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Well, here I am in the great state of Utah.
Gonna be driving this Jeep Wrangler today.
But this isn't just any Jeep Wranger.
This is the diesal we've all been waiting for with all the massive amounts of torque!
I am so super stoked.
So once you jump in that right seat, let's go have a little bit of fun.
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You can worship at the altar of horsepower as much as you want but for me the emotion is all in the torque.
This 3 liter eco diesel V6 puts out 260 horsepower and that's respectable but 442 pound feet of torque.
Now when you look at the gas V6.
It's got 260 torques, two liter turbo, 295.
So, at least on paper, this diesel power plant is the one to get.
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Now, this is not the same diesel that you'll find in the Ram 1500 that's due to some packaging issues and that jeep's got a 430 inches of water, you got to make sure that your diesel can do that.
But Jeep has assured me that it is a close cousin.
The EPA numbers are not out yet but Jeep expects that this diesel engine should get in the high 20s in terms of efficiency and should have a range of about 500 miles.
And out here on the highway, I mean, there is plenty of mid range punch and there's a lot of great acceleration off the line.
the 18 automatic has been tuned to handle all of this torque and so far today it's done it's job admirably in the background with no muss and no fuss.
There is a little bit of engine noise that comes into the cabin but let's be honest it's not like a jeep is the quietest vehicle on the planet already so it doesn't really bother me And for those of you looking to torque, well, you're still stuck with a 3500 pounds of towing capability.
After all, you still have the same suspension geometry in the back diesel are now.
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So here's the thing about torque off road.
Especially here in the diesel it comes in really low at about 1400 RPM and remains very, very flat all the way to about 2900 RPM.
So that means that I can go through things that I normally would wanna be, in four low for.
I can do it in for high.
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That was fun!
I never would have attempted that in 4-High in a gas-powered Jeep, but this diesel with all of this torque just crawls right on up.
Did I get a little wheel slippage?
Yeah, sure.
Would it have been easier in 4-Low?
Probably, but it still did it.
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All right, so let's talk math, shall we?
So you got your crawl ratio, the crawl ratio in the diesel is about 70 to 1. Now in the gas Rubicon, it's 77 to 1. So you might think that, well, that's a big problem, right?
But really, it's not.
Remember the crawl ratio is just a representation.
Of the torque being multiplied before it gets down to the pavement of the rocks or whatever it is that you're driving on.
And it's got to get multiplied through things like the transmission and the differential and blah blah blah.
And there's all this math and engineering that happens.
Now this has got a 373 rear end.
And Jeep did that.
They made that concession because they wanted to get better fuel economy.
Here's the thing.
It doesn't matter that you don't have a forward tan rear end like you do in the gas powered Rubicon because you have so much torque that's getting multiplied 442 pound feet of it.
Now you might be asking about skid plates.
Yeah they're all here and there is a skid plate for your DEF which is awesome.
It's located right behind the fuel tank so you don't have to worry about punching a hole in your DEF tank because then you'd kind of be SOL'd if you were out on the trail.
Now you may have noticed that I'm talking about automatic transmissions and I'm in the Fordor Unlimited.
You might be wondering, is that the only vehicle that the diesel will come in?
And answer, I am sorry to say, is yes.
You can only get the diesel in the Fordor with an automatic transmission.
I know it's such a bummer, but Jeep just doesn't feel like the take rate would be enough so they decided to just go ahead and keep it in what's popular, which is kind of a bummer.
I do wish that we could get this in the manual transmission because that would be amazing.
[SOUND] There you go, Little Boo.
There you go, Little Boo.
You're the best.
Hoo, that was close!
I almost got stuck!
[LAUGH] Dumb.
I did put it in four-wheel and locked it all up.
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So what's it gonna cost if you want a diesel engine in your 2020 Wrangler?
It's gonna be about $3,250 premium over the gas V6 or a $4500 premium over the 2 liter.
I know, it's pretty spendy.
In fact, this fully loaded Rubicon right here tops out at over $61,000.
But I really wanna get this vehicle for a whole week.
I gotta get fuel economy and I definitely need to get me some more dirt time.
But hey, if you wanna buy one on your own, they're gonna be in dealerships this December.
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