[fred cook]

I have a 2003 Ford 6.0 diesel Excursion with 140k miles that I have owned since 2005. It has performed flawlessly, gets 20-21 mpg on the interstate and about 16 mpg during in-town driving. The only work that has been required was to have the turbo cleaned of carbon build up on the exhaust vanes of the turbo. I have 6 friends/acquaintences that have diesel trucks, 3 being Fords and 3 being GMs. One of the Fords has 350k miles with no engine work. The other two Ford diesels have 150k and 185k respectively with no major work required. One of the GM diesel engines required replacement at just under 200k miles and both of the other two had to have heads replaced at less than 150k miles. I guess the main point is that you should get a PPI before buying any used diesel vehicle as repairs can be quite expensive. Also, some of the GM trucks from a few years ago used Izusu engines rather than a U.S. built engine. That might not be an issue now, but in the future will there be a parts availability problem? Just my .02 cents worth!