I'm getting a new 2500 single cab work pickup. Won't be towing much until I get a skid steer in a year or two. Would you go gas or diesel?
Gas unless you intend to sell it when the warranty is up, and then maybe still gas. These modern diesels make the 1970s and 1980s smogger engines look simple and reliable by comparison.
I always said Diesel, until they added the DEF tank. Never again, unless they roll back the stupidity.
I'd go gas if I wasn't towing every day. I have a semi reliable 2004 Cummins flatbed that stays loaded for the most part and a semi-retired 7.3 that still runs like a top. Birken hit on something with the old gas motors. I have a 1985 Suburban project with a de-smogged 350. We just got back from 1700 mi. trip with the old girl. I took along belts, hoses and an HEI module. Not much else to go wrong unless she blows. I'd get a new truck, but I miss "simple" a bunch.
Back in the 1970s it was like they thought the answer to each new regulatory challenge was to hang a new contraption off the engine. Then eventually they figured out how to do it better and cheaper. Now with modern diesel it's like the same thing all over again. PM too high? Add a a filter. NOX too high? Add urea. Add lots of EGR for general principles. Variable geometry turbo and fragile EGR cooler for that. I had once heard about injectors on a larger type of engine that kept PM under control without a filter, but never seen any more about it.
The smaller diesels, along with the specs being slightly looser, manage without a filter or urea, but with extremely high injection pressures, etc. Under 75HP
If I understand it correctly the standards are a lot looser, like PM being 0.3 for the real small ones vs 0.03 for the medium sized ones. Not that I am complaining.