Expecting to be released in the 1st quarter of 2013, the 2014 Jeep Grand Cherokee EcoDiesel, the first “American” diesel of a ever increasing trend of oil burners, has finally been launched at the 2013 North American International Auto Show.
The 3.0 liter EcoDiesel comes courtesy of Fiat’s VM Motori Centro in Ferrara, Italy and produces 240hp@3,600 and more importantly 420 ft-lbs of torque@ 2000 rpm. Mated to a new 8-speed automatic the Grand Cherokee Diesel achieves 21/30 (4×2) and 20/28 (4×4) mpg. The 50-state diesel uses the typical Diesel Particulate Filter and SGR catalyst with Urea injection.
The Grand Cherokee’s exterior gets refreshed slick new LED head and taillights as well as new front and rear bumper treatments. The interior takes a refresh as well. The already very ergonomic and classy looking gauges gets even more high tech with a virtual speedo and information center in the center of the dash.\ LED backlit gauges for tach, fuel and temp are very clear and well integrated with the virtual center speedo.
Similar to BMW’s LCI refreshes, Jeep continues to make some very nice and leading edge enhancements to their best selling Grand Cherokee. As a diesel fanatic, I’ll be watching the diesel Grand Cherokee very closely to see how it competes against the Teutonic diesels in its class, X5d, ML350 Bluetec, Q7 TDI, and even stretched to the Porsche Cayenne Diesel.
I’m hoping with the new F15 that BMW will finally upgrade the “d” model to an 8-speed transmission, the updated N57 (vs. M57) diesel to boost the already strong diesel mpg over 30 mpg and an 800 mi range. Nevertheless, he just outed 2014 F15 X5 will most certainly have some decent US completion when it arrives at the end of the year.
