Ecodiesel highway trip

Owned a Cherokee Sport (bought new) and a 96' GC in the past. Both were plagued with electrical issues,and the Sport spent so much time on the back of a tow truck it wasn't even funny. The only good thing about the GC was the venerable 318 V-8 and the Quadratrac. Damn thing went through some shit.

 

I have reservations myself on the reliability, mainly from horror stories on forums. But it's the same here and every automotive forum I've been on. 17k and flawless so far. If it's still going strong when my wife wants something new, I may keep it for myself and throw a little lift on it and tune/delete it.

 

Wonder who that is? I don't know where you get your insight or what your assumption is based on, but, if that were an accurate assessment of the demand for diesels in the U.S., this wouldn't even be a thread.

 

I have a diesel taco. It gets terrible mileage.

 

Times have changed in 20 years. Chrysler has come a long ways.

 

I respectfully disagree. I gave them another chance andbought an 05' Dakota. Good thing it was under warranty. Besides another rash of check engine lights/no start conditions,the damn thing needed new cylinder heads before 20k. But hey,if the OP is happy with it,great. Still don't know why an Ecodiesel thread is in a Tacoma forum.

 

'05 is 11 going on 12 model years ago.

I had a 2012 ram sport crew 4x4 for 4 years and it never gave me any trouble. Traded it for a '16 4Runner TE we'll see how it holds up as well

 

I have full confidence in Chrysler products (had 10 or so since the mid 90's). My only reservations concern the Ecodiesel itself. Being Italian built (VM Motori), I'm not 100% convinced just yet about it. So far, so good though.

 

I have the Jeep GC Eco Diesel for about 1.5 years now. Driving it is great. Smooth responsive, I live in CO and going up I70 is cake. I use it for work and the fuel economy is amazing for a vehicle that size.

The downer......I was going a lot of local driving for about a month and all of a sudden I get a warning to drive at HW speeds.....I couldn't get anywhere that day to do that, so the next day Im out and the warning comes on again....as I was driving to the HW the warning changes to go to a dealer to get serviced and goes into limp mode (under 30 mph)

Long story short the exhaust filter doesn't get hot enough to burn off the excess suffer at city speeds so it needs to regenerate at HW speeds. IF you dont do that the filter gets clogged and the car is useless. Had to replace a filer and oil change, not covered under warranty $400...about a month later same warning but I got on a HW and it went away, no issues since. So in shorts what I was told its a HW car not a city car. I dont think this is worth paying the extra $6k for diesel especially in a potential emergency situation. Next year I might trade it in and go back to a Taco for work or a full size truck. Tacos are now close to $40k!

 

I have heard of this with new diesels. Luckily, my wife has a 40 mile highway commute daily so right now it's a non issue. Also a reason to delete the emissions stuff once the warranty is out if the car has otherwise been reliable.

Also, I guess the diesel is $6k more than the base V6? It's only $1300 or so more than the Hemi (the only other engine we considered) so not that much of a premium.

 

80 dollar oil change is not expensive to you?

Wait till you have to change an injector pump or pretty much anything else on the motor. Do these use dpf? You'll be replacing that eventually, sooner rather than later if you don't regenerate properly.

Not considering the fuel is more expensive so the better mileage isn't as good as it seems though still a little better.

Plus the truck costs more to buy. Between that and the higher cost of diesel the better mileage doesn't make it worth it until many years of ownership

 

The other issue with the Eco Diesel is that Jeep doesn't have too many techs that are qualified to work on diesels. When I took mine in, it sat for 4 days waiting for the 1 guy thats qual'd to work on it. Couldn't get a loaner either so i was SOL. Look up some of the issues with the cat converter too. Lots of lemon laws being pursued on it.

Its an awesome vehicle, great concept. Im not sure I trust Jeep/Fiat with this technology. Had it been a cummins diesel like what Nissan is exploring, I would have more confidence.

 

I bought the diesel due to being on the HW with work so much and its a very nice vehicle, but now my company reimburses me for fuel.....Raptor would be sweet! But yeah economically the diesel option doesn't make sense. In CO diesel is pretty cheap $2.20 currently.

 

No, $80 isn't bad for 10k oil changes. Roughly the same as my Toyota (~$40) since it's every 5k miles.

I'd say you're a bit pessimistic but should it have issues, it's got a 100k warranty.

Finally, diesel has been swapping places in price with gas all year. Never more than a few cents difference, at least where I live.

 

Lol ok

 

^ Glad you saw it my way.

 

If that's what makes you not feel like a loser, no problem sweet cakes. Best friends for life =)

 

Well, it at least makes me feel like you're not a loser, so it's all good.

 

Diesel n00b question. I always heard that in the winter you need to use a heater block to keep the fuel from gelling while the truck is parked overnight. Is that still the case or has technology/fuel additives changed?

 

Yes and No....depends how cold. If mine sits outside in single digits....its slow to get going. The additives do help but there si still an engine block heater option on most diesels.

If you're up in Alberta in the winter...I would keep it plugged in.