I am looking at buying a 2014 jeep grand cherokee. The eco-diesel caught my attention mainly due to the power and mileage. I never had a diesel so there is a big unknown there for upkeep and longevity. If I stick with a gas model it will be the 5.7 Hemi. I have read about the diesel on the jeep forums and there is a lot of negative so that is throwing a red flag. Anyone have some input or opinions on the eco-diesel? I did test drive one and was very impressed with the power.

I own a diesel Grand Cherokee and love it! No issues and averages 28 MPG. can get up to 32 MPG on highway. I own a 2007 hemi Durango that averages about 16 MPG.

Spend a little extra for the diesel that will last longer, get better mileage and keep a higher resale than a gas Durango.

Thanks for the feedback. I guess the only people that put posts on the owner forums are the ones with issues, the rest of the owners are too busy having fun with their vehicles. I did read the Edmunds long term road test with the eco-diesel in the Ram and it was good even though the oil change costs are sky high. I think I am going to pull the trigger on a 2014 brown summit model.

Mu buddy that puts a lot of miles on, bought a ECO diesel 1500 ram 4wd, he loves it, plenty of power and average 30MPG.. Amazing.. Yes the oil changes are more money, put they are farther apart.

What are some of the complaints? Remember, of the complaints posted online, probably only a handful are real, legitimate problems, MANY are simply whining about something, and you'll almost never read about satisfied owners.

My girlfriend and I own a 2014 Jeep Grand Cherokee Eco-Diesel. Bought it new in October 2014, so far we have 13,000 miles on it. No real problems with it, it gets pretty good gas mileage, about 26-27 MPG mixed city and highway driving.

The power is good, we live on a ranch and constantly drive on dirt/gravel roads, uphill to our house. You can feel 4 wheel drive kick in automatically and feel the immediate traction.
Handling is great, high speed travel, all good road feel-nice and solid.

Now the bad, within the first 3 weeks of ownership, the check engine light came on, which of course, disables the remote start function..Rather annoying...Took it to the dealer, they reflashed everything and did a "software update".

Got it back, all is good for a week, then same thing, check engine light comes on, so they do another "software update", and also state that it needs a new redesigned catalytic converter, which of course is on back order and we are number 400-something, and that it wont be instock for several months....so we drive it with the check engine light on, which they say is harmless..

The following month I top off the DEF fluid with the "available everywhere" BLUE DEF from the parts stores. After topping off and driving a hundred miles, the check engine light comes on and "Incorrect DEF fluid, see dealer" comes up in the display. So they clear that code, do another "software update" and and state that it is recommended that I only use Mopar DEF at $11 bucks a gallon versus the $12 per 2.5 gallon jug at the parts store. dont know what the eff that was about, but OKAY. I don't buy it...

So we have it back now, and a couple weeks ago, a "service shifter, see dealer" lights up on the display. No problem in shifting gears or anything, but the little button you push on the shifter mechanism to get into gear, sticks in, and then playing with it for a minute, pops out...LOL...so it's back in the dealer for a replacement part within the shifter mechanism, which of course is not in stock and will take a week to get there...And the service guy states this is extremely odd, never heard of that shifter problem before...LOL

I pick it up on tuesday, Ill keep ya updated. I will remain optimistic, because i do like this Jeep, it handles great, gets good gas mileage, and has good power. But for 45 grand, jee whiz, why all the frickin software updates!!!!???

I'll keep ya updated....

Yeah, that doesn't sound like "fussy little whinings". You are right, for the price of a current mid-western home, you'd think it'd be a bit better resolved!

Mopardude 318, that sounds just like what most of the other people on the jeep forums were saying about their issues. A couple of reflashes followed by a new converter. Also jerky trans shifting at low speeds like in parking lots. What I also read is this was mostly on the early 2014 models.
What kind of DEF consumption is everyone experiencing ? The estimate was that you should be able to get more than 10k miles out of a tank of 8 gallons of DEF, but the guys a Edmunds that did a long term test on the diesel ram were going through 3 or more times that amount of DEF fluid.
Are oil filters finally available for less than $60 like they were charging at the dealers ?

Ebay has oil filters for roughly 10 dollars a piece when you buy 3.

The oil is funky Euro Spec low ash synthetic if you buy it wrong it's 12 bucks a quart. Note the oil needs to meet Chrysler Ms11106

Again on ebay you can by 20 liters for 130$ Liqui-Moly meets the spec but it's not in their current literature but if you dig on ram1500diesel you can find a letter

Red

For oil changes I just bought the dealership package for 1200 bucks, which if I have it changed every 6000 miles, I'm good for 120,000 miles of oil changes. Costing $60 dollars each oil change. (20 oil changes total)

I thought 60 bucks for an oil change was a decent deal for 8 qts of synthetic and a filter.

Lol. Yea that catylatic device was north of 900 bucks if I had to purchase it. Just damn...