Compact Suv Contender

Newcastle Herald

Saturday March 17, 2007

writes Brent Davison

ANYONE who thought the compact SUV segment was an easy place for a car maker to kick back should think again.

In the last decade this once underpopulated class has become a major sales battlefield for the likes of Hyundai, Mazda, Honda, Nissan, Mitsubishi and Toyota.

Now another manufacturer has jumped in at the deep end of the sub-$50,000 class with four-wheel-drive specialist Jeep demanding attention at the expense of RAV4, CR-V and others.

Jeep's effort? It's called Compass and shows what happens when you blend some good, old-fashioned American know-how with European packaging. It is Jeep's first truly compact SUV.

How compact? Relatively trim 236 mm shorter and 109 mm lower than Mitsubishi's Outlander and on a 36 mm shorter wheelbase to boot. Weighing between 1460 and 1540 kilograms (depending on specification) it is also around 60 to 90 kilograms lighter than Outlander.

Compact on the outside, compact under the bonnet as well, where Jeep's traditional six and eight-cylinder engines have been overlooked in favour of two four-cylinder choices a 2.4 litre petrol unit and a 2.0 litre Volkswagen-sourced turbo-diesel.

The petrol power plant has full variable valve timing and that helps it to 125 kilowatts at 6000 rpm and 220 Newton metres of torque at 4500 rpm. The diesel, by comparison, with its alloy cylinder head, twin overhead camshafts, four valves per cylinder, direct fuel-injection and a variable geometry turbocharger, makes a modest 103 kilowatts at 4000 rpm and a massive 310 Newton metres of torque at 1750 rpm.

Standard transmission is a six-speed manual; a continuously variable automatic comes in as a $2000 option for the petrol engine. There is no automatic option for the diesel, mainly because of the prodigious torque.

Expect two model levels, starting with the Sport and moving up to the Limited. Both will be sold with petrol and diesel engines.

Compass is also the first Jeep to run with the company's new Freedom Drive an all-wheel-drive system which, like quite a few in the compact class, holds the car mostly to front-wheel-drive, switching to all-wheel-drive automatically when extra traction is needed.

Standard features include fully-independent suspension, front and side airbags, an electronic roll mitigation system, anti-lock brakes with rough road detection electronics, traction control and, on Sport, 17-inch alloy wheels. Limited has 18-inch alloys.

PRICES

Compass Sport

2.4 litre petrol manual ............. $32,490

2.4 litre petrol automatic.......... $34,490

2.0 litre diesel manual............. $36,490

Compass Limited

2.4 litre petrol manual ............. $36,490

2.4 litre petrol automatic.......... $38,490

2.0 litre diesel manual............. $40,490

© 2007 Newcastle Herald

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