"over-engineered"

[4seasons]

sorry, @Blue Oaks sure wasn't trying to knock you, 25 years is true as far as the 7.3 but the turbo goes back way further than that, probably 40's but not sure, the variable geometry **** is maybe ten years old and still really dont work right. My opinion sometimes ole reliable is better than new untested, dont get me wrong though, I experiment and push things, im into tractor pulling so you know push to the breaking point and back off one blond hair, but too much fancy stuff sometimes is more trouble than good just to knock off a little NOx or particulate emmision

From your name I assume you have some experience with what I consider the best light truck engine ever mass produced, the 12v 5.9 Cummins. Because the Cummins was a medium duty truck engine that they turned down to fit the light truck application. Ford had to turn up the light duty PunyJoke to complete and it has taken them years to get it to have anywhere near the reliability of the Cummins.
My diesel knowledge comes from the other end of the spectrum with Detroit 60 (great on fuel, horrible on oil) and Cat C-12, C-13, C-15 both pre Acert and post. The old single turbo C-15 had way more usable power than the EPA changes on the Acert, thus putting the new engine in more of a strain causing more fuel use and worse emissions than the old version. Personally I would choose the old Detroit 60 12.7 and get 7.5 mpg over the more powerful C-15 getting 5.5 mpg and buy oil every 1000-3000k.
I find that the same time is true with all the new EPA changes. It is never reliable, doesn't do much for the environment, and always hurts the consumer.

 

[Blue Oaks]

sorry, @Blue Oaks sure wasn't trying to knock you, 25 years is true as far as the 7.3 but the turbo goes back way further than that, probably 40's but not sure, the variable geometry **** is maybe ten years old and still really dont work right. My opinion sometimes ole reliable is better than new untested, dont get me wrong though, I experiment and push things, im into tractor pulling so you know push to the breaking point and back off one blond hair, but too much fancy stuff sometimes is more trouble than good just to knock off a little NOx or particulate emmision

No worries. I stand by what I typed. The turbo OEM's have been doing it a long time and I'm sure they've got the materials science and tolerances figured out. Maybe not a perfect variable geometry configuration at this point, but the OEM's are the ones that have to warranty this stuff when Ford back charges them.

I've driven my diesel over 300k miles and my next truck will be a V8 coyote if I were to get one. But, I just sunk about 10k into my 99 CC 6-Speed so I'm probably going to stick with it for a while longer.

 

[motolife313]

Cadillac Northstar engine.

My brother sells cars and said a head light for one of the Cadillac’s cost 900$ Each and there’s only factory replacements

 

[Dalmatian90]

His parents bought a new “A” in 1940.... All that for less than $10k in today’s dollars.

We're at a point that just looking at inflation doesn't give us a good picture of just how big of an investment $600 or so in 1940 was.

$10,000 is the inflated monetary value.

We've changed so much as a society since 1940 one needs to look at "Purchasing Power Parity" type numbers, like we use to compare different countries today (i.e. a dollar goes a lot farther in most third world countries than it does in the U.S.)

Look at hours to earn that money or buying household goods...$600 bought you in hours of labor or goods like furniture or clothes the equivalent of $22,000 today.

Using national averages, 1940 $600 bought you 18.75 acres of farmland. Need $58,000 today to buy that same 18.75 acres.

Those little Farmall As were a bigger investment than we realize today if we only look at inflation.

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And of course the reason we have some many of those As (and other top-tier manufacturers tractors) still around and kicking...is the folks who bought cheaper brand tractors scrapped them all many decades ago when they had fallen apart.