Looking for a diesel Suv/estate car. I moved to Virinia from Cornwall , England. I have a Land Rover 110 TD 2.5 and am looking for something similar here. I have a Durango which works fine but I want a diesel engine. I have been told about a GMC product for the 1990s that is diesel, I want to buy American,anyone have suggestions ?

 

GMC/Chevy put a diesel in the suburbans in the 90's but stopped in 1998 I think. Good luck on your hunt and welcome to DF

 

Ford Excursion around 2000-2002 has a diesel

 

The new Jeep Cherokees have the 3.0 CRD in them, but only in the overland model.

 

GM offered the 6.2L and later, the 6.5L diesels in their full sized trucks.
As mentioned, the Ford Excursion was sold with the 7.3 and later, the 6.0L diesels.
Jeep made the Liberty with a diesel and now they offer one in the Grand Cherokee
Mercedes also offers diesels in their new suvs.
Unless you're willing to wait for the new 4.5L Duramax to come in a Suburban or the new ford diesel in the Expedition, you really don't have any other options.

My dad has a diesel Silverado pickup crew cab short bed (same dimentions as a Suburban 2500) and he put a cap on it. That would bea very good alternate unless you absolutely need 3 rows of seats.

Of the trucks I mentioned in the 1st part of the post, the Ford 7.3 Excursion is the best. The engine is an absolute beast. They're not as powerful as the newer 6.0L's but they're much more reliable and, because they're older, can be found cheaper.

The old GM 6.2 makes virtually no power (and by old I mean late 80's)
I've worked on the 6.5L and its a fairly strong engine. Lacking on power a bit but fairly reliable. The truck that has it has gone through 2 transmissions in 120,000 miles though.
I've worked on the 6.0L Ford as well. Its very powerful but horribly unreliable.
I've heard quite a bit of bad things about the MB diesels in the Jeeps and Benzs.

Seriously, a 7.3 Excursion is the way to go unless you buy a Ram CTD and throw a cap on it

 

Ta for the info, I like the jam jars.

 

Bad Ram 1
The silverado you mentioned sounds interesting, what year/engine size/availabiliy ?
You mentioned a GM 6.2, the 6.5after, is this GM and what years roughly ?

 

For an estate car, you could get a VW Jetta or Passat diesel station wagon. They made them for a while then stopped and are now starting again. They get 40-50 mpg and I've read about them being built to over 300 hp.

 

I was gonna say jeeps but someone beat me to it...

 

The Silverado diesel has been around for ages. My dad's is an '06 with the 6.6L Duramax LBZ which produces 360hp and 650 ft-lbs tq.

The first GM Duramax was the LB7 which was built used from '01-'04. 300hp/500tq
2nd was the LLY from '04.5-'06. The '04.5-'05 had 310hp/520tq and the '06 had 320/560
3rd was the LBZ which I have already mentioned It was used from '06.5-'07
The current Duramax isthe LMM365HP/655TQ.

The LBZ and LMM came with the Allison 1000 6 speed auto tranny which is amazing. I believe the older D-max's were offered with 5 speed Allisons but don't hold me to it.

The 6.2 is the very old. It was used from '82-'93. The 6.2's were N/A engines.
Replacing the 6.2 was the 6.5 which was used from '92-'01. Both these engines were built by Detroit Diesel as opposed to the Isuzu Duramax. My dad currently has a 6.5L in a 2000 3500 van. The engine runs strong, but the transmission is horrible. Its also very loud as opposed to the Duramax which is very quiet. My dad gets about 18-19 mpg with the D-max.

I have my last final tomorrow so once I get that out of the way, I'll take a pic of his truck.

If you do decide to get something like this, you also might want to look at a CTD powered RAM 2500 because after all, this is a Dodge forum.


There is 1 more diesel SUV out there that I forgot to mention: Hummer H1. I steer clear of that however if I were you.