</font><font color="blue" class="small">( The 4 cylinder diesel they offer for a premium in the Liberty has a terrible review---noisy and gutless (0-60 in...well i don't think it gets to 60) and economy is just about 1 mile a gallon better than the peppier v-6. Who put that to market and said---Wow this is great! )</font>
Not wanting to start an argument, but Automobile magazine to say:
</font><font color="blue" class="small">( .... the Liberty is a nice vehicle in any form. We'd say that the diesel version, available in Sport and Limited editions only, is actually the nicest of the lot )</font>
Here's the specs and the pedigree on the diesel, from Rockcrawler:
</font><font color="blue" class="small">( The Jeep Liberty is the first mid-size sport-utility vehicle available with a diesel engine in the U.S. The 2.8-liter CRD boasts three best-in-class stats: 295 lb-ft of torque (400 Nom) @ 1,800 rpm; driving range of approximately 500 miles; and towing capacity of 5,000 pounds. The engine produces 160 horsepower and gets an estimated fuel economy of 22 miles city and 27 miles highway.
The 2.8-liter CRD is an enhanced version of the four-cylinder diesel engine currently offered on this vehicle in Europe. VM Motori, which is owned in part by Detroit Diesel, a DaimlerChrysler company, is the manufacturer of the engine. VM Motori has been supplying the Chrysler Group diesel engines since 1992 for minivans and Jeep products sold in Europe.
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Car and Driver's biggest criticism was the noise the diesel makes -- it is a diesel, afterall -- but had this to say about it's performance -- which is actually faster in the 1/4mile than the gas V6 gas...
</font><font color="blue" class="small">( This is considerably less horsepower than you get from the Liberty's optional 210-hp, 3.7-liter V-6, but considerably more torque: 60 pound-feet, peaking 2200 rpm lower. And it's this trait—low-down grunt—that makes this or any other diesel appealing: grunt, plus relatively high fuel economy. In the case of the Liberty diesel, you get distinctly higher EPA fuel-economy ratings than those of the gas V-6—21 mpg city, 26 highway versus 17/22 (or 18/22 with a manual transmission). Jeep expects the diesel will get about 25-percent-better fuel economy than the V-6 in real-world driving. We got 20 mpg with the diesel, which was exactly a 25-percent improvement over the 16 mpg we achieved with the V-6.
You also get the same towing capacity as that of the 3.7 V-6—5000 pounds, heftiest of all the cute utes. And you get similar acceleration. Our turbo-diesel tester rattled to 60 mph in 10.1 seconds compared with 10 flat for the Liberty Limited Edition we tested in January 2002 ("Canyon Cubs") and was quicker in the quarter-mile: 17.3 seconds versus 17.5.
No one would characterize this little Jeep as fast, but the turbo motor spools up quickly and holds its own in urban traffic. The engine's power traits match up well with the five-speed automatic transmission, the latter yielding smooth up- and downshifts, and it lopes along at freeway speeds without undue strain.
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Note that the diesel is only available with an automatic in the Liberty, while the Gladiator is a 6-speed...
IMO, this little diesel is a viable alternative to those who don't think they need a a huge 2500/3500 Power-Stroke, Cummins, etc. As several of the articles characterize it -- a 4 cylinder that tows like a 6-cylinder -- with mileage in the low to mid 20's on a 4WD sounds pretty darned good to me...
BTW, to each his own, but I've been driving Dodge pickups and Jeeps for several years and am well pleased.... anecdotal evidence perhaps, but, I'm a repeat buyer of both Dodge pickups and Jeeps now, and plan on buying them again....
Seems like I'm not alone on the Liberty diesel, either. They're selling as fast as they can be built, and were one of the very few (such as Viper) Chrysler products that weren't available on the employee discount program....
