the web. I had thought about it before but most wanted you to buy the truck then shell out a ton of money for the conversion. It was on a website RAD-Rides. The company is owned by a ford Dealership, in fact they own several in Texas. I neded up buying it in January of 2017 and as it was never registerd and the dealer did the conversion I was able to finance it through Ford with out paying separately for the Conversion.
I love my 7.3 to this day and it is being stored in a friends barn up in Paso Robles and I have not been able to get to it since Covid but I am thinking of pulling it out of moth ***** and putting it in Arizona.

But I myself would never own anything other than the Diesel Excursion

 

The V10 will get you to a place of help on 9 cylinders easily. Ask me how I know.

 

@bluovl :

Could you clarify what you mean by your statement: "The V10 will get you to a place of help on 9 cylinders easily."?

Thanks,
Tim

 

if a spark plug blows, pull the coil and disconnect the wiring for the fuel injector and on you go.

 

Ok, thanks for the clarification.

 

And you still have one more cylinder than most other trucks on the road!

 

Are you considering a 2wd or 4wd?

 

A 4wd only.

Thanks,
Tim

 

I wouldn't put much faith in that chart as those complaints were more than likely made many years ago and probably mostly corrected by now. I would focus on maintenance from the previous owners. Pay attention to big ticket items like the transmission...from what I remember the 2001 and 2002 had a mechanical diode that was an issue. So if the transmission is still original in that configuration I would price it accordingly.

 

@bwguardian : This is what I've begun to realize. This also opens the door to more options.

Thanks,
Tim