My local Jeep dealer said that the Diesel Wrangler should be out towards the end of 2007. Dont know where he got the news, but if it happens that will be great.

 

Off the top of his head most likely, which dealership was it?

 

Folks - as we all know, the 3.0 Bluetec from MB is going into the Grand Cherokee as an option for the '08 model year...

Well, Car and Driver just had a quick write-up about the Jeep Trailhawk concept "car," and mentioned that it looks like DCX is considering "going upscale" with the Wrangler Unlimited platform (the Trailhawk shares its platform with the Unlimited, but has fancier interior, different sheetmetal, etc. - typical corporate "reuse" of a platform, a la GM).

Car and Driver made particular note of the 3.0 liter turbodiesel in the Trailhawk concept, sourced from (who else?) MB... and they closed the article by posing the question (I'm paraphrasing):

"This begs the question: How long until we see a diesel-powered Wranger in the US?"

That's the golden question. Hmmm... let's think about this a little. I stand by my prediction that a diesel Wrangler won't appear until at least the 2010 model year. I can't imagine they'd try to rush it into production for the '08 model year, and will likely try to step back and judge it's "marketability" by the reception (in terms of sales figures) that the Grand Cherokee diesel gets...

So - if you know of anyone that's in the market for a Grand Cherokee, try to sway them toward the diesel!

 

The 3.8 is a surprisingly strong and responsive engine in it's current configuration. My dealer told me yesterday it has a ECU speed limiter that cuts/shuts down the engine at 105mph. That's pretty fast for a Jeep. I wonder what happens to the power steering? JK (just kidding...)

Ciao!

Ted

 

Um - yes - good info. But, uh, how does this relate to the thread topic?