Diesel Wranglers may be coming to the US
Chrysler has been posted numerous jobs on careerbuilder.com for diesel engineers in the areas of application integration and development.
While this may be for products used in Europe, because those already have diesel options from VM, which is half-owned by Fiat Powertrain, it seems likely that these positions are for adapting diesel engines to vehicles sold in the United States.
As European emissions standards come closer to American standards, the economics of adapting VM and Fiat diesels to American products may be improving.
While there are also new Cummins engines which were planned for the Ram 1500 and possibly other vehicles, work on adapting these is reportedly nearly complete and would not require new hires. There is a possibility that Fiat has pressured Chrysler to switch vendors on the future diesel Ram 1500, but this seems less likely than repowering Jeeps, since the diesel Ram program was nearly complete. Numerous rumors of diesel-powered Wranglers for the United States and Canada have been making the rounds.
Many Jeep enthusiasts have criticized the use of the 3.8 liter V6 in the current Wrangler; it is set to be replaced in the 2012 model year by the Pentastar V6. Even before the 4-liter straight six was swapped out, however, the Jeep community was demanding a diesel, which has strong torque off the line and can greatly reduce fuel usage as well.
