Son is headed to college and looking for a 2016 F250. Says it is one of the most dependable diesels.
First question, is that a fact. Would that be a good year for a fairly long term vehicle for him moving forward?
Second question, how many miles is too many on a diesel? Seeing 150,000 mile vehicles for $30-35K makes me cringe, but I've never had a F250 so don't know if that's considered fairly low mileage for the 6.7 or not.

Thanks gents, gonna give him a little help as his graduation gift and just trying to make a little sense of it.

My son has had a 2016 F250 for 3 years and it's been the most expensive to maintain/ keep on the road that I've ever had. Got it after a stop sign runner totaled his F150. Iirc it had about 130k road miles, was 37k and in great shape when we bought it. So far, we have changed the cab mounts, shocks, transmission, and upper oil pan. Several of the cab mount bushings were almost gone/ metal on metal.

Strange but the upper oil pan has no gasket/ gasket groove but only a silicone bead. So when it starts leaking eventually, the transmission has to be pulled to fix- by finding an older F250 pan with the groove/ gasket.
This worked out as the transmission started slipping about 2,000 miles after the fluid and filter were changed. So 9k and 6 weeks later, it had a new transmission and upper oil pan. The shop we used is power stroke magic in Tomball, which is always backed up 4 plus weeks to start a vehicle. But we do have a 3 year warranty!
Regular engine oil changes are 13 quarts and a bigger/ more expensive filter compared to 6 quarts for the F150. And we change the diesel fuel filters every other oil change.

The truck has been great but a pita to maintain and we use it occasionally to pull a gooseneck trailer. The one I bought new in December for my company was gas and not diesel. Would recommend an F150 for a college kid unless the diesel is needed for towing regularly. The diesel pickups are more expensive when purchasing and maintaining.

I'm closing in on 300k with my 2012. Only thing I've really done besides maintenance activities is change the SST turbo that came in the 2012 to the GT37 that started in the 2015 models. Prior turbo wasn't having problems, I was just getting ahead of the fact it likely would.

I love my truck and I'll drive it until I or it can't drive anymore. With that being said, I'll buy gas when I have to replace it.

I drive a 2016 F350 srw (so essentially same as 250) daily and have for the last 327,000 miles. I farm and the fact that this truck is still in one piece given what I put it through is a testament to its durability; I am a fan.

That said, if I were in your shoes looking for one I would absolutely educate myself on the crankcase ventilation filter and know to ask if it has been maintained on vehicles that have over 100k miles. What Mas89 said is the complete fact and I neglected mine longer than I should and paid price for it. I toughed it through the oil leaks for the past year but it eventually got where you could track me all over the county by the oil puddles so I had the upper pan gasket, rear main seal, oil filter housing gasket, and everywhere else it was blowing engine oil out fixed in January. Neglecting the CCV is the root cause of blowing seals on these engines over time and resealing the upper pan gasket is invasive surgery.

The only other serious work this truck has had in that time was last summer I got a low fuel rail pressure code at just over 300k miles. My previous truck had a catastrophic failure of the CP4 @289k so I had the CP4 and left fuel rail changed immediately and I think I dodged that bullet - because that is an expensive fix.

The posters above are not wrong: diesels are expensive and they aren't for the faint of heart but if maintained well and a little luck they are incredibly durable.