Hi Guys, I'm an old diesel man but when I try to justify going to a diesel van my pencil and calculator says stay with a gas engine. Lets just look at the fuel aspect of gas versus diesel. Down below you will see part of my computer program for tracking cost. As you can see I have driven 140,811 miles this year and am averaging 14.4 MPG and used 9,782 gallons of gas. You can also see a drop in fuel milage after March when I went from a regular Ford van to my Dream Van.
http://www.expeditersonline.com/dcforum/DCForumID16/519.html
Also in the cold months and hot months you can see the effects of idling to stay warm and cool. Ok if I use an average of $1.90 per gallon, total cost would be $18,585.00. Divide that by the 140,811 miles and you get $.1319911 cents per mile. Best figures I can come up with is I might get 5 MPG better with a diesel. Take the same 140,811 miles and 19.4 MPG and I would have used 7258 gallons of diesel. Diesel is usually about $.20 higher than gas so we'll use $2.10 per gallon. Total cost would be $15,242.00 divided by the 140,811 and the cost per mile is $.1082443. This means I would save $.0237468 per mile run. Ok if I take the $6000.00 extra I was quoted for a diesel and divide it by the $.0237468 it would take 252,665 miles to break even. This is just for the fuel mileage difference. Now I change oil every 10,000 miles and figure most diesel operators do also. The best I can figure it will be about twice the cost for an oil change on a diesel than on gas. That cost has to be figured in also,but I won't bore you with all the figures. Also you have to figure in the cost of fuel treatment in the winter. Then there's the aspect of, if you need any kind of repairs they are not only more expensive but it is harder to find a good shop and mechanic to do them especially if your are on the road. All and all I just can not justify going with a diesel. Just my opinion guys. Dieseldoctor
Operation
2004 Miles Miles / Gallons
Driven Gallon of Gas
January 1 12,954 14.7 884
February 2 16,531 15.6 1,061
March 3 12,980 15.6 834
1st Qtr 42,465 15.3 2,779
April 4 7,536 14.6 515
May 5 10,525 14.0 752
June 6 16,632 14.3 1,164
2nd Qtr 34,693 14.3 2,430
July 7 6,126 13.3 461
August 8 15,030 13.9 1,085
September 9 15,433 14.0 1,105
3rd Qtr 36,589 13.8 2,651
October 10 14,397 14.2 1,017
November 11 12,667 14.0 905
December 12
4th Qtr 27,064 14.1 1,922
Total 140,811 14.4 9,782
PS looks like when I enter this chart in here it rearranged the columns severally. Maybe you can figure out how they are supposed to be Sorry bout that!
