Dear Truck Trend,

I love diesels and Grand Cherokees and am the proud owner of a solid-front-axle Jeep Grand Cherokee Overland Edition 4x4 with the 4.7-liter High-Output engine. It smokes most Mustang GTs from stoplight to stoplight, but the downside is that my Jeep gets 12 mpg around town and a max of 17-18 mpg on the highway. When I turn this gem into an extreme off-road luxury ride, I plan to eventually replace the engine with a 4.0-liter V-8 Mercedes turbodiesel. I'm also thinking of buying a 2011 Jeep Grand Cherokee Overland Edition 4x4 next year sometime, but I'm not interested in the Phoenix V-6 or the Hemi. No turbodiesel was mentioned in the article about the new Grand Cherokee. I hope it will be available with the Mercedes BlueTEC V-6, which in my opinion is the best all-around engine in the world. Will there be a 2011 turbodiesel option?

Jim Vogt
Oxnard, California

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Dear Reader,

We've been just as curious about whether the new Grand Cherokee will have a diesel available. The company announced that world-market Cherokees will be available with a diesel, but as of press time, hadn't discussed details about that engine, nor had it announced plans for a diesel in North America. An interesting note here is that the photos of the interior of the new Grand Cherokee show a tachometer with redline at 4500 rpm. That isn't the gauge for a gas-powered G.C. (peak V-6 power is at 4800 rpm, 4250 for the Hemi). On the other hand, it may not be the U.S.-spec tachometer, either. Even if the U.S.-spec Grand Cherokee gets a diesel option, it most likely won't be available when the SUV goes on sale in early 2010.

 --Truck Trend

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