Makes me wonder how the EcoDiesel would perform in the Canyon/Colorado.
The Duramax folks should be extremely disappointed.
I sure was hoping for better numbers from the smaller truck.
Reading this article, it's obvious that there is a way to write a misleading comparison test without actually lying.
Readers should be extremely disappointed - in a fuel economy comparison that used 2 different methods of fuel consumption measurement - one for the Colorado and the other for all of the rest of the trucks.
They measured fuel economy differently for the Colorado than all of the other trucks. The OBD code apparently wasn't production ready so they used another different method of measurement only on the Colorado.
Too bad they didn't adapt and use the Colorado consumption test on the Ecodiesel. Who knows, maybe they did and it didn't give the right answer, LOL.
It would have been interesting and actually useful for this outfit to test the Ram Ecodiesel fuel economy, using both test methods. That would have been innovative and helpful to readers actually wanting a true comparison. But I don't see that in the fuel economy chart - just an asterick.
Maybe they're also disappointed with a diesel engine that passed the newer, tougher diesel emissions test procedures, brought about by VW's emissions cheating scandal.
Yes, it looks like they should be disappointed:
"Once again, the Ram 1500 EcoDiesel performed admirably, notching the lowest fuel economy of every truck evaluated. Following not too far behind is the GMC Canyon diesel, which had the best fuel economy of all the midsize trucks and was second best overall."
Perhaps it's the Ram Ecodiesel owners who are disappointed with the real world reliability issues that go with their excellent fuel economy. At last count, there were approximately 28 blown Ecodiesel engine reports (broken con rods) on ram1500dieseldotcom. This is on 2014 through 2015 model year engines.
Or perhaps disappointed with the ongoing saga of failed oil coolers contaminating both the engine oil and coolant, with multiple return trips to the dealership to keep cleaning the coolant system. Or the recurring P2OEE SCR error codes, crystalized DEF injectors and multiple return trips to the dealership (3 required) before they finally replace the defective SCR catalyst.
To be fair, there's probably nothing wrong with the basic Ecodiesel engine design. When it's running, it beautiful.
It appears to suffer from the curse of Fiat quality control more than anything else. Who knows for sure until they get the issue resolved. Give Fiat some time - it's only been 2 years!
Here is the sidebar explanation of the asterick:
Sidebar footnote about the different fuel economy tests.
"Important note about the Canyon
Diesel Fuel Consumption values:
Future testing of the Canyon Diesel will
utilize the mandated OBD signals method
that is used for other trucks in this event.
For these Canyon values, a secondary fuel
consumption method was utilized as the
OBD signals did not pass signal verification testing. It is fairly common for OBD signals
to not pass the verification tests on
vehicles
prior to their full market release;
however, the difference in calculation
method is important to note."
