Well, this happened VERY late on Thursday night. Had to head up to Cache Valley early Friday morning and just got back home in time to check out a few trucks to tow my Jeep around (been looking at those for weeks) today. I found some really solid deals on pickups but kept coming back to one of the last Indians to roll off the line. Tim Dahle has a white G8 that I drove twice and know the number they'll sell it at. It wasn't quite where I wanted to be so I bought one almost sight unseen out of St. George. This G8 is as CLEAN as I was led to believe. Maintained very well in all aspects. There are a couple scratches but it has 69k miles. Nothing serious at all and I haven't found a dent on it even after hand washing today (I had to go buy a chamios...haven't had one of those for quite a while). It has all kinds of niceties I didn't expect but is lacking some I did kind of expect (no bluetooth?).
I was pretty apprehensive even immediately after handing over the $ for the car. I haven't daily driven a car since 1998. I've got about 250 miles on it so far and am really starting to warm up to it. I 'think' I'll be able to contain my inner 17 yr old (most of the time). Woods Cross to Smithfield, golf course, errands, errands, errands, wash the car, Hyde Park to Woods Cross I got an average of 24 mpg. That's even me doing a few full throttle blasts here and there (you know, to get up to traffic speed or merge or something).
Observations: It's LOW to the ground. I've not noticed the lug nuts on semi-tractors before but have the past couple of days. It's not BRUTALLY fast like a 60-70 something big block muscle car. However, I think it would SMOKE most of those cars as it puts the power down and scoots. 6.0L @ 361 HP is pretty damn fun when it's knocking down that kind of mpg. I'd liken the early muscle to a 3 lb hammer and the G8 to a nice Eastwing (I'm sure there are cooler hammers out there?) hammer sized right for the job. It certainly gets the job done.
That takes care of commuter car. I sold the JKU and the 7.3, took the cash, bought a CLEAN '98 Cummins for a price I could probably flip and make a couple thousand on and put a significant amount of $ down on the G8. I call it a win. Since I haven't had the JKU, I think I figured out it bugged me that I was commuting as far as I was in it. I really do like the platform and it's proven itself a few times to me. It's also had a couple of steering wheel centering related brake issues and a few other things. I'm not sure if I'd buy one again without going one ton and 38-40" tires but for what they are, they are pretty dang impressive. Driving a rig across NV, running the Rubicon, airing up and driving home is pretty impressive. I drove an XJ for a day in between not having the JKU and the G8 and the JKU is SO much better than an XJ that it's not even funny. (shocker, eh?)
I SERIOUSLY considered a new 6.7L Cummins (Dempsey is the man!) and QUITE a few 6.7L Fords from 70-150k miles varying in price from $25-35k. With systems SO complex on the F350, I decided to bail on those. I almost threw $ down three times on three different trucks. The K*I*S*S thing is GONE from a modern diesel pickup (well, anything honestly----gadgets and gizmos aplenty out there----some useful and some are in the "huh" category). Seems like the older diesels, if you get a check engine light it's $200-3000. On the newer emissions era diesels, I think you're looking at $200-10,000. That's more than I like to keep on hand esp to cover my ass on a car repair. The F350 or 3500 would be a commuter. Seems like a dorky idea to buy a SPENDY truck like that and have it get 97% of it's miles just getting my fat ass to work. I don't weigh that much so the commuter car won out. The G8 has a 6.0L GM V8 and knocks down 25 mpg. That's almost 10 mpg more than anything I've had in the last 20 years. (I've even had the "magic" 555 Cummins and it didn't get more than 18 mpg on the freeway). The JKU with 4.88 and 35" tires got about 16-17 on the lie-o-meter. Lie-o-meter is probably pretty accurate from my spot checks here and there.
MPG isn't really the major cost of commuting. Insurance is about 50% of the fuel cost (at least in my case)..... I think the G8 and older "yard truck" is a good combination. As in all things, time will tell.
As most of you know, I have a very understanding wife