I agree, the 7.3's were excellent motors. The Cummins both old and new, and the Duramax's are also excellent. Maintenance should be cheaper, you only have air, fuel filters, and oil changes to do. They do take more oil and diesel oil is more expensive, but they have longer oil change intervals too. It's the repairs that cost more when they do need to be done, which luckily, is pretty rare with the above mentioned powerplants. Mileage is almost always better, and they tend to last much longer. I know many guys that barely hot mid teens out of gas trucks, forget about towing. The ones in the fleet with diesels consistently knocked down twenties, and it hardly went down with a heavy load! Torque is a great thing.
I'd stick with a slightly older one since the new diesels have much more emissions equipment that kills the mileage gains and is notorious for being expensive to fix. As of 2007-2008, they ALL have to have them. And they ALL have issues with them too. Gotta love the EPA!
