CRD heavy duty/fleet service MPG???

XJfreek · **Joined:** Thu Mar 30, 2006 4:02 pm **Posts:** 2

I am considering buying a CRD Liberty for pizza delivery. Does anybody here have experience driving a CRD in heavy duty driving conditions (city driving, freq stop/go, long idles, rapid accelerations)?? The vehicles I have driven have typically get 5 or more less MPG than rated due to these conditions. I am curious what mileage I could expect with a CRD engine since I've never driven a diesel before. I'm trying to find that perfect vehicle combining MPG, comfort, and preferabally 4WD. (it would be nice to run some biodiesel too and not feel as bad about all the fuel I consume)

Any experience, recommendations or help would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks in advance.

Guest · **Posted:** Thu Mar 30, 2006 4:23 pm

XJfreek wrote:

I am considering buying a CRD Liberty for pizza delivery. Does anybody here have experience driving a CRD in heavy duty driving conditions (city driving, freq stop/go, long idles, rapid accelerations)?? The vehicles I have driven have typically get 5 or more less MPG than rated due to these conditions. I am curious what mileage I could expect with a CRD engine since I've never driven a diesel before. I'm trying to find that perfect vehicle combining MPG, comfort, and preferabally 4WD. (it would be nice to run some biodiesel too and not feel as bad about all the fuel I consume)

Any experience, recommendations or help would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks in advance.

With that kind of driving, the best mileage you'll get is about 17mpg if your lucky. Diesel passenger cars/small suvs should not be just short trip only vehicles, but I'm sure the CRD design can handle it - just not very efficiently. Diesels are great for short trips in something like a Sprinter Van that carries large loads all day long in short trips, when compared to a similiar gasoline sized vehicle. For pizza delivery, you should be looking at a 4 cylinder gasser. My old 2004 4x4 Honda Element averaged 22mpg in the type of driving you describe and had a 300 watt factory surround sound stereo to boot! It's inline-4 had the iVtec so even though it was only 161hp, it was always at or near maximum torque reguardless of RPM - it was a rocket ship!

spottyrecordkj · **Posted:** Thu Mar 30, 2006 11:34 pm

18-20 mpg won't over heat, but the transmission is questionable! You would be looking at a truck load of problems!

RedJeepCRD · **Posted:** Fri Mar 31, 2006 1:48 am

I think you'd do fine with a pizza CRD. I drive my CRD pretty hard in traffic around Orlando. I know some of the police departments and local public works departments are using Jeep Libertys. I know the county where I am has a whole fleet of white 4x4 Sport Jeep Libertys, some diesel and some gas. They have had very few problems with them. Lake County gets rid of it's vehicles every 100000 miles or so. I'm not sure if that will be long enough to see how the diesel will do in the long term. There are a lot of people concerned about the transmission but I figure if I'm still having issues at 70000 mile I'll trade it for something else. Between now and then it's under warranty and the DC can fix the transmission every year if necessary. The transmission works so far with everything I thrown at it. (Including towing a 5000 lbs. travel trailer) As for the overheating, I drive all summer in high temps and offroad in hot dusty conditions. My temp gauge has never moved. I would suggest just letting it idle instead of cutting it off and on. Leave one key in and carry one with you, so you can lock it up and let it idle. I can speak for the gas models to. They are very durable and mine 2002 severed me very well. As long as you service the vehicle according to the manual your get several years of trouble free service. Mileage with my CRD around town is about 20 to 24 mpg depending on how much I drive it. My wife get about 24 driving it around town.

oldnavy · **Posted:** Fri Mar 31, 2006 3:13 am

spottyrecordkj wrote:

18-20 mpg won't over heat, but the transmission is questionable! You would be looking at a truck load of problems!

The myth of weak tranny again. It's the same tranny used in the Hemi Dodge PU and only known problems were some came with wrong tranny filter and there was a computer software upgrade to correct shift points and torque converter lock up. Figure 18 to 22 mpg for that type of driving.

the big dog · **Joined:** Tue Mar 21, 2006 8:25 pm **Posts:** 39

"The myth of weak tranny again."dc did undercalculate the transmission pump,torque converter and cooler , but the tranny is fine for that kinda driving my idea of extreme is pullin a 5k service trailer around all day.by the way they do have a fix "upgrade"for the tranny under warranty if you have a problem

LibertyCRD · **Posted:** Fri Mar 31, 2006 8:38 am

Yeah I'm gonna' have to disagree with some people here. The CRD engine will be BETTER suited for this kind of driving than a gasoline engine, and it will see a smaller hit on miles per gallon in this type of driving than a gasoline engine will. Why? Because a diesel engine is made to "grunt" down low. It makes tons of torque at low RPMs and speed. That is why these things are doing better around town than their gasser counterparts.

Also..there is nothing wrong with the transmission. I wish people would quit bashing the transmission...it's really getting on my nerves now. I have 21,000 miles on mine...have towed 3 tons up 6% grades...have off-roaded it several times...have driven in cities...and have NEVER had a single hiccup from the transmission mechanically. It's a GREAT transmission...probably the best Chrysler has ever come up with. They've been using it in other DCX trucks for years.

I think a CRD Jeep would be excellent for what you are wanting to use it for.

bbo · **Joined:** Fri Sep 30, 2005 5:17 pm **Posts:** 382

Frankly ... a CRD for pizza delivery makes me wonder ... what are people getting for driving pizza's around nowadays?

I also think 20K plus is a bit much to pay for a pizza delivery vehicle ... I'm guessing you will see way less than 20mpg with pizza delivery .. stop and go is good way to reduce mileage in this engine.

Why not look into something like a TDI (used) or an econobox of some sort?

A CRD is way too much overkill to be delivering pizzas imo.

LibertyCRD · **Posted:** Fri Mar 31, 2006 8:41 am

I don't know, but my buddy's brother made almost 50K dollars one year working for Papa Johns (that includes tips). That's more than I make in my "professional" position!

A CRD in pizza delivery would get no worse mileage than a gas car would. Unless it was a VW TDI.

oldnavy · **Posted:** Fri Mar 31, 2006 9:14 am

LibertyCRD wrote:

I don't know, but my buddy's brother made almost 50K dollars one year working for Papa Johns (that includes tips). That's more than I make in my "professional" position!

A CRD in pizza delivery would get no worse mileage than a gas car would. Unless it was a VW TDI.

Having owned several diesels over the years I would have to agree that the diesel is a better engine for city use.

CRD heavy duty/fleet service MPG???

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