I chose an EcoDiesel for my order but note, I picked a Limited trim where the ED was $3200 option. I currently have 4 vehicles and I'm selling 3 of them and getting the RAM as it will replace all 3 of them, it won't replace my heavily modified Golf R which is now a Sunday weekend driver when it's nice out or I'm going to a track day.
Between my 3 vehicles, I drive about 20,000 miles a year and put an additional 16-20K miles on my motorcycles. I'll be takin about 2-4K a year from my touring motorcycle and instead my Wife and I will load our lighter dirt bikes on the truck and drive to where we'll ride. The two trips planned are NC & Nova Scotia so it's safe to say at least 22K miles a year on the RAM 1500. I also don't live in a city (Northern New Hampshire with more moose than people) so it takes a bit of time to get to the good grocery store and the theatre is an hour away if we want to see a movie.
In my world, I'm paying $2.79 a gallon for 87 octane fuel and averaging 30 MPG on my 3 vehicles.Diesel is running $3 a gallon and I expect to get 22MPG with the eco-diesel.
So no, it won't be cheaper than my current cars BUT between the V8 w/ E-Torque (14-18 MPG) and the ED (20-28 MPG), I'll be coming out very close with the added benefit to me personally is by going from 3 cars to 1, I'll be saving myself about $800 a year in insurance & registration and I'll be gaining a truck that can haul our bikes which cuts down on wear & tear on the bikes.
One thing people don't think about when they have a wife or partner that rides their own bike is that even though my 1200CC touring bike gets 40 MPG and her 850CC gets 48MPG, our combined MPG is equivalent to taking one of our cars because we're using double the fuel since we're riding separately. It's nice to ride with your wife but you're burning 2X the fuel on 2 bikes
So that's my reason for the Eco-Diesel, long high ways, hauling bikes, generally affordable diesel and hopefully, diesel will remain more affordable than gas over time (yet to be seen).
Here's some quick math.
1. 20,000 miles @ 14 MPG (Hemi-V8) at $3 a gallon (for mid-grade)
2. 20000 miles @ 22 MPG (Diesel) at $3 a gallon
1428 gallons which would cost $4284 in fuel
909 Gallons costing $2727 in fuel
And that's per year. I'd like to think I can get slightly better than 22MPG.
Here is Diesel:
v8 Hemi:
V6 Penta-star:
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So depending on price per gallon of mid-grade & Diesel where you live paired with miles per year, you can basically take it as 23MPG for ED, 16 MPG for Hemi and 19/20 for V6 and do the math and see how long it would take to re-coup the money.