Having grown up on a farm, I always liked diesels, the smell, the power, and as a child I particularly liked how the rain cap on my Uncles big Oliver tractor bounced. When Jeep announce the CRD back in ’04 I was in the market for a new vehicle and wanted one only to be told that it wasn’t available in New York because we had to live by the rules of the fruits and nuts of California, so I ended up with a ’04 gas Liberty to replace my Cherokee, which was OK but nothing special. A couple of years later I found a ’05 CRD on Ebay with only 12K miles which had to be mine. Over the two years that I owned the CRD I kept track of all of the fuel and the price of the diesel along with the price of gas at each fill up to be able to compare the cost of driving the CRD vs. a gas.
Over the span of 22919 miles I used 1037 gallons of diesel for a 22.09 mpg average. When I ran the $ numbers vs. a gas Liberty and I assumed 17 mpg for the gasser I ended up saving a meager $288 in two years due to the higher price of diesel.
The thing that drove me to get rid of the CRD was it was a little TOO unique. Since they weren’t originally sold in NY, none of the dealers had parts, the local parts depot didn’t have parts, so everything had to come from a regional depot. That meant if I took it in for service on a Monday, I wouldn’t get it back until Thursday, assuming that the problem was correctly diagnosed. I was lucky in that respect because my local C D J dealer sells a ton of Cummins Rams, so the CRD didn’t scare them, but it did get a test drive when I only took it in for them to shut off the auto locking doors (just to make sure that they didn’t lock
). I only had a couple of problems under warranty, a MAP sensor and a turbo actuator. But having decided to sell it I put it on Craigslist where I sold it to a young girl from the mid west whose father had a diesel pump. I hope she likes it.
Replacing the CRD wasn’t as easy as I had originally thought. I fully expected to buy another Liberty. After looking at new ones, I thought they looked cheap and tacky. I wanted something made in the US and was surprised to find that the domestic content of the ’09 liberty was only 61%. I looked at the Wrangler, but decided it really didn’t fit my needs that well. Chevy Trailblazer- out of production, Ford Explorer – expensive and very few at dealers, Ford Escape – not much towing capacity and friends had problems with theirs. Finally a friend suggested a Nissan Xterra. Not really wanting a foreign made SUV I was hesitant, but went to the dealer to find that it was made in Tennessee, and the domestic content was only 1% less than the Liberty at 60%
After owning it for a year I really am happy with every aspect of the Xterra (but I still can't figure out what to use the roof storage compartment for) and average 18 mpg, and on long trips, regularly get over 21.5 mpg. With 260hp it’s a lot more sporting to drive and wish that I had not gone for the CRD experience. I definitely am not put off by diesel, only the CRD, in fact my next car will likely be a Jetta TDI (a diesel that isn't that rare) at 41mpg.
Being Unique is not necessarily a good thing, especially if you break down by the side of the road.
Thanks to all that contribute to this site for the great info on the CRD's and Best of luck to all that have CRD’s, but to those thinking about buying one, my advice is to ….. Think hard and long before taking the plunge.
. Cleaning the MAP was free and easy, and I have none of the other issues that you mentioned, except the timing belt. Even the preventative stuff totals up to around $700 (Samcos, fuel head, GDE), the rest is pure fun... and, pre-tune, I was getting 29 hwy/24 city. In more than a year of ownership, the only thing I've ever "had" to do is replace one of my window regulators with the Steiger part.
Not by a long shot.
