Toyota's
Prius might have Cameron Diaz as a champion, but
Chrysler isn't lacking in the celebrity race to
go green. "We have Darrell Hannah in diesel,"
says Chrysler Group spokesman Max Gates. "She's
always showing up at National Biodiesel Board
conferences."
That's
good news for the biodiesel Jeep Liberty, Chrysler's
only alt fuel vehicle now available for individual
ecology-conscious consumers. Production constraints
have kept the company's E85 alternative fuel Dodge
Stratus/Chrysler Sebring, Caravan/Grand Caravan
and Dodge Durango and Ram 1500 pickup reserved
for fleets this year, although its E85 models
have been sold individually since 1998. Next year
should be open season once again on all alt fuel
models.
For
the anti-gasoline crowd, E85 provides an earth-friendlier
propellant that depends less on foreign oil and
more on homegrown corn and soybeans. "E85"
vehicles can run on regular gasoline or a combo
of 85 percent plant-based ethanol and 15 percent
regular petrol. On the biodiesel side, the fuel
blend that includes vegetable oils or animal fats
spews fewer polluting "particulates"
from exhaust.
For those opting for the biodiesel
Liberty, planet savings start at the production
line where the vehicles are fueled with "B5,"
a factory-blend, 5 percent bio-to-regular diesel
fuel mix. Owners who choose to bypass straight
petroleum can fuel up from one of the smattering
of B20 stations now cropping up around the country,
with the expectation of many more selling such
fuels as country singer Willie Nelson's "Bio
Willie" 20-percent biodiesel. Otherwise,
it's unlikely most consumers would be aware they
are driving a fuel-morphing set of wheels. Beyond
the optional, high performance four-cylinder,
2.8-liter common rail diesel (CRD), our test biodiesel
Liberty sported the same round headlamps, seven-slot
grille, bold upright profile and wild country
4X4 performance for off-road dominance (all with
22/26 fuel economy) as those with the 210 horsepower
3.7-liter internal combustion engine.
Despite
our 4X4's base pricetag of $26,190 ($32,010 loaded
as tested), there have only been about 10,000
of the diesel variety available, as Chrysler moves
toward expanding its earth friendly lineup. For
2007, it will add a hybrid Durango based on joint
technology with GM and BMW. Those efforts could
get a boost from people like outspoken Hannah.
She's been known to corral lobbyists in Washington
about diesel fuel regulatory actions needed to
benefit her smogbound home state of California
now led by another celebrity, Gov./actor Arnold
Schwarzenegger. "She's always telling them,
'Do I need to talk to Arnold?'" Gates recalls.
We can picture her driving an Inferno Red biodiesel
Liberty to the Sacramento statehouse just to make
her point.
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