Looking for a new survey vehicle

I have been charged with the duty of finding 2 new survey vehicles, one to replace a dinosaur and the other to outfit a new crew.  Our company performs work with a diverse group of clients in diverse conditions.  For the past 15 years we have almost exclusively used F150, extended cab, 4x4 pickups with equipment boxes and camper shells.  Over the past 15 years we have also had mixed results with the longevity and performance of these vehicles, so we are researching other possible options.  Do we step up to ¾ ton, crew cab, 4x4 pickups or down to a midsize truck like a Chevy Colorado, extended cad, 2wd or purchase an entirely different type of vehicle all together.  We are only interested in buying new and better fuel millage would be a plus.  Any thoughts?
Thanks,  

I believe that the durability of the F-250 SuperDuty will pay off in the long run. We run 3 of them and have virtually no maintenance issues. Surveyors run their trucks loaded 100% of the time and that eats up rear ends, transmissions, and brakes.  You can still buy a lot of gas for the cost of a transmission.

All of ours are crew cab models and we think that is enough. We had a "service body" put on our last one for about $8000. The dealer took care of most of the details on that.

F-250?

Not here. The unit I'm stuck with will be the last.

Poor mirrors, poor pedal placement, sorry transmission, poor storage in the cab (door pockets a joke), torture rack bench seat and lousy fuel economy.

Any loaded survey wagon less than 3/4 ton rating is asking for trouble.

More expen$ive to run than the Chevys, Dodge or Toyotas in the fleet.


(Vehicle fleet manager hopefully has friends in the witness protection program)

I would agree on not getting an F250...We have one and the blind spots are huge, the check engine light comes on EVERY 5k no matter what we do to fix it, the turning radius stinks and it sucks gas ($4.30 here). 

Personally I like the smaller trucks/SUV's.  I have been using my old Nissan Xterra (2001) for about 5 years now as a crew truck.  We put an add-a-leaf lift in the back to support the weight and cranked the tortion bars up in the front to match.  We have had no problems with it at all.  New clutch at 140k, couple of new sensors and its still going strong at 190k right now.  We know it's going eventually so we're looking into a newer Nissan Frontier or Xterra.  They are based on the Titan frame and are easy to add a slighty more beefy suspension to.  I'm a big fan of Nissan...I've had three of them and all have made it over 200k with mostly only maintenance repairs.

I also know a bunch of people who use smaller vehicles to transport their stuff, Explorers, smaller trucks, etc.  No one has really had a problem with anything.

Tom

Toyota hands down, yet they are expensive to own and maintain, but they rarely need maintenance.  I have a Dodge Dakota right now (solo operator) and it's been the best bang for the buck.  Only knock I have is that the doors are straight off a bank vault, you need to workout and juice just to open them daily (exaggeration).

V

I've run diesel F-250 & F350's for the last 20 years.  But my business demands the size as I do some logging in addition to surveying.

Unfortunately, the Ford diesel fuel mileage completely went down the tubes, at least the California models. 

I used to average around 19 mpg with the ford full size diesel, but the ones they've been putting out for the last 5 years only get around 14 mpg. 

I'm going to switch to the Dodge diesel. 

For surveying, I tend to like the 2 seat jeep. Mostly as it works good for getting around the woods.

I've also used a Toyota 4-runner and a pickup.  They're good rigs, but I am more and more leaning towards buying American where practical.