New Car or Truck?

So, I moving and going to commute about 45 mile seach way to work. The question is... I get a commuter car and keep my 2005 Nissan Titan or get a diesel truck and no commuter car, someone just said they are getting 21.5 mpg?

I can't comment on the diesel, since I have never owned one, but I bought a commuter Honda Accord to drive on a daily basis instead of my Hummer. It gets over 30mpg and keeps the daily abuse off my Hummer. One of the best purchases I have made, low maintenance, easy to park, all around a great idea as far as I am concerned.

21.5 for a full size diesel sounds high, I would think more like 19 tops on the highway, maybe less.

Get a VW TDI diesel, things get 40+ mpg honest.

I'm thinking of getting a new generation civic loaded for about 18k brand new and thats suppose to average 38 mpg. So if you don't mind driving a smaller car its about as economical as it gets.

I've heard a lot of people getting 20+mpg in their diesels on long highway commutes. It's a tough decision...hard to rely on an older car to take 450 miles a week without stuff breaking, but a more expensive truck is hard too.

I have a 93 Nissan pickup that i drive back and forth during the week. It gets about 23mpg. Has 245k miles on it and everything works. Cant beat it. Oh and still looks pretty good to.

Got to keep miles of the big trucks.

if you ditch your truck, what will you tow with? i say keep the nissan as a tow vehicle and buy a streetbike or metric cruiser to go back and forth to work. my bike gets 46 mpg and it was only $10,500 otd.

ditches the truck TO GET A DIESEL... Im drunk, and I caught that one...

Nothing tows like a diesel.

I have never got less than 20mpg unloaed in my Ram and have gotten as good as 23. BTW I hand figure the mileage. The new 07's are not goning to do quite as good on mileage though. Also the PSD and Duramax do not seem to get as good of mileage.

Don't forget that you will be also paying less for the fuel than gas but will have increased maintinance costs with the diesel. In cold weather your millage will go down and fuel price will go up too.

Thanks... I am leaning toward the commuter car, a small Honda or Acura. But, would love to have a diesel truck, really just wanted to hear that I could get great mileage etc. I think if I get rid of the truck, I would lose a lot on resale value. Motorcycle is not an option because I will be taking my 4yr old to school.

"Motorcycle is not an option because I will be taking my 4yr old to school."

That's what a side car is for

Seriously though, I'd go the commuter car route. I did that for a 35 mile commute. I looked at Honda but they're kind of pricey, especially in the mid-sized market. They do hold their retail value well but if you keep cars as long as I usually do, that doesn't mean a whole lot. And their reliability is excellent but a lot of automakers have caught up or are catching up. I went Mazda on my last purchase. I have no real loyalty to them. They just happened to be the cheapest reliable new car I could find at the time of purchase. I spent about $14,500 on an 07 Mazda 6 (mid-sized) out the door. That's not counting any trade-in. The Accord is nice but it's not that much nicer.

If I were looking at the small car segment, I'd probably go with either the Civic or the Scion tC but from what I've noticed you're only losing a couple MPG going from small to mid-size. It just depends on what you're comfortable with.

i just went through this recently. i looked and drove various " commuter" cars and was just dissappointed in all of them. its hard to go from a nice truck to an econo car. so i decided to spend a little more and get this bad boy. supposedly gets 19city 26highway. much better than my dodge 2500 at 8.5 .

Nice "Z"

Mazda... may be a good choice!

I got a tiny 03 civic coupe 5spd to commute in. I won't lie, it was scary to go from a big truck to a little car like that in big city traffic, but it all becomes worthwhile at the gas pump. 11 gallon tank and I've clocked 420 miles on a tank more than once.