Embracing the Power of Diesel: Jeep EcoDiesel Review

Jeep EcoDiesel

It took me some time to truly fall in love with smaller diesel’s in cars, SUV’s or even 1500 pick-ups. I grew up around 6V92 Detroit’s, 3208 CAT’s and a few other big diesel’s, mainly used in ships/boats. My first diesel truck was a 7.3 Powerstroke, still have it, love it. Little diesel’s I still enjoyed, because I like anything without spark plugs, but having one as a daily driver just didn’t make sense to me. I always wanted that big diesel engine grunt, and sound, the sound is/was important. So when I started doing this media stuff, test driving new vehicles with smaller diesels, it took a lot to impress me. Smaller diesel’s just don’t have the same feel as big displacement ones. But that’s really not true, they do, just on a smaller scale. The BMW 335d that I just sold proved that to me and it changed me for good. That thing seriously moved, had amazing torque that would kick you in the butt whenever you wanted it to. And now with my new Jeep with the EcoDiesel, I’m really becoming a fan of the smaller stuff. That BMW was pretty close to 300-HP at the wheels with maybe 500 torque, weighed half what a Ram 2500 does, and got 40-MPG. It was an epic car. The EcoDiesel Jeep, gets 22-MPG on 37-inch tires (compared to 13-ish with a gas engine on 37’s), and I don’t know the power at the wheels yet but likely near 230-HP, stock. It gets out of its own way very nicely, the torque makes it extremely responsive, it’s quicker than any other stock Jeep out there (save for the new 392 model), I don’t even notice the drag from the massive tires, it’s a really great powertrain.  When I drove my first EcoDiesel Ram, I was not even slightly impressed with the powertrain , it just didn’t feel matched to the vehicle correctly, man has my view changed.

The Jeep.

When I bought this Jeep I didn’t really think I’d be doing much with it in Diesel World, but as you can tell, it’s a cool platform and I want you to know about it. It’ll be in the pages here a bunch more. First mod with 1500-miles on the clock, I ripped the suspension out for something more capable from Belltech Suspension. Slapped some XD Wheels and some Toyo Mud Terrain tires. Next was a throttle pedal signal modifier from Superchips/EDGE, their Amp’d throttle booster, on it. Then with only a couple days on the new suspension, I headed from North Idaho, 700 miles to Moab to go wheeling with it for a few days. The diesel in this Jeep is perfection for wheeling. That extra torque made a huge difference. I pointed this thing at every obstacle it came upon and it didn’t skip a beat. Stay tuned for much more from Moab (and check out the video series on our Facebook page now), and much more with this little Jeep. I have a problem, I can’t leave anything stock, and as much as I told myself this Jeep would be different, I lied. It’s going to get pushed very far.