Your next new Jeep will be a diesel. The truth is, it has almost become more cost effective for me to drive my 13,000-pound M35A2 diesel 6x6 into work everyday than to use my premium-sipping supercharged Wrangler as a commuter car. The lifted TJ gets about 11 mpg. The M35 gets around 8 mpg on less expensive diesel. I have to admit though, I've never really been a fan of diesel Jeeps. Up until recently the only readily available diesel engines came in 3/4- and 1-ton trucks. These engines are just too big for Jeep swaps. Most of the conversions I've seen involving diesels simply seemed like a good way to ruin a perfectly good Jeep and a tow rig all at once. Of course, I have seen some swaps with smaller, hard-to-locate diesels. However, none of them was very driveable. Most of these low-horsepower diesels came from Frito-Lay trucks, wood chippers, or farm equipment. None of 'em scream performance in my mind. If you needed wheel speed for mud or sand you weren't gonna get it. Instead, you were rewarded with an overweight pig under the hood that weighed more than a big-block V-8 and had half the horsepower. Torque will only get you so far, and that's straight to the bottom in sand or a mud hole.
The diesel-powered Gladiator concept Jeep that surfaced just over a year ago may not be that far off. New clean-diesel technology is coming in the next year, and a diesel engine will get up to 30 percent improved fuel economy over a comparable gasoline engine. Of course, the Liberty 2.8L CRD was the first Jeep to come with a modern diesel powerplant. It's certainly not the first Jeep with a diesel engine, and it won't be the last.
The CRD Liberty has been discontinued, mostly because of new U.S. emissions standards for 2007. The 3.0L CRD that does pass these standards isn't really any cleaner burning than the 2.8L, it's just that the '07 Grand Cherokee that the 3.0L will come in has a GVWR of over 6,000 pounds, so it has less stringent emissions standards to meet. It really is only a matter of time before a diesel finds its way into the Wrangler. With a curb weight over 4,000 pounds, we all know the four-door JK needs it. Both the '07 Wrangler and Wrangler Unlimited will be available overseas with the same 2.8L CRD that came in the Liberty. Interestingly, the GVWR of the U.S.-bound Wrangler is 6,050 pounds. Now if you read the August '06 Trail Head, you know I'm a betting man. Anyone wanna bet against a diesel Wrangler in 2008? -John Cappa