Here is the story on their website:

Cars Fall Far Short of EPA Mileage Estimates in Test

They have a message forum here:
20/20 message forum

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http://www.pdxbiodiesel.org

I think their city driving is considered sitting in traffic for hours at a time. I haven't seen milage like that, but I don't live in New York City either.

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'99 XJ - 2" - 30's - Bored TB - TB Spacer - Wheelin' Rig
'05 Liberty CRD - Daily Driver
Lifetime Member #RC051007
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The one component of a vehicle that has the most effect on gas mileage?

The loose nut holding the steering wheel!!!!

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Mitchell Oates
'87 MB 300D Diamond Blue Metallic
'87 MB 300D - R.I.P. 12/08
'05 Sport CRD Stone White
Provent CCV Filter/AT2525 Muffler
Stanadyne 30 u/Cat 2 u Fuel Filters
Fumoto Drain/Fleetguard LF3487 Oil filter
V6 Airbox/Amsoil EAA Air Filter
Suncoast TC/Shift Kit/Aux Cooler
Kennedy Lift Pump/Return Fuel Cooler

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'99 XJ - 2" - 30's - Bored TB - TB Spacer - Wheelin' Rig
'05 Liberty CRD - Daily Driver
Lifetime Member #RC051007
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They had to have been sitting still except for maybe the ride to the bottom of the parking garage and back up again. That's absurd. The worst I've done is 16 - and that was a LOT of traffic jam time with the a/c on.

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<b>2005 Liberty CRD Limited</b>
Atlantic Blue, Navigation, Sirius,
Park Distance Control,
Parrot Bluetooth system;
Custom heated, leather seats (black on the side bolsters, Atlantic Blue center);
Skid plate package, Michelin Cross-Terrains
<b>2007 Mercedes ML320 CDI (twin-turbo V6 diesel)
2008 Mercedes C350 Sport

I'm in Central New Jersey and sit in bumper to bumper traffic for up to 45 minutes a day and I get 19.

Consumer Reports made similiar claims. Lowest I have seen is 19 high as 28 and consistantly 24/25 mpg.

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Sold 05 CRD Patriot Blue, hole in the roof, Trailer tow, factory skids, LSD, Saris load bars, Michelin LTX M/S
Current Bright white 2010 Dakota Quad Cab 4x4 V8

The story was about the same CR report.

A month or so ago, the CR report came up on the diesel liberty list on yahoogroups. It received the same enthusiastic reception as far as it's alleged accuracy (ie CR couldn't hit the southbound end of a nothbound male bovine with a large wooden stringed musical instrument )

We came up with two possible scenarios -

One, someone noted that the 11 MPG city figure was remarkably similar to the EPA city rating for the 3.7 V6 Liberty. Either they quoted numbers for the wrong engine, or they didn't have a CRD available and just fudged the numbers from the V6.

Two, they reset the the overhead computer, then crawled along for 5 miles in a traffic jam, then just jotted down what the overhead displayed, not giving the computer enough time or distance to get a true average, and not using the old tried and true method of miles driven divided by gallons to fill the tank. In essence, this one was also a fudge.

I have my own three personal scenarios for what happened -

One, the testers were just blasted idiots that didn't have a clue how to operate the vehicle, some poor schmuck they hired off the street for a day getting paid to joy ride in a brand new CRD, with no clue as to what data he was supposed to collect.

Two, some money changed hands to ensure that certain vehicles got rated significantly below EPA MPG ratings, regardless of their true performance.

Three, CR was suffering from sagging subscription rates, and they needed a nice splashy news story to get their name in front of the public again. I have heard reports that in years past CR has been caught red-handed fudging the numbers to sensationalize results and create an uproar to get media (and subscriber) attention.

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Mitchell Oates
'87 MB 300D Diamond Blue Metallic
'87 MB 300D - R.I.P. 12/08
'05 Sport CRD Stone White
Provent CCV Filter/AT2525 Muffler
Stanadyne 30 u/Cat 2 u Fuel Filters
Fumoto Drain/Fleetguard LF3487 Oil filter
V6 Airbox/Amsoil EAA Air Filter
Suncoast TC/Shift Kit/Aux Cooler
Kennedy Lift Pump/Return Fuel Cooler

Had ours for a week or so and in regular commuter traffic of 20 miles about 14 open road 6 nose to tail less than walking pace we are getting 25mpg overall on a tank brim to tank brim calculation.

These reports are typical Journalistic licenece "think it up, write it up sell it up"

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06 Cherokee CRD Limited Automatic
97 BMW 750i

This past weekend I loaded my CRD down with camping gear, then hooked up a flatbed trailer, then loaded a 600 lb. 4x4 ATV onto the trailer, then drove 75 mph directly into a 30 mph headwind for 4 hours...and I got my all-time worst mileage ever. 19 miles per gallon.

I have 12,500 miles on my CRD now, and that 19 mpg is the worst I have ever seen...and considering how hard the engine was worked I think 19 is pretty darn good. I have NO CLUE how these morons are getting mid-teens for mileage with the CRD. I really don't.

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2005 Stone White KJ Limited CRD 4x4
Off-Road Pkg
Trac-Lok
Emu 790s/948s
Skyjacker H7088s rear/Bilsteins front
15x7 Black Rock Lobos/31x10.50 Firestones
GDE HOT Tune + TCM Tune
Euro TC
CB radio
Thrush Turbo muffler
AEM DryFlow filter

It gets pretty serious though some people will actually believ this trash, I mean in the UK there was a huge play made over the fact that an H2 Hummer can be made to do 1mpg (the Hummer is not avaiable off the peg as a persoanl import only) but again lots of people believe it.

It is reckless but my philosophy is if I was worried about fuel economy I'd buy a scooter (this from a guy with a V12 BMW ROTFLMAO)

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06 Cherokee CRD Limited Automatic
97 BMW 750i

I live in the hills, and still get 22/23 average without highway driving.

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05 Liberty CRD Sport in Dark Khaki
Sirius satellite radio
ARB bumper
Safari Rack
All Husky lined
Full Mopar Armor / Olympic Rock Rails
Daystar 2.5 lift - Rancho RS 5000's
Moab rims
265/75/16 Kumho KL71 MTR's
Magnaflow muffler / DR perf module
Security system - German Shepard

I complained to the CEO of CR about it, got back a semi-form letter from "his personal assistant" to the effect they appreciated my concern, and stood by their numbers. I wrote back directly to said personal assistant to the effect that I thought somebody goofed and wrote down a "1" when they transposed data from here to there, and got back a very detailed letter to the effect that they were certain that did not happen, that they carefully pulled the fuel line and dropped it into a measured volume of fuel in a smaller calibrated container, ran their official trip on the official course, both to and from to account for windage, slope, etc., did it several times to average the results, and at no point did any human have the opportunity to accidentally write down the wrong number, and they were sticking to their guns: 11 mpg it is, darn it!

No sense in suggesting next time they take off the handbrake first and unhook the sled. Ain't gonna happen.

These guys must have breathed in to much of the diesel fumes during the evaluation. I get on average 21.7 mpg in city driving conditions!

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2003 Cherokee Ltd CDR, Patriot Blue, Bridgestone Dueller A/T's, Mopar Sport Bars, Garmin GPS, Skid plates

I've upsized my tires by 3 metric sizes from stock and I still average 22mpg with a heavy foot in 50%city/50%hwy driving...

Did they also unplug the return fuel line and connect it to the container? Diesels return over 50% of the fuel taken from the fuel tank back to the fuel tank unused. Bet they would not admitt to that mistake, I bet 3/4 of the people here didn't even know that unless they have changed a fuel filter themselves.

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91 MB 300D 2.5L Turbo. Her's

05 MB E320 CDI. Mine

Any chance you still have the email, or can quote the exact words of the methodology used? OldNavy is right - if they didn't put the return fuel line also into that container, then they will calculate less than half the mileage that they actually got.

The Injector pump gets more than 200% of the fuel it needs. It takes what it needs and the rest is returned to the tank - sometimes being used to lubricate and cool injectors and such along the way back to the tank (depends on the engine design).

This is one of the reasons why an aftermarket fuel heater to use biodiesel in the winter will work. You use the heater to heat up the cold fuel in-line initially - before startup. When the engine is running and warmed up the engine heats fuel and returns it to the tank, keeping the whole fuel system warmed up during use.

This is also another reason that biodiesel suppliers advise having your vehicle well warmed up before blending in the tank... The warmer fuel helps the blending process.

So if they didn't put that return line into their special container than they have bad numbers based on that alone - no hand brake needed....

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http://www.pdxbiodiesel.org

That is for WVO & VO and not biodiesel, unless you are running B50 to B100 when below about 10* to 28* F then that would be true, but with B2 to B30 you would have about the same range as regular #2D, WVO & VO has a problem below about 75* on average.

As far as rest of the statements go pretty much spot on, at idle a modern diesel will average about 150% to 200%+ above the amount of fuel required being passed through the IP & FI systems to maintain idle speed and at start of torque peak will still be passing about 50% or more of the fuel back to the fuel tank again depending on the type of fuel system. I know good gas engine mechanic's that think the CR is a dangerous system to be around because diesel ignites under pressure so the high fuel pressure in the rail is dangerous. They don't understand that there is no O2 in the rail and if it springs a leak then the fuel looses pressure and no fire or explosion.

I agree you need to get back to them about the exact methodology and then if the return line is not plumbed into the test container you notifiy them of their mistake and ask for a retest, not before. I would also notify D/C about their failure to do the test properly.

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91 MB 300D 2.5L Turbo. Her's

05 MB E320 CDI. Mine

You all need to write CR about this. I already wrote them about it. I feel like Jeep is being proactive and is trying to do a good thing by introducing more diesels into the U.S. and conserve fuel. And CR writing crap like that is discouraging people (falsely I might add) from buying them. So I wrote CR and asked about their methodology in the test. Maybe they'll write back, maybe they won't. Everyone should write them..that would help.

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2005 Stone White KJ Limited CRD 4x4
Off-Road Pkg
Trac-Lok
Emu 790s/948s
Skyjacker H7088s rear/Bilsteins front
15x7 Black Rock Lobos/31x10.50 Firestones
GDE HOT Tune + TCM Tune
Euro TC
CB radio
Thrush Turbo muffler
AEM DryFlow filter

Looks like my personal Scenario #1 - "Blasted Idiots" - was right. They haven't updated their testing methods from the 70's BFI era (Before Fuel Injection). I'd wager that's also why many of the other models they tested got rated with significantly lower mileage - those morons have no idea how modern fuel injection systems, either diesel or gasoline, work, and have never heard of a fuel return line.

Come to think of it, even my old '87 Subaru wagon with a 2 barrel carb has a fuel return line. An electric pump back at the gas tank that puts out a constant flow to the carb, and an orificed return line right off the inlet to the carb, prior to the float needle valve. So even if they tested that old beast, they'd come up with numbers that were way off.

The word "clueless" hardly begins to describe them. I can think of some military terms that would, but decency prevents me from using them here.

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Mitchell Oates
'87 MB 300D Diamond Blue Metallic
'87 MB 300D - R.I.P. 12/08
'05 Sport CRD Stone White
Provent CCV Filter/AT2525 Muffler
Stanadyne 30 u/Cat 2 u Fuel Filters
Fumoto Drain/Fleetguard LF3487 Oil filter
V6 Airbox/Amsoil EAA Air Filter
Suncoast TC/Shift Kit/Aux Cooler
Kennedy Lift Pump/Return Fuel Cooler