Diesel or Gas?

[afreeland90]

I’m considering a 25’ Tahoe but on the fence between gas or diesel. We live in between families so do quite a bit of interstate travel (300-350 mile trip every 6-8 weeks) and overall burn about 20K miles a year. Other than the long distance trips we just drive around locally in town. No towing. Obviously the better gas mileage on the diesel is appealing but curious if we drive enough to make the diesel worth it? And would the higher maintenance cost on the diesel deplete the savings on the better gas mileage?

 

[Big Mama]

Whoa! This will be a doozy of a thread. The other thing to consider is engine life. Personally I went down this road while looking for a truck. I tow periodically but not to the degree I needed more than the 10k pound limit of my truck.

Another consideration is the price of diesel fuel. In my area it’s about 60 cents higher than gas. For me that was the deciding factor. I’m keeping it until it dies and I just couldn’t convince myself that I needed a diesel on a day to day basis.

There are lots of guys on here that have diesels and love them.

 

[martinajm]

My '22 Yukon XL with the 3.0 is my first diesel to own as a daily driver. I will continue to buy this configuration as long as it is available. I have driven Yukon / XLs for the past 20 years and the 3.0 makes it much better vs the 5.3 in the previous versions.

I drive between 25-30K miles per year. I do occasional (heavy) towing and it does fine for that, but the unloaded driving is great. Usually diesel is a bit (~10%) higher than lowest grade gasoline, but the mpg difference more than makes up for that. If you are considering the 6.2, the diesel will likely be less per gallon than the premium grade.

DEF, higher maintenance costs, etc. are all way overblown in my opinion. DEF is required every couple of months, Oil Changes can be found competitively if you look for the right offer from the dealer, I do my own fuel filter in may garage (with the care flat on the ground - no special tool required) in about 10 minutes. All of that is well worth the tradeoff for a 700 mile range.

 

[PPK_]

I have had diesels.. they get better miles per gallon.. but you have to watch your fuel.. and change oil fuel filter maybe each year.. money.. you must fool around with DEF.. time and money.. and you have to have a great battery most of the time.. oil change is more money too.

nobody ever tells you why a diesel is a problem.. maintenance. I had one VW that i needed to change out glow plugs.. needed two.. i did them all.. the last one had a big deposit on it.. had to pull the head. A $50 job that was a big headache.

Now i have not had an AL block diesel. That idea does not excite me either.

 

[martinajm]

I have had diesels.. they get better miles per gallon.. but you have to watch your fuel.. and change oil fuel filter maybe each year.. money.. you must fool around with DEF.. time and money.. and you have to have a great battery most of the time.. oil change is more money too.

nobody ever tells you why a diesel is a problem.. maintenance. I had one VW that i needed to change out glow plugs.. needed two.. i did them all.. the last one had a big deposit on it.. had to pull the head. A $50 job that was a big headache.

Now i have not had an AL block diesel. That idea does not excite me either.

We are all entitled to our opinions.

"you have to watch your fuel" - might vary by what part of the country you are in, but any reasonably busy station will turn its diesel tanks regularly.

"change oil fuel filter maybe each year" - I do mine every 20k miles - twice as often as recommended. Genuine GM fuel filter is $38 on Amazon.

"you must fool around with DEF" - I coincidently filled up with DEF this morning. Straight from the pump at a Local QT. Added about 2 minutes onto my stop, which was offset by using the high flow diesel pump. I add DEF about once every 2 months. (NOV 11 and SEP 5 were my last 2 fill ups - and I usually don't let it get less than 1/3 tank or so. At that pace, DEF costs me about one tank of fuel per year.

"oil change is more money too" - True - it calls for an extra couple of quarts of oil every 5-7K miles.

I haven't had any battery issues or glow plug issues, so I can't speak to that.

Your experience is your own, but I think that these "reasons" not to own a modern small diesel are way overblown

 

[JayceeP]

With that amount of driving, I’d say diesel. Even with the premium of diesel over gasoline (currently almost $1/gallon Canadian) it’s still cheaper than gas.

My 2024 Yukon XL SLT diesel (LM2 engine) just refuses to burn worse than 20 mpg and unless doing a bunch of short trips it doesn’t take much to get 25 mpg+.

Good luck averaging much better than 15mpg with the V8’s and good luck getting anywhere near 20mpg+ on the highway unless you’re on flat highway and only drive 60 mph lol.


Only thing I don’t like about my diesel is I find the highway passing pull is a tad sluggish but the torque is insane. Going up and down hills on the highway… it rarely ever downshifts. It just doesn’t have a ton of passing power like my 400hp 3.5 eco boost in my F150 Lariat.

Having said that, the 2025’s are getting the new LZ0 diesel that has a bit more horsepower. That should improve the get up and go on the highway.

Otherwise, I have zero regrets about the diesel.