Alright Guys! After almost 2 months I finally sold my POS last week for about $1,400 less then I had payed in a round about way.
The vehicle blue booked at $48,080 with the options and miles, I payed $49,369 ($58,080 MSRP). I put it up on consignment for $44,995 ($995 consignment fee so I would of only gotten $44k) I also had it advertised on Craigslist for the same amount. There where two people who attempted to buy it through consignment but they couldn't get financed. Out of the blue one day I receive a phone call from the local Chevy dealership saying they want my truck and will give me 41-42k for it. Seeing as the best numbers I was seeing for trade in was 38k I thought, what the hell I'll bring it in and see what they'll give me. Sure enough they offered $41,500 and I accepted the offer after much debate. What made this all possible was the $6,500 settlement I'm receiving from Chrysler. When I add that onto what I sold the truck for it comes out to $48,000. 1.4k less than I had payed for the vehicle itself. Considering I put 27,000 miles on the truck in that first year I think that is a pretty good deal. Of course I would of loved to have sold it privately for 48, then gotten that check from Chrysler meaning I made 6,500 and drove all those miles. But I just wanted to wash my hands of her and crawl into bed with a new girl
So the same day I sold the EcoDiesel I bought a 2015 Ram 2500 Mega Cab with the 6.4L Hemi. Well, It's not the long bed like I had originally wanted, nor is it the 6.7L Cummins, However a friend of mine recently picked up the same truck and showed me the mega cab. Up until this point I had never seen the inside of the mega cab, never felt first hand how much room there really was, especially if you lay the seats down. After that, I had to have the Mega cab. I'll use the extra space inside the truck daily if nothing else for my dog Titan who is a Grate Dane. Where as I would of only used the extra 2' of bed space... maybe once every other month, if that?
As far as not getting the Cummins like I had wanted, my buddy said and showed me he was getting around 15mpg in his 6.4. In my opinion that's pretty good considering the size of the truck, and the engine. Where as most the people I talked to who owned the diesel was getting around 17-18. The biggest reason I wanted the diesel was for the better economy. Paying 8k MSRP to get 2-3mpg better? didn't make much since to me. So I did some math and calculated out how many miles I'd have to drive in order to have save the cost of the diesel upgrade.
266,667 miles is what I came up with and that's assuming I'd get an average of 18mpg in the cummins and 15mpg in the hemi without the fuel prices changing.
266,667 miles is a long, long time. I have no doubt the engine is good for it, but thats before you calculate DEF Fluid. It would take an estimated 296 gallons of def to get you that far. (Def consumption is averaged at 2% of the diesel fuel consumed.) Locally I can only purchase def in 2.5 gallon containers for around 16.99. That would cost another $2,000 dollars you'd have to save. which in turn would be another 66,667 miles. and then another 74 gallons of def... another 500 dollars... 16,667 miles... 18.5 gallons of def... 125 dollars...
As you can see it just keeps going until finally you reach a safe bet of 356,000 miles of driving before you finally THINK you have saved enough money to justify that engine... What about the extra 5 quarts of oil every oil change, and the price difference in the type of oil?... Well, I got done calculating things before that as it becomes extremely complex and just knowing it would take me almost 28 years to drive all those miles at a high average of 15,000 a year I knew any more calculations would just be a waste of brain power.
So basically what I'm getting at is you'd never save that money. Once you contribute everything from regular maintenance to unforeseen repairs your going to be out whatever you paid to upgrade to the cummins. Now, if you bought the cummins for all of its capacities, and not just its better fuel economy, then its money well spent no doubt about it. But thats not why I wanted it. I'd never use it to its capacities.
Anyway, I've spent long enough typing this all up. I just wanted to let y'all know that I won't be supplying updates on the EcoDiesel anymore and if you like what I've posted so far you can follow my build page / truck journal here, or in my Signature.
*edit* I'll add a link to the thread when I actually start it. Thanks for reading guys!