GenoBluzGtr
Junior Member
- Joined
- Sep 4, 2016
- Posts
- 3
- Reaction score
- 2
- Ram Year
- 2014-2016
- Engine
- v6 or ecodiesel
Newbie to the forums, but I wanted to join to get info and share my research as I venture into what I expect to be ownership of a new Ram 1500 by November.
I am one of those affected by the VW diesel flap, and in a month or so, expect to have my Jetta TDI bought back by the company. With that buy-back, and the fact that I miss driving a truck (used pickups most of my life before the last two vehicles), I have been spending most of the past month or two researching performance, reliability, cost-of-ownership, etc for all the half-ton and mid-size trucks. The bottom line up front, is that Ram 1500 V6 and Eco-Diesel have, thus far, come out on top of my list. Granted, my focus so far has been on fuel efficiency, since I've been spoiled by phenomenal MPG (38 city, 48-52 hwy, and 40-42 average with mixed driving) and NO DEF needed.
I DO realize that will be far beyond anything I can expect from any truck on the market, and I'm prepared for that, but I also wanted to make sure I don't jump right into 15-18 mpg if I could help it.
I have a long commute (and this truck would be my daily driver) of about 58 miles each way, so I use a lot of fuel, and I put a lot of miles on my vehicles. I have averaged between 30,000 and 35,000 miles per year on my last two vehicles, so I used a 30K per year number for all my comparisons.
I also used a different fuel-per-gallon cost for the new Diesel models I researched (Ram Ecodiesel and GM Twins Duramax) to account for DEF useage. based on my calculations (and it's rather uninformed but based on a gallon of DEF per 1000 miles driven, along with a cost of $6 per gallon for the DEF), I added 15 cents per gallon to the price of diesel fuel in my area (about $2.40 right now). So, I used $2.40 per gallon for my Jetta, since it doesn't use DEF and $2.55 per gallon for the new vehicles to incorporate the cost of DEF. FWIW, I used $2.15 per gallon for 87 octane gasoline for all the other engines.
I also used the stats at fuelly.com as my input for Real World average MPG (including my own Jetta, which I actually get a little better than what's listed, but to be fair, I 'm using ALL fuelly.com data). Where there are multiple configurations listed for the mpg, i.e. quad vs crew vs extended vs supercab, etc... , I used an average of all the configurations listed/available. There were no lists for 4X4 vs 4X2 on fuelly, so there might be some variation that isn't accounted for. I intend to get a 4X4 model of whatever vehicle I buy.
So my cost / percentage difference in fuel costs per 2-week period (I used two weeks, because of my paycheck periodicity) compared with the Jetta:
Jetta TDI = $67.54 / NA
RAM V6 = $118.13 / 42.8%
RAM EcoDsl = $123.08 / 45.1%
GMTwins V6 = $124.04 / 45.5%
GMTwins Duramax = $128.43 / 47.4%
Tacoma V6 = $130.57 / 48.3%
Ford 2.7EB = $134.10 / 49.6%
4Runner V6 = $137.82 / 51%
Ford 3.5EB = $145.93 / 53.7%
RAM Hemi = $145.93 / 52.7%
Ford 5.0 V8 = $150.35 / 55.1%
again, these number represent: Fuelly.com Avg MPG for that vehicle/engine normalized over a 2-week period averaging 30K miles per year at 2.15 per gallon gas/2.55 per gallon diesel/def, and a percentage increase over the Jetta's cost for the same period/miles.
I was actually quite shocked that the two RAM configurations came out on top over the Tacoma/4Runner and the GM Twins as well as the F150 ecoboost. I actually, ALSO ran the numbers for the Nissan Frontier and the Honda Ridgeline, but they were eliminated early on due to a) Frontier mileage just plain sucks, and b) Honda is a unibody.
I thought you guys would find the numbers interesting, I apologize for such a lengthy first post. My next step is getting deeper into reliability comparisons as that will also impact cost-of-ownership, so any inputs or redirects that might help would be appreciated. Problems, TSBs, etc.
Thanks!
I am one of those affected by the VW diesel flap, and in a month or so, expect to have my Jetta TDI bought back by the company. With that buy-back, and the fact that I miss driving a truck (used pickups most of my life before the last two vehicles), I have been spending most of the past month or two researching performance, reliability, cost-of-ownership, etc for all the half-ton and mid-size trucks. The bottom line up front, is that Ram 1500 V6 and Eco-Diesel have, thus far, come out on top of my list. Granted, my focus so far has been on fuel efficiency, since I've been spoiled by phenomenal MPG (38 city, 48-52 hwy, and 40-42 average with mixed driving) and NO DEF needed.
I DO realize that will be far beyond anything I can expect from any truck on the market, and I'm prepared for that, but I also wanted to make sure I don't jump right into 15-18 mpg if I could help it.
I have a long commute (and this truck would be my daily driver) of about 58 miles each way, so I use a lot of fuel, and I put a lot of miles on my vehicles. I have averaged between 30,000 and 35,000 miles per year on my last two vehicles, so I used a 30K per year number for all my comparisons.
I also used a different fuel-per-gallon cost for the new Diesel models I researched (Ram Ecodiesel and GM Twins Duramax) to account for DEF useage. based on my calculations (and it's rather uninformed but based on a gallon of DEF per 1000 miles driven, along with a cost of $6 per gallon for the DEF), I added 15 cents per gallon to the price of diesel fuel in my area (about $2.40 right now). So, I used $2.40 per gallon for my Jetta, since it doesn't use DEF and $2.55 per gallon for the new vehicles to incorporate the cost of DEF. FWIW, I used $2.15 per gallon for 87 octane gasoline for all the other engines.
I also used the stats at fuelly.com as my input for Real World average MPG (including my own Jetta, which I actually get a little better than what's listed, but to be fair, I 'm using ALL fuelly.com data). Where there are multiple configurations listed for the mpg, i.e. quad vs crew vs extended vs supercab, etc... , I used an average of all the configurations listed/available. There were no lists for 4X4 vs 4X2 on fuelly, so there might be some variation that isn't accounted for. I intend to get a 4X4 model of whatever vehicle I buy.
So my cost / percentage difference in fuel costs per 2-week period (I used two weeks, because of my paycheck periodicity) compared with the Jetta:
Jetta TDI = $67.54 / NA
RAM V6 = $118.13 / 42.8%
RAM EcoDsl = $123.08 / 45.1%
GMTwins V6 = $124.04 / 45.5%
GMTwins Duramax = $128.43 / 47.4%
Tacoma V6 = $130.57 / 48.3%
Ford 2.7EB = $134.10 / 49.6%
4Runner V6 = $137.82 / 51%
Ford 3.5EB = $145.93 / 53.7%
RAM Hemi = $145.93 / 52.7%
Ford 5.0 V8 = $150.35 / 55.1%
again, these number represent: Fuelly.com Avg MPG for that vehicle/engine normalized over a 2-week period averaging 30K miles per year at 2.15 per gallon gas/2.55 per gallon diesel/def, and a percentage increase over the Jetta's cost for the same period/miles.
I was actually quite shocked that the two RAM configurations came out on top over the Tacoma/4Runner and the GM Twins as well as the F150 ecoboost. I actually, ALSO ran the numbers for the Nissan Frontier and the Honda Ridgeline, but they were eliminated early on due to a) Frontier mileage just plain sucks, and b) Honda is a unibody.
I thought you guys would find the numbers interesting, I apologize for such a lengthy first post. My next step is getting deeper into reliability comparisons as that will also impact cost-of-ownership, so any inputs or redirects that might help would be appreciated. Problems, TSBs, etc.
Thanks!