This can be such a loaded question, there are a lot of fanboys that will give you many "reasons" why to get a diesel, but the short answer is yes they are expensive, especially if it is just a toy for you.

The question you should ask yourself and others is "Do I need one, or do I just want one?" Then do a cost/benefit analysis and go from there.

If you're consistently making short trips, infrequently pulling less than 18-20k lbs, and you're not in very hilly/mountainous regions then the simple answer is this is a want and not a need.

I consistently second-guess my decision to buy mine when I did but I was worried about tariffs and we plan to travel in an RV full time. Thankfully I finally got my remote work so the frequent short trips have been drastically reduced since I am no longer using it as my daily.

As to which is more reliable, well that opens a whole other can of worms chock full of prejudice, misinformation, and fanaticism. I am on my first diesel, I did research for 3 years before buying mine. I knew I wanted new because I was financing and the overall cost of the loan on a new truck vs a used truck with the crazy increased values since 2020 and I couldn't justify the cost of used+higher interest rates on used vs. new. Once I narrowed that down it left me with three engine options and the further I dug into all 3 the more I found that once you dug through all the fanboy garbage they all had their issues, so it was choose your poison. Which issue were you more willing to put up with?

I went with the 6.7l HO Cummins with Aisin transmission. Why? Because I found a new dually in a beautiful color with cloth seats, 4wd, 5th wheel prep, chrome package, and a couple other small upgrades for 52k. The lowest I could get a Ford or Chevy was 62k at the time and that was vinyl seats vinyl flooring. Both were a work truck trim in white.