Dutch: Since I purchased my 1996 Dodge Cummins diesel 4x4 extended cab 5 speed stick shift new in 1996 I have not paid one penny - not one cent - not a dime in unscheduled maintenance or repair costs!
I have close to 140,000 miles on it and it just keeps torqu'in on!
It is BY FAR the MOST reliable truck I have ever owned - and I have owned a lot of them!
By the way I have a cab high camper shell on mine and I get 22 to 23 M.P.G. on the highway - off roadin is less of course but when I tow my camp trailer (and all the goodies in the back of the Dodge) on the highway I have gotten as high as 20 M.P.G. (I drive slowish).
I went with the diesel for reliability, low maintenance costs and peace of mind - that decision has worked out in spades for me.
IF.... I were to ever replace my wonderful Dodge diesel (and I probably won't EVER have to!) it would be with another Dodge diesel 4x4 stick shift (6 speeds now!) with the Cummin diesel engine!
My good friend Ben from Big Sheep Creek, Montana has a 1994 Dodge 4x4 with standard transmission with the Cummins diesel engine that has been totaled out not once, not twice, but THREE times!
He has 370,000 miles on his engine - which has never had a bolt turned on it internally, by the way!
He just keeps takin the insurance money and rebuilding that trucks body and the engine runs as good today as it did new!
On an Antelope Hunt a few years back I was getting a tire repaired in Miles City, Montana. There was a fellow there at the tire shop with a Dodge diesel getting a set of new tires on it.
We got to talkin and his Dodge Cummins diesel had 400,000 miles on it! It was the same year as mine and I asked how he got that many miles on it. Turns out he was a civilian contractor for the United States Postal Service and his contract was to drive from Miles City to Billings, Montana every day and back to pick up and drop off mail and packages (he had a big closed custom made higher than cab canopy on his truck).
Six days a week he did this then for the Christmas season he made the round trip TWICE a day!
His comment was a gas truck would cut into his profits and the down time with the gas engines he would be penalized.
He also relayed how he had never had a bit of engine "trouble" in all those miles with that Dodge diesel!
Long live the ultra-reliable Dodge Cummins diesel engine option.
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy
Biggest worry on that truck is fresh fuel, condensation in the fuel, and rust. 6K Mi/yr pfffft!!
