Cowpie

They do drink gas, for sure. But I have done several looks at prevailing costs via NADA and other sources on used HD's in both gas and diesel, especially since the diesel emissions game came along, and while the gasser will always be lower in value than the diesel version, the spread gets tighter as the vehicles get older. So the gasser is not loosing nearly the percentage of value as the diesels of the last 5 years. It is getting harder to truly justify a diesel, given the complexity and emission stuff. They do still have their unique niche that cannot be topped by a gasser, but very few folks actually fit into that niche. Of all HD pickups out there, very few are being used to yank around super 5th wheel RV's over Vail pass and such that would justify having a diesel. What most folks actually do could be accomplished quite well with a 6.6 gasser in the GM stuff and the 7.3 gasser in the Ford stuff. If my wife can tow my 20,000 lb semi truck tractor thru heavy mud spring thaw gravel roads, over several hills, two miles to the nearest highway with my 2015 2500 6.0 gasser like she had to do last spring, then I think it suffices for my lighter trailer towing and snowplow work I do with it.

Problem is, though the Dmax is getting better fuel economy, the actual fuel cost per mile is the same since diesel is higher priced that gas. So there really is no appreciable benefit in that regard. Towing would be the only advantage, and then it all depends on what one is towing.

Reviving this, but thought it might be apropos to someone.. I have had very good results with the SnowSport snowplow. I use it on my 2500, but it would work fine on a SUV. I can have the blade on and going to work on the snow in less than a minute. Same thing when done. Pull the blade off and park the pickup. I do about 1000 ft of my own rural drive and around out buildings. I also do a couple of elderly neighbor's driveways. I don't even have to worry about scalping a yard, I usually push right on thru the drive, past the outbuildings out to the cropland. I have even cut paths 2 miles on gravel road to the nearest hard road when the county didn't get their graders out in a timely manner. Heck, I have even used the blade to smooth and even out 1" washed gravel that we had put down on the drive last July. Did a fantastic job. I hook up a hold down strap to the blade and it keeps the blade and the right height throughout the push. I also use the strap on heavy snow and it cuts right on thru and does a great job. I have about 4 years on mine and never have had to replace any component. I have seen folks use these on even a Honda Ridgeline, so it would be fine on any 1500. https://www.agricover.com/snowsport/hd

Matter of driving style. A driver can influence fuel economy by 33%. Fleet studies have shown that. Same vehicles and different drivers. When I was using regular E10, I could average about 14 mpg with my 2015 2500 6.0 with slightly oversized BFG KO2 rubber and back end dropped 2" for all miles... town, gravel, rural, highway, etc. Highway trips of 95% highway, I could get 17-18 mpg. Not quite getting that now due to using E30 fuel, but the cost is lower so the actual cost per mile is about the same. About the same cost per mile if I was using a diesel getting better mpg, so since I don't need a diesel, I don't have one. Just in my semi truck.

My 3/4 drive socket set is far superior to my 3/8 drive socket set also. But then why do I own both? I have tools for the job I need to get done. Just that simple. My 3/4 ton pickup is better at tasks around my property than my semi truck is. It is also better at making quick part / oil runs, pushing snow, etc. But on the road, my semi puts a 3/4 ton pickup to shame, even a diesel version. I guess, why do I also own a John Deere Gator? Wouldn't the 4x4 pickup suffice? Nope, not in all situations. A pickup is just a tool for me. Pure and simple. And I have different tools for different jobs. Oh..... my semi truck IS my daily driver. When I go to work, I walk out of the house and get in the Semi. I don't drive to work with car or pickup. But that doesn't negate the fact that pickup truck OEM's have not kept pace with the developments of the heavy truck OEM's while at the same time inflating prices at a higher percentage than heavy truck OEM's have. Anymore, even the wild creature comforts that the pickup truck OEM's put in their pickups is being matched, and in some ways exceeded, by the heavy truck OEM's. As far as use on the road, my semi truck is far superior and comfortable to drive than my pickup. I have given thought to going to a single drive axle and cutting the frame shorter and using the semi to yank around a 5th wheel RV I may opt for in retirement. At least in the semi truck I will have air ride seats, a built in refrigerator, 10" GPS navigation, Bose surround sound, etc that it already has. Heck, I can literally get up out of the seat and switch drivers with the truck moving down the road if I wanted to. And the visibility is far superior than any pickup truck.

The average mpg of commercial semi trucks has almost doubled in the last 20 years. Doing the same work on the same terrain in the same weather. And the average HP and Torque of engines has gone up as well. Meanwhile, the average trailer length has gone from 48' to 53'. Even with all the diesel emissions stuff that got piled on just like the pickups got. And there was no government CAFE stuff forcing OEM's to improve mpg of semi trucks over that period. The heavy truck OEM's did it to gain market share. They did it to improve customer cost benefit ratios. They put their R&D people to work. The OEM pickup manufacturers cannot make the same claim to have doubled average mpg in the last 20 years of pickups within any class. A little bit of an uptick, but certainly not doubled. And it wouldn't have improved much at all if the pickup OEM's had not had the government breathing down their throat about fuel economy. My '98 2500 454 averaged 12-13 mpg for all miles . My 2015 2500 6.0 only gets about 1-2 mpg average better fuel economy than that for all miles. And the new 6.6 gasser numbers have not added much to that. If the pickup OEM's had accomplished the same thing as heavy commercial trucks, the average MPG for all miles of a modern 2500 gasser would be at least 20 mpg. That average including highway, city, hauling, everything. Diesels in pickups would be averaging in the high 20's mpg for all miles as well, not just highway mpg. The average price of a new pickup has virtually doubled in the last 20 years though. Even while the average price of a new heavy commercial truck has only gone up 50% in comparison. So the pickup OEM's have exceeded the cost growth compared to heavy commercial trucks.

Does anyone realize how lame getting that kind of mpg is? Today, my 70' long, 13.6' tall, 32,000 lb semi truck hauling 26,000 lb of cargo in a 53' trailer got about 8.7 mpg for the day. And that motor now has 1,046,619 miles on it. A pickup, even a gasser, yanking around 8500 lb of trailer should beat that by quite a margin. GM is really not getting things right.

Pretty sure E30 would not deliver the same mpg as premium, but given that E30 is about a about 80 cents a gallon cheaper than premium, I would be willing to bet that even with the lower mpg, it would still be far cheaper per mile than using premium. I probably only lose a hair over 1 mpg by using E30 compared to even E10 regular. In that comparison, E30 is about 15 cents a gallon cheaper than E10 regular, so again, even by losing 1 mpg E30 is still cheaper to use than E10 on a cost per mile basis. And I get 91-93 octane where E10 regular is only 87 octane. Of course, prices vary across the country, so the price spreads may not be there and it may not be worth trying.

The primary reason I have used E85 almost exclusively for the last 3 years in mine is, even with the lower mpg, it is still a lower cost per mile than regular. In the last couple of months, the price spread between fuels is not as good, so I am now using E30. I get almost as good of mpg as with E10, yet the cost is lower. So I am still coming out at a lower cost per mile than E10 and certainly E0 regular. And E30 still has a 93 octane rating so I get the benefits of that. Runs great on it.

20% off total vehicle price. There is a standard destination charge that is applied to all similar vehicles irregardless of the actual transport fee. As a commercial trucker myself, I could easily haul 6 full size 3/4 ton pickup trucks (7 full size 1500's) in one load and there is no way in hell I am going to get $1600 for each of them, even if they go across the nation. A typical transport truck is lucky to see $2.50 a mile and load/unload time compensation. Most transport runs are less than 1000 miles. But for the sake of argument, let's say they average 1000 miles. At $2.50 a mile (probably less than that), it comes to about $2500. I will be very generous and add in 1 hour of load/unload time per vehicle, which is probably about $50 per hour, for a total of $300. So we are at $2800. Take that and divide by 6 trucks and that comes to $467 a truck actual destination cost. Keep in mind, I am being very generous in both the per mile rate and the 1 hour load/unload time per truck. Those destination charges are as inflated as the prices for the trucks themselves. The average consumer isn't up to speed on the destination charge stuff, so the dealers can foist inflated destination charges on them. If I could get $1600 per truck to haul them, I would race out and buy a car hauler truck tomorrow morning. Heck, I would only make one run per week and still be raking in the revenue. Imagine.... 6 pickup trucks paying $1600 each to haul, throw in the load/unload time, and that is $10,000 a load. Let's say 40 loads a year, that is $400,000. There is no way in hell a transport truck is getting that kind of revenue even hauling Rolls Royce cars, let alone pickups from tightwad GM.

Well, none of the 2500's with 6.0 have 8 speed transmissions. The 6L90 is the trans. In fact, even the new 6.6 gasser in the 2500 only has a 6 speed, albeit a beefed up version of the 6L90. Even then, it does sound like your's has some issue going on. I have no problem yanking trailers around with my 2015 2500 6.0. It pushes snow like it isn't even doing any work. Heck, my wife used it to pull my 20,000 lb Freightliner Class 8 semi truck tractor that was buried in the spring mud on our rural gravel road last spring. She had to pull me 2 miles thru that muck, up and down hills, to the nearest hard surface road. Pickup acted like it was an average day out in the country. Wish I would have had a friend take video of that when it happened. I was just trying to keep the semi tractor on the road and the wife was white knuckled doing the pulling in the pickup. The semi was sliding around on that stuff, but the pickup tracked real well. Has BFG KO2 tires on it. I'll keep mine.

I am reminded about a early Letterman bit he did on a Johnny Carson show and it seems apropos. He was talking about those that make dog food that prevents constipation. He couldn't figure out the down side to his dog being constipated! Why screw up a good thing! Seems the same here. That some stupid light, warning alarm, or whatever doesn't work, really, I can't seem to find a down side if that were to happen to me.

Well, that technically is true.

I would welcome that as a positive! I am sick of the nanny stuff that the OEM's foist on vehicle buyers.

It seems strange that any dealership would not want to move vehicles, strike or not. They own it outright or their floor plan financier is going to hit them for interest on the vehicle as long as it sits on the lot. Either way, they are out money until they move the vehicle. GM doesn't ship vehicles to dealers out of the goodness of their heart. But then, it is a gambling thing. A dealer will bet the odds that someone will come along that will buy for almost full price. In this case, it worked. Doesn't mean the buyer got taken. They didn't if they are happy with the sale. Each person has to live within their own comfort zone.