I live perfectly between richmond va Fredericksburg va and Norfolk va. As they said in "oh brother where art thou" it's a geographical oddity....
The feds have triangulated your position and will be there shortly to nab you... :lol:
Some other factors for the OP to consider in the decision between hemi and diesel:
1. Diesel oil changes will cost more than twice that of the hemi.
2. Diesel will need no spark plug change at 100k miles, hemi will cost maybe $600 or thereabouts to change plugs.
3. Diesel requires special low-ash synthetic oil, not as readily available in stores (last I heard).
4. Hemi's 'recommended' fuel is 89 octane (higher cost per gallon than 87), although if you aren't pinging you are ok with 87.
5. Lifetime Max Care is not available for diesel-equipped Jeeps. Even if you don't want to buy that, the question is "what are they worried about?"
6. Diesel will have a bit of turbo lag for the first second or two, something to get used to.
7. Some people have had DEF injectors break off in snow or mud or while off-roading.
8. Diesel and DEF fillers are just inches apart. Screw up one time (put your liquid in the wrong hole) and pay thousands of dollars for repair. For that matter, what if you grab the gasoline nozzle out of habit... not so expensive to pump out the tank and add new filter, but still it's not a happy event.
9. Hemi never needs to go into regeneration mode at any (let alone an inopportune) time. If DPF should ever plug, limp mode ensues... just one more thing to potentially go wrong, that can't go wrong with the hemi.
10. Hemi has variable cylinder management; that makes some people feel good, and bothers other people (I know at least one guy who worries about VCM's effect on longevity... valid or not, the question is how does it make
you feel?)
I'm not advocating or bashing, just listing some things. Odds are, either one will work out fine.
IMO as long as OPEC remains fractured, the price of gas will remain fairly low.