Highest number of miles you'd consider on a used truck

John Rasmussen wrote:

Guys, as someone in the auto industry and seeing repairs on these trucks. Please pass on any gas engine with a turbo. Yes they have great horsepower and torque numbers but they are very expensive to fix. And yes I am seeing them fail.

Agreed. Engines in general aren’t what they used to be. Aside from the Ram 5.7 hemi, Ford’s 5.0, and the Toyota 5.7 you’ll be lucky to get 200k on any engine in a late model truck these days. The GM 5.3 engines have gone downhill in a bad way since 2014-2015 and the Ford EcoBoost engines are consistantly failing around or before 150k.
These modern engines and their “green” technology are depressing.
The amount of oil some of these engines consume is staggering and definitely not what I would call “green”.
That’s the world we live in though. Every year it seems vehicles get more expensive and less reliable.

grubson wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>John Rasmussen wrote:</div>
Guys, as someone in the auto industry and seeing repairs on these trucks. Please pass on any gas engine with a turbo. Yes they have great horsepower and torque numbers but they are very expensive to fix. And yes I am seeing them fail.

Agreed. Engines in general aren’t what they used to be. Aside from the Ram 5.7 hemi, Ford’s 5.0, and the Toyota 5.7 you’ll be lucky to get 200k on any engine in a late model truck these days. The GM 5.3 engines have gone downhill in a bad way since 2014-2015 and the Ford EcoBoost engines are consistantly failing around or before 150k.
These modern engines and their “green” technology are depressing.
The amount of oil some of these engines consume is staggering and definitely not what I would call “green”.
That’s the world we live in though. Every year it seems vehicles get more expensive and less reliable.

Yes the 5.7L in the Toyota gets terrible gas mileage but that’s cause they don’t use any cylinder deactivation. Primary reason i went with the truck i did was to avoid that garbage. I know you can disable it with a tuner or whatever but just not into doing that. Dodge users cylinder shutoff technology too. As i understand it the only engines in the half ton segment that don’t are the 5.7L Toyota and the 5.0 coyote in the Ford. Ford can get away with it cause their turbos meet the regulations for MPG for the fleet. Toyota sells so many cars that get good MPG they can let the truck be a truck. Those are the only two engines i considered buying in a new truck.

Good luck with your search. When buying a new truck here is the model i followed to find the best price:

Email every dealership in your area. In my case i did the entire state of MN and Fargo. Sometimes dealers put the prices on their website and sometimes they make you email them to find out. First thing to do is decide exactly what truck you want. Decide the model and trim and all the options. Then create a fake email address and email every dealership in the area you decide on and get a quote on the exact truck you want. Take the lowest price and then send that lowest price to every other dealership asking if they are willing to beat it. Repeat that process over and over until you get to the lowest price. In my case the truck i wanted was available in Fargo for $3,000 less than they wanted for it at local dealerships in the cities.

To the OP. IMHO

If daily driver:
Gasser – 70k-82k
Diesel – up to 150k

If just for towing or secondary vehicle:
Gasser – 120-140k
Diesel – infinity

Also, not that us true IDO tough manly men do this; BUT if you are like 90% of truck owners that “need” trucks but never do truck stuff or haul significant things (5k lbs+), just buy a car with fold down back seats and a hitch or small SUV.

John Rasmussen wrote:

Guys, as someone in the auto industry and seeing repairs on these trucks. Please pass on any gas engine with a turbo. Yes they have great horsepower and torque numbers but they are very expensive to fix. And yes I am seeing them fail.

x100, need more proof? do a little googling on videos of Ford mechanics talking about what engine they would buy in a F150 if they bought/owned one….

grubson wrote:

Agreed. Engines in general aren’t what they used to be. Aside from the Ram 5.7 hemi, Ford’s 5.0, and the Toyota 5.7 you’ll be lucky to get 200k on any engine in a late model truck these days. The GM 5.3 engines have gone downhill in a bad way since 2014-2015 and the Ford EcoBoost engines are consistantly failing around or before 150k.
These modern engines and their “green” technology are depressing.
The amount of oil some of these engines consume is staggering and definitely not what I would call “green”.
That’s the world we live in though. Every year it seems vehicles get more expensive and less reliable.

I agree with nearly everything, but how in the world has the 5.3 gone downhill since 2014? The L83 is direct injected, more powerful, and far more reliable than the LMG engines used in 2007-2013.

I went from a 2010 6.2 without AFM to a 2016 5.3 and yes, in my opinion it required a tune in order to feel like a real truck. This is mostly attributed to the terrible programming in the trans rather than the engine, but tuning out AFM and torque management and tuning for 91 left me with a 5.3 that feels exactly like my 2010 6.2 and that’s perfect for a half ton owner who pulls boats and trailers regularly.