Jeep Brings Diesel Cherokee to North America
Jeep’s new Grand Cherokee is a popular vehicle, and for good reason. It’s spacious, comfortable, and armed to the teeth with a myriad of sensible and luxurious features that you’d expect from a far more expensive SUV. The only problem is, with gas prices well past the $1 per litre mark, that it chugs back the liquid gold, especially when fitted with its powerful 4.7L, 5.7L and 6.1L SRT HEMI V8s. And even worse is that the first two engines are really the only options for people looking to actually use their SUVs for utility purposes, like towing or carrying a full load of people and their camping stuff. Until now.
Welcome to the future of full-size SUVs: the Jeep Grand Cherokee CRD. Introduced in Europe in 2005, the Cherokee utilizes a 3.0L Mercedes-Benz-built common-rail turbodiesel for motivation. At first glance its 215 horsepower rating makes it appear like it won’t be the fastest thing on the road, but while the engine won’t necessarily does not accelerate as quickly as its HEMI brethren, it should be able to haul a lot of other stuff with its 376 foot pounds of torque.
Available between a very usable 1,600 and 2,800 rpm, all that torque gives the CRD a towing capacity of 3,357 kilos (7,400 pounds) as well as the best torque rating of all SUVs in its class. Perhaps best of all, it does all this while still getting between 10.2 and 12.4 (19 and 23 U.S. miles per gallon). That’s better mileage than even the V6 Grand Cherokee; a model that makes five less horsepower and a whopping 141 foot pounds of torque less than the diesel.
“The 3.0-litre CRD is an efficient, smooth-running, clean engine that delivers fuel economy and performance,” said Bob Lee, Vice President of Chrysler Group’s Power Train Product Team. “Advanced diesel technology has improved over the last several years; engines are quieter and cleaner due to electronic controls, higher fuel pressures and advanced after-treatment systems.”
As a testament to that, over 60 percent of Chrysler Group’s vehicle sold in Western Europe are diesel-powered. As a result of this popularity, Chrysler Group will be increasing the number of diesel offerings made outside the North American market to a total of 12 of the available 20 being available with diesel powertrain options.
Incidentally, the Liberty diesel has sold extremely well, showing that there’s a strong market for diesel in North America, at least for SUVs. In Canada, Volkswagen sells an amazing 40 percent of its vehicles with their exclusive TDI diesel technology, another testament to the fact that many are willing to pay more in the beginning for a less expensive long-term alternative fuel solution. Other automakers that have expressed interest in bringing diesels to the North American market are Honda and Kia, while Mercedes-Benz (and now its Smart division) has been a long-time purveyor of diesel powertrains.
Just the same, diesel passenger cars have been slow to catch on in North America, and as a result Chrysler Group’s diesel options are limited to heavy duty trucks and the Jeep Liberty CRD while overseas customers have been able to enjoy such models as the 300C Diesel. However, with the rate at which common-rail diesel technology is decreasing both smoke and sound levels in new diesels, that may all change. The cause of diesel’s growing popularity is common-rail technology, which allows engineers to run fuel pressures in excess of 1,500 psi allowing better fuel atomization, resulting in far more efficient fuel delivery control via ultra-controllable fuel solenoids. These solenoids can inject small “pilot” fuel bursts into the cylinder milliseconds before the combustion charge is injected, therefore engineers can soften the combustion process thereby decreasing noise levels dramatically and eliminating the warm up time that old diesels required. Some diesel engines can actually manage up to five pre- and post-combustion charges to reduce noise and smooth engine operation even more.