Yahoo Finance 2018 Jeep Compass 4x4 Automatic
Beyond grade school, participation awards stop being cute and begin to evoke a sort of backhanded faint praise. Jeep’s Compass qualifies for such an award. Unlike its woefully uncompetitive predecessor, the second-generation Compass is an utterly average small crossover, one undeserving of a broader accolade.
For even deeper coverage of the Compass, view our Buyer’s Guide in-depth review.
If the Compass deserves any prize, it’s of the consolation variety. Can’t afford Jeep’s handsome, versatile Grand Cherokee? The massively cheaper Compass looks much the same, merely scaled down and dressed up with a nifty floating roof design. Aping the Grand Cherokee’s look is by far the smaller Jeep’s greatest success.
Even in base-model Sport trim, as tested here, we like the cut of the Compass’ jib, although the relatively dinky 16-inch aluminum wheels let some wind out of the Jeep’s sails, visually. (Bigger sizes are available on the uplevel Latitude, Altitude, Limited, and Trailhawk trims.) In fact, those tiny tires are the reason for this evaluation: We’ve tested a front-drive Compass Limited (which uses a six-speed automatic transmission instead of AWD models’ nine-speed), a stick-shift all-wheel-drive Sport, and a Trailhawk (which wears aggressive off-road tires). This is our first experience with an all-wheel drive, automatic-transmission Compass on street-friendly rubber.
Jeep Doe, Size Compact
As with other Compasses, this Sport behaves anonymously and slots into the very narrow crevice between the (barely) smaller Jeep Renegade and the (barely) larger Cherokee. Naturally, there’s overlap. The Compass’s passenger volume is just two cubic feet less than that of the Cherokee, and cargo space is essentially the same between the two (the Compass actually holds five more cubic feet of stuff with its rear seats folded down than its bigger sibling). Thanks to its more upright cabin, the Compass’s interior feels airier and less cockpit-like than the Cherokee’s, which suffers from a high floor and a relatively low roof, and it’s not nearly as narrow and weirdly high-ceilinged as the Renegade’s.
In spite of its rather substantial 180 horsepower-a competitive number among even full-blown compact SUVs such as the Honda CR-V and the Mazda CX-5-the Compass isn’t quick. Our test car needed 9.3 seconds to reach 60 mph, and for those curious as to what 100 mph feels like, nearly half a minute of wide-open throttle (and its attendant grumbly, whooshing engine noise) is required to get there. The rest of the Compass’s dynamics, controlled via a numb steering rack and a squishy brake pedal, are similarly average for the class, including its longish 184-foot stop from 70 mph and 0.79 g of lateral grip. Our observed fuel economy of 21 mpg comes in below the EPA city estimate of 22, which isn’t a badge of honor.
The nine-speed automatic transmission, in particular, leaves a lot to be desired. It often struggles to choose a gear, leaving you in the lurch while it decides and frustrating further when it ultimately picks the wrong one-usually one that’s too high. Plan ahead when passing, both because the Jeep is slow and because the transmission’s downshifts are even slower.
Accelerating from a stop reveals the drivetrain’s most annoying behavior. The engine’s stop/start feature (which is standard on all-wheel-drive models with the nine-speed) shuts the engine down when stopped at a light then attempts to re-fire the engine while the transmission trips over itself fumbling for first or second gear. This translates into a pregnant pause when, say, you’re pressing the gas trying to make a left-hand turn through a gap in traffic. When the system finally catches up to your request, the engine seemingly fires just as the transmission slams into a gear, bucking the car forward like you’ve been rear-ended. The six-speed automatic in front-drive Compasses provides much smoother take-offs.
The Price Is Not Quite Right
Although the Sport sits at the bottom of the Compass hierarchy, its interior appointments don’t give away its station. Although unexceptional, the cabin’s plastics and cloth pieces are arranged into an inoffensive, quality-looking composition. Even at speed, the Compass is quiet inside, and while the body elicited a few creaks, the suspension largely absorbs bad pavement with little noise or harshness. In spite of the Jeep’s weak grip, its chassis stays relatively flat in hard cornering, giving it a friendly, secure handling disposition. Again, like its size, the Compass’s execution lands somewhere on the better side of subcompact SUVs but merely so-so amongst more refined, larger compacts.
Our test vehicle’s $895 Technology group replaced the standard 5.0-inch Uconnect touchscreen with a larger 7.0-inch unit that features Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, as well as second color display in the gauge cluster. As we’ve come to expect from Uconnect, the Jeep’s touchscreen features thoughtfully arranged menus and is easy to use-and for less than a grand, the big screen is a steal. The climate controls, buried low on the dashboard ahead of the shift lever, are a bit of a reach, but at least their settings can be seen on the touchscreen closer to the driver’s line of sight.
The Compass’s value beyond that Technology package, however, is dubious. The Compass Sport starts at an affordable $22,590, but adding all-wheel drive and the required nine-speed automatic transmission raises the asking price by $3000. Our test car also came equipped with the $845 Cold Weather group (heated front seats, heated leather-wrapped steering wheel, remote start, and more), the $795 Sport Appearance group (black roof rails and 16-inch aluminum wheels in place of steel rims), and a $245 compact spare tire.
That brought our base-model Compass Sport to $28,370, and that’s sans any active-safety features such as collision warning, blind-spot monitoring, or adaptive cruise control. (For basics such as lane-departure warning and blind-spot monitoring, Jeep forces you into the pricier Compass Latitude 4x4, where those features require an additional $1790 in option packages.) A similarly equipped mid-level Mazda CX-5 Touring with all-wheel drive costs $670 less than the optioned-up Latitude and comes with blind-spot monitoring, lane-keeping assist, automated emergency braking, rain-sensing wipers, and more. And that’s to say nothing of it being a 10Best Truck and SUV awardee with performance that shades this Jeep. It’s a similar story with Honda’s CR-V, itself a former 10Bester.
It’s refreshing that Jeep allows a fair amount of à la carte option ordering among all of the Compass’s trim levels, but at near or above $30,000, you have to really want to want a Jeep badge-or need the Trailhawk model’s off-road chops. Neither good nor bad, the tweener Compass simply is. We could give it a medal, but you know what sort it’d be.
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