jeepin.jason

That’s right, the popular Liberty CRD has ceased production as of May. DCX quietly announced on monday that they’re discontinuing the 2.8L CRD Liberty due to the increased emissions standards for MY2007 diesel motors. They haven’t even put out an official press release on it yet, so I figure they’re trying to downplay the news to keep the media focused on last week’s announcement of the upcoming 3.0L CRD that will be available in the Grand Cherokee (and hopefully the Commander).

Even though the CRD Liberty greatly exceeded DCX’s sales expectations, prompting increases in production and selling over 11,000 units since it’s introduction in 2005, they couldn’t justify the expense of upgrading the 2.8L to meet the new emissions standards, and the 3.0L won’t fit under the KJ’s hood. So just when the Jeep line gains a new diesel model, it looses one too. And, not only have the Fed’s new regs killed off the CRD KJ, they’re going to cause about a $3,000 increase in the cost of diesel motors in pickups from what we’ve been told. So starting in 2007, instead of looking at $5,000 to get a diesel under the hood of a Dodge, Ford, of GMC/Chevy, it’ll cost more like $8,000+... That’s one reason why we hurried to get into a 2006 Dodge MegaCab 3500 with the Cummins, but more on that later, heh-heh…