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Apparently they go FOREVER, great for courior service or transport. I'm not sure how tey'd work for us. On average the Merc's 20 000 CAD more than a comparable domestic chassis, gets amazingly better mileage, mechanical downtime is almost non-existant. However is it worth the extra expense? Especially if you only put 25000 - 40000 km a year on a chassis. Company I used to work for had 2 Chev 3500HD, a 2000 and a 2001. The first had the 8L v8 great truck! Lots of power for pulling a 6500 lb chipper.....loaded. The second had a 6.5L Diesel.....POS, very poor power delivery, and it cost them $8000 more. Currently ones got about 30000km (gas) and the other about 40000km. Really isn't worth the extra expense for a diesel even if it did have more power.
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[obsessive rant] You've hit on one of my pet issues here. I disagree about diesels completely. The idea that price should be the only consideration is destined to be our downfall, led by the walmartization of the world. I understand we all have tight bottom lines and we can't be driving Lincoln pickups when ford/dodge do the job fine, but we have to look down the road.
Diesel engines are more efficient, thus use less fuel for the same power output than a gasser. They produce less greenhouse gases. The output of NOx emissions is higher (in the US, anyway) but that will change when we clean up our crappy sulfur-laden fuel and can then add scrubbers (that would be killed now by the sulfur). But the best selling point IMO is that they can run on biodiesel fuel or (with slight modification) any vegetable or animal oil. Both these fuels lubricate better, adding life to the engine, and burn many times cleaner than petrodiesel or gas. Biodiesel is available today and can be poured into the tank of any diesel on the road today (older vehicles may have rubber fuel lines that should be replaced before long because the BD degrades rubber). BD also cleans out the crud in your fuel system that has accumulated from petrol and keeps it clean (if you've run a lot of petrol already, you might need a new fuel filter).
The results: cleaner air (which means less strict clean-air mandates, perhaps offsetting the up-front cost), less maintenance, less vehicle replacement, less fuel used overall, and the potential to use a fuel grown and produced domestically on the same site--i.e., my money goes to a local farmer, not a foriegn emir. Also, BD can be made from waste vegetable oil from restaurant fryers, reducing waste and cutting cost.
Not to mention, the torque gives you a nice, strong pull up a steep hill when all the gassers are chugging and downshifting, making for more enjoyable driving (granted, you won't win those stoplight drag races, but what tree truck would?). [/obsessive rant]
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