As an owner of a 2.7 Ecoboost powered F150, it tows better than any of the older generations of V8's ever did. My previous truck was an '04 F150 with the 3V 5.4. It towed my boat fine, but it delivered terrible unloaded driving fuel mileage, and honestly worked pretty hard to pull the load. Fast forward to my 2016 F150 (same configuration - Supercrew 4x4), and it delivers nearly 34% better fuel mileage in day to day driving, similar fuel mileage while towing, and is all in all way more pleasant to drive both unloaded and towing. If I didn't tell you it was a 2.7 engine under the hood, you'd never know.
The advances in Direct Injection and turbocharging of gasoline engines have significantly narrowed the areas where a small turbo diesel has a lot of advantages in an 1/2 ton truck.
As far as fleet use goes, unless we absolutely need the limits on towing, we spec all our trucks as gasoline engines in our fleet anymore. Way too much downtime and way more expensive repairs borne out by years of fleet maintenance records on comparable trucks using both gas and diesel. Our crews didn't believe it until they saw the same numbers. For our applications, diesel stopped making sense several years ago. (Municipal/fleet use in road maintenance and repair).
Nationally, diesel is running about 3.00 a gallon on average per the the EIA. Gas is running 2.52. Diesel being much more expensive is normal in the vast majority of the US. Tough to overcome a nearly 50 cent premium on pricing if you aren't needing all of the capabilities of the diesel.
I used to be in the camp that I liked the idea of the small turbo diesel in a 1/2 ton. After seeing what has occured with DI turbocharged gasoline engines, there is a smaller window for these diesels to be competitive, and with all the emissions issues on diesels these days, I'd be leery...
The advances in Direct Injection and turbocharging of gasoline engines have significantly narrowed the areas where a small turbo diesel has a lot of advantages in an 1/2 ton truck.
As far as fleet use goes, unless we absolutely need the limits on towing, we spec all our trucks as gasoline engines in our fleet anymore. Way too much downtime and way more expensive repairs borne out by years of fleet maintenance records on comparable trucks using both gas and diesel. Our crews didn't believe it until they saw the same numbers. For our applications, diesel stopped making sense several years ago. (Municipal/fleet use in road maintenance and repair).
Nationally, diesel is running about 3.00 a gallon on average per the the EIA. Gas is running 2.52. Diesel being much more expensive is normal in the vast majority of the US. Tough to overcome a nearly 50 cent premium on pricing if you aren't needing all of the capabilities of the diesel.
I used to be in the camp that I liked the idea of the small turbo diesel in a 1/2 ton. After seeing what has occured with DI turbocharged gasoline engines, there is a smaller window for these diesels to be competitive, and with all the emissions issues on diesels these days, I'd be leery...