Ecodiesel highway trip

My first highway trip in the wife's Grand Cherokee Ecodiesel. This was after 106 miles of interstate with cruise set at 75mph the whole way. Set the cruise on 85mph on the return trip and still managed 28.6mpg. Gonna check the math when the tank is out but so far, the computer has always been within 1mpg of accurate.

700+mile range and 30+hwy mpg isn't bad for a 5300lb 4wd SUV that rides like a caddy and tows great to boot. Gotta love diesel.

 

Tacoma World?????

 

How dare you!

The Tacoma needs a diesel for is that drive 40k a year and where I live diesel is cheaper than gas 8-9 months of the year.

 

Haha, yeah why not? I see a lot of resistance to diesels here and thought I'd share my own experience.

Jeep was bought new in May and as seen above, already at 17k. Wife has a 82 mile daily commute. One oil change at 10k and one DEF fill-up about 11k. Oil was free due to deal when purchased but would normally be about $80 and DEF fillup was $30. So the whole "expensive maintenance" argument isn't really relevant.

 

That's impressive. I'd buy a diesel taco. Would give me an excuse to go on more road trips.

 

I'd definitely buy a diesel Tacoma as well, after it's been on the market a couple years to get the bugs sorted out.

 

Where I live, diesel is roughly 20% more expensive than regular gas. So, adding in additional purchase price of vehicle, increased fuel cost and cat piss fillups, the equation is hard to justify simply on a financial basis.

I do like diesels though. If fuel costs were lower then it might be a financial advantage.

 

This whole summer and fall diesel was 10 cents a litre cheaper than regular gas. So 37.8 cents a gallon cheaper.

 

Diesel over gas all day. I'm so diasspointed the new Tacomas don't have a diesel. My car is diesel and I get almost 45+mpg with great reliablitly at over 200,000miles. Toyota, step up.

 

diesel is ~ 20-50 cents less a gallon here.... but 99% of the time the diesel options are 5k+$ more .... the time it would take to make the cost difference from gas and maybe better mpg is like 200+k miles.... not to mention all of the issues with the newer diesels and the EPA regulations. Gone are the days where you could throw a cheap tune on it and make 100+ more hp and torque without other issues.

That stated... if they made the taco with the 3.0l D4D for ~ 2k more... i would of bought it in a heart beat.

 

I'm not sure the cost savings in fuel is worth the initial buy in or the high cost to service the fuel system on a modern EPA compliant diesel. I know too many people that have had to drop $8000 to $10000 keeping their diesels running out of warranty.

 

I think if Toyota thought they could sell 20 or 30 thousand diesel Tacoma's a year, at a premium over their gas models, (which already fetch a premium price) you could get out your checkbooks and put down your deposits.

 

In the case of the Jeep, the diesel is only a $1300 option over the Hemi. And gets at least 30% better fuel economy. Shouldn't take too long to pay for itself. Add in the fact that it's a joy to drive with the 8-speed auto and it wasn't a hard decision for me.

That being said, I think diesel options are mostly for people who prefer diesel over gas. If you only look at them economically, they don't always make sense.

 

My Dad just got back from Scotland, the diesel car they were in had a range of 1000 miles and averaged around 60 plus mpg.
I'd like to thank the big auto/oil companies here for lobbying against any technology that improves fuel economy.

 

Diesel taco you say?
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/wrecked-02-trd-prerunner.429327/page-2

 

A Grand Cherokee,biggest POS on the road.

 

Well that was informative!

Well that was informative.

The features a Jeep Grand Cherokee have make a Tacoma seem econo class.

 

Well my lawn mower gets pretty good gas mileage, I can cut the grass twice on one tank full.

 

I had a 99 GC V8 with ~125k miles when I sold it that was a solid piece of machinery and a billy goat offroad. Mpg kinda sucked and didn't improve on the highway, but that thing was a tank off-road. The only thing that ever stopped it was tires.

 

Most of us would buy a diesel but the f*&king EPA in merka is a b^%ch! All because gayfornia says everything causes cancer!