It has been my understanding that, if you get the upgrades that should have been in the CRD models from the factory, (
), then the diesel Liberty is quite reliable and requires little maintenance.
The two biggest beefs I have with my CRDs are the ridiculous EGR system, and the non-existent engine thermostat. Chrysler, of course, has washed its hands of these problems, and REFUSED to provide ADEQUATE AND PERMANENT solutions to either of these issues.
In fact, Chrysler Canada, (I don't know about the U.S.), is not even willing to send out a dealer broadcast to ask their service departments to keep old CRD engine thermostat cores, and then send them to me so we here can modify them for all CRD owners.
I simply do not understand Chrysler's attitude in this regard. They take a great vehicle concept in the Liberty CRD - a small SUV with a turbo-diesel engine - and deliberately kill it with a pollution control system and an engine thermostat that takes away ALL of the advantages of having a turbo-diesel-engine.
When someone spends the extra thousands of dollars to purchase a turbo-diesel-vehicle, they are expecting...
1) Longevity
2) Durability
3) Lower vehicle maintenance costs
4) Power - read that as torque
5) Fuel economy
We got none of this when we purchased the Liberty CRD as it came from the factory. I think Chrysler knew that this vehicle would be a slug right from the beginning, and they decided to cut their losses right from the beginning as well. I draw this conclusion because any high school automotive student who can walk and chew gum at the same time would realize that you DO NOT engineer and EGR system for a turbo-diesel engine, especially a turbo-diesel-engine with a variable-venturi turbo that has the venturi controlled by a vacuum actuator. IDIOTS!
The cool thermostat just makes everything worse. ANY DIESEL ENGINEER will tell you that a vehicle will not run efficiently if the engine never comes up to operating temperature. The engine looses power, fuel efficiency, and reliablility because it is constantly running at a temperature lower than it should, plus the EGR system spews even more crap into the intake system, compounding the problems with P0299 "Check Engine" light issues. I can not believe that Chrysler's engineers did not warn their administrative masters that there would be problems, but they decided to go ahead with the CRD as we have it today anyway, probably because they had already made commitments to V.M. Motori and to customer demands. And now we as customers are left with the headache plagued results of their decisions.
This all means that Chrysler will provide no real customer support, and hope that we as customers would give up in frustration.
If this is the way Chrysler treats its customers in order to engender brand loyalty, then is it a small wonder indeed that Mercedes-Benz sold out 4-5 years ago, and how they had to have Fiat bail their corporate butts out in 2009.
One thing I can not quite understand is why they fell they had to install EGR in the first place? Diesel pollution control laws really did not come into force until 2007, so why rush to hastily engineer pollution control into a vehicle that should not have needed it?
Jeff
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due to its poor MPG and upgraded to an 05 CRD which is named Betty (Shes black 
)
investing $1,000,000 for an assumed 10,000 units (my guess) still on the road in the US equals $100 per vehicle. Including notifying current owners about some part updates. And I think they can get this done for 1/3 of that.
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