Most reliable truck engines lasting more than 150k miles

testerdahl

testerdahl

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A recent study by iSeeCars.com reveals the most reliable truck engines lasting more than 150,000 miles or more. Most reliable truck engines One of the most common questions we get is which truck engines are the most reliable. While this question seems simple enough, it is extremely difficult to answer since there are many variables such as how the truck was used, how the owner maintained it, luck of the draw with every engine that might be a lemon, etc… Also, reliability studies, like our recent most reliable new full-size trucks with expected lifespan story, never show which engines were […] (read full article...)
 
testerdahl said:
A recent study by iSeeCars.com reveals the most reliable truck engines lasting more than 150,000 miles or more. Most reliable truck engines One of the most common questions we get is which truck engines are the most reliable. While this question seems simple enough, it is extremely difficult to answer since there are many variables such as how the truck was used, how the owner maintained it, luck of the draw with every engine that might be a lemon, etc… Also, reliability studies, like our recent most reliable new full-size trucks with expected lifespan story, never show which engines were […] (read full article...)
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It might be more telling to that the Ford 3.5 eco boost is in a lot of commercial and fleet trucks and everybody that has used a company truck or been around fleet trucks knows they run hard, for instance the telecom I work at the driver starts the truck and by the time the key returns to the run position the truck is in drive and leaving.
 
testerdahl said:
A recent study by iSeeCars.com reveals the most reliable truck engines lasting more than 150,000 miles or more. Most reliable truck engines One of the most common questions we get is which truck engines are the most reliable. While this question seems simple enough, it is extremely difficult to answer since there are many variables such as how the truck was used, how the owner maintained it, luck of the draw with every engine that might be a lemon, etc… Also, reliability studies, like our recent most reliable new full-size trucks with expected lifespan story, never show which engines were […] (read full article...)
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Another thing is, I have wondered if Toyotas current truck troubles (engines) are because Toyota Trucks don't have much commercial and fleet sales. if there were tens of thousands of Tundras and Tacomas getting flogged by company drivers every day these problems would show up fast. Toyota might need to start a commercial fleet testing program at their proving grounds, maybe hire some chain smoking guys with bags of flamin hot Spitz and bags full of condiment packages to throw in all of the dash cracks and crevices.
 
testerdahl said:
A recent study by iSeeCars.com reveals the most reliable truck engines lasting more than 150,000 miles or more. Most reliable truck engines One of the most common questions we get is which truck engines are the most reliable. While this question seems simple enough, it is extremely difficult to answer since there are many variables such as how the truck was used, how the owner maintained it, luck of the draw with every engine that might be a lemon, etc… Also, reliability studies, like our recent most reliable new full-size trucks with expected lifespan story, never show which engines were […] (read full article...)
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Interesting read, thank you for it. I'm impressed by the ecoboost and also the amount of 5.4 triton on the list.
 
What would be ideal is a chart adjacent to it showing what percentages of trucks sold had those engines installed. Say 10% of trucks sold carried the Ecoboosts but only 1% had 5.0s, the fact that there are so many 150K 5.0s left means more than the Ecoboosts on top.
 
Dusdaddy said:
What would be ideal is a chart adjacent to it showing what percentages of trucks sold had those engines installed. Say 10% of trucks sold carried the Ecoboosts but only 1% had 5.0s, the fact that there are so many 150K 5.0s left means more than the Ecoboosts on top.
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Another person made a similar comment. The challenge is production numbers aren’t public knowledge.
 
testerdahl said:
Another person made a similar comment. The challenge is production numbers aren’t public knowledge.
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Yep, but without it, the data doesn't tell much of a story. The one thing I would say is that the percentage of GM engines being lower than then either the Ford or Ram is the most surprising. Since GM sold so many more trucks than either Ram or Ford, you would think their percentage would be higher for their engines.
 
So, I started digging into this using AI to look at the data and it brought up a couple points as to why GM could be underrepresented. Obviously I'm a GM fan but I was really curious because it just looked off. As I've said before I currently own a Ford with an ecoboost and it's been great so I don't think one is amazing and one garbage.

The first point was interesting, because F150's dominate the "fleet" segment it's likely those trucks have been sold more then once and would possibly show up more than once in the data or on different sites to be counted twice. Also, in the recent iseecars truck reliability study how can both the GM twins handily beat the F150 but the engines in those trucks not?

That doesn't make sense.

Something in their data collection is off.
 
Fightnfire said:
Also, in the recent iseecars truck reliability study how can both the GM twins handily beat the F150 but the engines in those trucks not?
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Maybe reliability is more than just the engine?

I think these studies are interesting and generate a lot of comments. They are all flawed in some way though.
 
testerdahl said:
Maybe reliability is more than just the engine?
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It is for sure, but if as a percentage more GM trucks are making it to 250k than Ford, (according to your video from iseecars) those GM trucks have GM engines in them. Some of that could be accounted for in total sales of units but I don't think that even comes close to accounting for the engine data.
 
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Fightnfire said:
So, I started digging into this using AI to look at the data and it brought up a couple points as to why GM could be underrepresented. Obviously I'm a GM fan but I was really curious because it just looked off. As I've said before I currently own a Ford with an ecoboost and it's been great so I don't think one is amazing and one garbage.

The first point was interesting, because F150's dominate the "fleet" segment it's likely those trucks have been sold more then once and would possibly show up more than once in the data or on different sites to be counted twice. Also, in the recent iseecars truck reliability study how can both the GM twins handily beat the F150 but the engines in those trucks not?

That doesn't make sense.

Something in their data collection is off.
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I think their data is fine, it just doesn't tell you anything without the rest of the story. Does it mean just that more of that model engine was built, or does it mean it's more reliable? All they did was search for trucks having over 150K that are for sale right now and what they are equipped with. I could do it using Auto Trader but I don't care that much. Another big part of it is that the 5.3 has two versions on that chart, the Ecotec & Vortec so if you combine the two GM V8s they at least get past the Ram. Then again, combine the 5.0 with the 5.4 and that's a huge percentage.

Once again, it's just a numbers game in statistics. For this chart to mean something, it needs to show that what percentage of trucks ever built were equipped with each engine. If EcoBoost 3.5L engines make up 20% of all engines/trucks sold, then its percentage of trucks with more than 150K miles sucks. Same thing for the GM EcoTec3 5.3L if it was installed in only 3% of all engines/trucks sold, then it looks much better.
 
This data only looks at engine and I’m not sure GM engines in half ton trucks are all that great from a true long term reliability point of view. AFM and DFM have been out for a while now and are probably dropping the reliability factor by quite a bit. Or maybe like someone mentioned above, maybe people keep them so they don’t show up in the truck sold data.
 
Ok, I was bored so I searched for some relevant data. It doesn't narrow down engines but overall trucks. Here is the number of trucks for sale over 200K miles compared to how many were built between 2005 and 2024. I used AutoTrader nationwide numbers for the "for-sale" column and CarFigures.com for the total built numbers. The green percent shows there are more for sale than the percent sold and red means there is less. Does it mean anything?🤷‍♂️ Depends on whether your brand is green or red I guess.:) Any obvious holes in it?

Screenshot 2025-03-01 133110.png
 
Dusdaddy said:
Ok, I was bored so I searched for some relevant data. It doesn't narrow down engines but overall trucks. Here is the number of trucks for sale over 200K miles compared to how many were built between 2005 and 2024. I used AutoTrader nationwide numbers for the "for-sale" column and CarFigures.com for the total built numbers. The green percent shows there are more for sale than the percent sold and red means there is less. Does it mean anything?🤷‍♂️ Depends on whether your brand is green or red I guess.:) Any obvious holes in it?

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You compared all trucks then including HDs and Mefium duty?
 
TheDo114 said:
If that’s the case, it’s even worse for GM trucks.
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Yeah, I figured most of them would be close but Chevy being 6% off with GMC also being the same direction was a surprise. I tried to think of how the search could screw the numbers up, but it was fair. I'm guessing the higher percentage of Ram was carried by Cummins equipped trucks but that's just a guess. That would mean the GM diesels don't help their numbers?
 
Dusdaddy said:
Yeah, I figured most of them would be close but Chevy being 6% off with GMC also being the same direction was a surprise. I tried to think of how the search could screw the numbers up, but it was fair. I'm guessing the higher percentage of Ram was carried by Cummins equipped trucks but that's just a guess. That would mean the GM diesels don't help their numbers?
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Or that the HD trucks do help their numbers and that light trucks are terrible. Unless we get more data we’re just speculating.
 
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