with gas prices rising and me paying $70.00 a week to fill up my 2005 f150 fx4 supercab ... my questions are is there a difference between a 5.4 f150 & a 6.0 powerstroke gas mileage ... I cannot find gas mileage figures for a f250 powerstroke on the internet so I am asking you guys ... and say I did get the powerstroke f250 and pay and have it converted to run off vegetable oil how much better gas mileage do you get with that application ? is it worth the money ?the reason I am asking is ...I do not want to trade in my truck ... but I am on the verge making my mind up on trading it in for a 2006 Honda civic ... but I do not want too... but then again I cannot afford $70.00 a week in gas also equaling $280.00 a month gas payment which equals a monthly car payment just for gas alone . anybody have any info to help a fellow Ford f150 brother stay in a Ford truck ?
Thanks in advance .

 

We have powerstrokers here and the average 15-16 mpg, same as your 5.4.

 

Unless you go to a seriously less expensive vehicle completely, switching to another truck for instance for MPG reasons doesn't make ANY sense at all. After you get raped 2 ways on tax and licence etc, you lose. not worth it, not even close.

Getting a sub $15k economy car, however, does make some good sense.

Hence my upcoming purchase of a "Stripper" 5 speed Ford Focus (screw Honda and its overpriced bs) on Friday.

 

Don't waste your time. If you could get a 7.3L and chip & exhaust it, you'd get close to 21-22mpg - easy driving. My 2002 pulled numbers like that all day long. My 2003 (7.3L) averaged 18mpg untricked. Since then, my 2004 (6.0L) got 17.2mpg average over 40,000 miles, and my new 2005 (6.0L) gets 16.2 average over 10,000 miles. Not too impressive. Now, I average 14.5 towing my 4000# pop-up and a loaded bed with the 2006 6.0L, where my 2005 F-150 Screw would beg to get 12. I'm thinking about rolling the truck into the barn for weekend warrior projects, and donning a Dodge Charger for my daily commute - better mileage, but still fun to drive.

 

well my reason in the powerstroke is... I have a coworker who has a dodge 2500 with a hemi ... he says he gets 12 MPG and that the same truck with a diesel will get 25 mph .

 

That's not very fast!

 

i used to ba able to ride a bicycle that fast in my younger days

 

My father has a 05 F350 SC, long box, DRW, FX4, 6.0L PSD/torqshift with about 20,000 miles on it and running the Edge Juice with Attitude. He is only getting about 13 mpg running empty and about 10 mpg towing his 34' 5th wheel ( about 13,000lbs when loaded). If you are looking at getting a diesel truck for mileage, then the 99-2001 Superdutys with 7.3L's were pretty good. Dad had a 99 F350 SC longbox, DRW, 4X4 7.3L/6 spd running straight piped exhaust, TS Performance 100 HP chip, and K&N intake. Empty he could get 20-21mpg and pulling the 5th wheel down south he would get anywhere from 10-13mpg.

My girlfriend and I have a 05 Focus ZX4 and that thing will only get 32 mpg tops. I am thinking about trading it for a VW Jetta TDI, my mom has a 06 TDI and she gets right around 44mpg just running to work and back. I got 48 mpg on a long highway trip last fall with it. Really its a great little car!

 

The MPG average on current diesels aren't great. Don't get me wrong, I love 'em for the power, but the mileage is just so-so. For example a buddy has a 2006 Cheby 2500HD with the new LLY (360 HP & 650 TQ) with a Bullydog tuner, he gets round 17 MPG. Now, that is a crew cab 4x4, but still no ones writing home about 17 MPG.

Look at a used Focus, or a bike for something cheap. the TDI's from VW are pretty slick though.

On a side note, with gas prices going up all over people are flocking to more fuel efficient vehicles and are taking baths on them left and right. I believe it was the Wall Street Journal that had an article on hybrids and and how high gas prices would have to go to make up the premium, on average to make it back on a Camry hybrid in 1 year, gas would have to be in the $9+ a gallon range. That was based on just the difference of adding a hybrid engine at msrp, before dealer premiums. Just brain candy. Remember, things run in cycles. After the 70's shortage people were saying gas would never go down again and we were going to have to do this and that. By 1982 is was at $12/barrel. Yes it's a finite resource, no it's not gone yet.