Thanks to both of you for pointing out my errant comments. Chalk it up to the hour of the day it was posted. Insomnia is an ugly thing....
I hope via this forum I learn enough about diesels and the way they work to make an intelligent buying decision the next time I am faced with a four wheel vehicle purchase. Seems as though from what you folks are saying that the higher initial cost is outweighed several times over by the mean time between failure. My opinion about automotive diesels, as opposed to trucks, has unfortunately been skewed by the early GM diesels and their rather sketchy reliability. I must admit a certain predjudice against diesels because of all of the bad PR GM received because of those early engines.
On another note, when towing with my subaru wagon my fuel economy is pretty dreadful. 18-22 is about what I can expect and that is very terrain dependent and speed dependent. Flat land and low speeds without too many stoplights and low 20s are possible, if it is hilly or I am trying to run 70 all bets are off....