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I need your opinion

Stretch MFD

Stretch MFD

Full Member
Joined
Feb 4, 2004
Messages
192
Location
South Bend Indiana
Hi all,

I have been debating on trading the AV that I love :love: for a 2500 crewcab with a Duramax. I do alot of highway driving pulling a 3500# boat around and the gas milage is killing me. especially when you see Diesel fuel for .30 to .50 cents less per gallon. Don't get me wrong my AV gets about 13 mpg in town and about 17 mpg on the highway, and 11 to 13 when I'm towing (depending on the wind).

My 99' Silverado got about 13 in town, 19 - 20 on the highway, and 13 - 15 when towing this same boat. The only difference in the two powertrains is that the Silverado had 4.10 gears and the AV has 3.73 gears. I know the AV weighs more but I didn't think it would make that much of a difference.

The reason I am thinking of a Duramax is because a friend of mine has one and is getting 15 - 16 mpg in town and 22 - 24 mpg on the highway.

So with better fuel economy and paying less at the pump I have been kinda leaning toward trading the AV.

I guess I'm asking in your opinion what would you do. I'm still not sure what I'm going to do, I'm kinda pondering the idea.

Thanks,
Stretch MFD
 
get one for 24 hours, see if you can live with the ride. We had one guy come back to the AV after the switch to a Dmax because of it
 
You have to compare the gas savings of a diesel against the added cost of buying a new truck. The registration, tax and title alone will cost you several hundred dollars. You'll probably have to run the diesel at least a year or two just to make up that cost. By then, gas costs could be down again. And there is no guarantee that diesel will remain cheaper than regular gas. As a matter of fact, I've been told that it is not cheaper in some parts of the midwest.

But most importantly, I don't think I could give up the Av and go to a regular truck. There aren't enough gadgets on that camping knife - I need the Swiss Army knife!
 
Here is the way I see it. I go through this with a lot of my clients. Yes it is a little cheaper to operate a Duramax but really how much? First of all you maintenence and registration costs are going to be higher. Also you will lose some in the trade in of the Av.

Forgeting all that lets look at this with some hypothetical numbers. Not including the trade or anything else a 2500HD will cost about 5800 more for the Duramax option.

Avalanche 16MPG at 2.00 per gal costs 12.5 cents a mile

Duramax 22MPG a 1.50 per gal cost 6.8 cents a mile

at 75000 miles you have only saved 4275.00 in fuel costs. You have not even paid for the difference in 75000 miles.

The bottom line is if you need the extra truck and towing capacity that the Duramax provide great, go for it. If you just do it for fuel cost alone I think you are going backward.

Good luck in whatever you decide.
 
gearheads78 said:
Here is the way I see it. I go through this with a lot of my clients. Yes it is a little cheaper to operate a Duramax but really how much? First of all you maintenence and registration costs are going to be higher. Also you will lose some in the trade in of the Av.

Forgeting all that lets look at this with some hypothetical numbers. Not including the trade or anything else a 2500HD will cost about 5800 more for the Duramax option.

Avalanche 16MPG at 2.00 per gal costs 12.5 cents a mile

Duramax 22MPG a 1.50 per gal cost 6.8 cents a mile

at 75000 miles you have only saved 4275.00 in fuel costs. You have not even paid for the difference in 75000 miles.

The bottom line is if you need the extra truck and towing capacity that the Duramax provide great, go for it. If you just do it for fuel cost alone I think you are going backward.

Good luck in whatever you decide.
Click to expand...


here, here!! i agree with you totally. not only that, but have you driven one of these things Stretch MFD? i have. it does have amazing power. but, it rides like a skate board during everday drivng situations. once you put a load on it though she will smooth out. towed a Camaro on a full car trailer with one. big difference when she was weighted down. took the trailer off and we were back to the skate board effect.
the other thing i will say about the DuraMax is that performance mods are incredible for the amount of money spend. you can easily add 150hp, 150ft lbs of torque with a simple plug and play add-on for much less than what it would cost to get that out of your AV.
question for you sir. do you think when the price of gas goes back down (if it ever does) you will regret having traded the AV in for the DuraMax? she is a nice rig, but if you do not use it's ability to help pay for it's ability i think it's existence in your camp will not pay off the way you want it too. know what i mean?
forgot to mention i was driving a 2500 crew cab DuraMax. the very one you are thinking about purchasing.
 
Be patient! GM is getting a lot of requests for the Duramax in the Av. You would have the best of both worlds... Maybe a year or two, but they hadn't announced anything I've heard of to date.

Here in CA, the Diesel can at times, be more than the 87 gasoline.. sometimes the same as 89!
 
Thanks for the input guys. Don't get me wrong I love this truck and all that you can do with it.

It just seems to me that this truck is working a lot harder to tow my boat than the silverado I had previously did. When I'm towing with this truck it will down shift on every small hill just to maintain my speed, (the Silverado never did this on these same hills).

How does the wind bother yoyur AV's when towing? Mine will drop about 2 - 3 mpg if the wind blows more than 7 or 8 mph.

Any ideas on what I can do to get more power and a little better fuel economy out of it. I have already done everything to it that I did to the Silverado.(K&N drop in filter, Gibson Exhaust, and the homemade cold air mod) I've thought about a preditor or something along those lines, but I've heard mixed reviews about doing this.

Any info would be great because my wife dosen't want me to trade the truck, and I really don't either it's just something I've been thinking about.

Oh, I also tow with the tow haul switch on.

Thanks,
Stretch MFD
 
Stretch, sorry if this is a dumb question but I can't tell from your siggy or your note if you have a 1500 or 2500?

I do see you have done the filter change and exhaust.
You go try going the K&N Gen II complete system to allow the truck to breath better?
If you go with a SC, like I have, then your fuel costs go up as you need to run higher octane.
Maybe a performance tune on your computer. These can be done based on an 87 octane
 
The big difference that I see is the fact that you have a 3.73 vs the 4.10 gears in the Silverado. I tow quite a bit and got the 4.10 rear because I knew I was going to be towing. Mine Av does just fine towing as far as I am concerned. I tow a 5000 lb travel trailer and a 4000 lb horse trailer up on down mountain roads regularly. The Av does much better then my full size Blazer with the 3.73 rear.

I too have thought about getting something with the Duramax but can't seem to justify the extra $5800. One certainly can buy alot of gas for that. Need more torque? Get an Av 2500.

Just my opinion...... ;)
 
Stretch MFD said:
Thanks for the input guys. Don't get me wrong I love this truck and all that you can do with it.

It just seems to me that this truck is working a lot harder to tow my boat than the silverado I had previously did. When I'm towing with this truck it will down shift on every small hill just to maintain my speed, (the Silverado never did this on these same hills).
Click to expand...

Well my cure for this problem just arrived yesterday. Of course I almost could have bought a Duramax for what the Radix cost but you only live once. :cool:
 
gearheads78 said:
Here is the way I see it. I go through this with a lot of my clients. Yes it is a little cheaper to operate a Duramax but really how much? First of all you maintenence and registration costs are going to be higher. Also you will lose some in the trade in of the Av.

Forgeting all that lets look at this with some hypothetical numbers. Not including the trade or anything else a 2500HD will cost about 5800 more for the Duramax option.

Avalanche 16MPG at 2.00 per gal costs 12.5 cents a mile

Duramax 22MPG a 1.50 per gal cost 6.8 cents a mile

at 75000 miles you have only saved 4275.00 in fuel costs. You have not even paid for the difference in 75000 miles.

The bottom line is if you need the extra truck and towing capacity that the Duramax provide great, go for it. If you just do it for fuel cost alone I think you are going backward.

Good luck in whatever you decide.
Click to expand...

Perfect answer. Also your AV looks very nice. :cool:
 
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