Pick up Trucks.

[Mark Parsons]

Not sure if this is the right forum.

What options are out there for pick up trucks? I mean available to lease now. I have 2 crew cab company trucks coming off lease in April '07 (next month). At $1+ a liter for fuel I am hesitant to jump in for another 2 year lease but don't believe there are any options and likely won't be for the 2 year stint and maybe longer.

Does anybody have any insight or advice? Pay the large extra cost to go diesel? Biodiesel is not readily available here yet. Combined mileage for the 2 units totals about 75,000 km per year.

Thankfully, the federal government left pick-up trucks out of the added gas guzzler tax in yesterday's budget.

I'm thinking that every hybrid car in Canada just had a sticker price increase of $2,000 to reflect the government rebate from yesterday's budget announcment.

Mark

[George Craft]

The high fuel cost is getting to everyone. I have an F350 4X4 turbodiesel crewcab truck that I use for the heavier work and it gets mighty thirsty. I've taken a few steps to help it breathe a little easier. The catalytic converter and muffler are hanging up in my garage while a straight pipe has taken their place. The turbo on the diesel engine eats up at least 80 percent of the noise and surprisingly no one notices that I have no muffler. The axle ratio is the next big change. A decent highway gear will save a considerable amount of money in fuel savings. I once had a Bluebird bus that got 14 mpg on gasoline. (It had a 5 spd tranny and a 2 spd rear axle in it.) I was amazed that with the right gearing, the economy was there. Modifying the programming of the engine controls is another savings, depending on what you are using the vehicle for.