We already reviewed the 2021 Jeep Compass and determined it was nice, but a bit expensive (watch that review here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VwmO7JSCuEM ). So, does the 2021 Jeep Compass Trailhawk (the one that is 'trail rated' and ready to be taken off road) fare any better? Paul Maric tests out Jeep's off-road small SUV to see if it's any good.
Hardness tester results: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/121Auf6HGvaBqRToYcuAz94alin7Sw55SpOPECBDlnKE
Skip Ahead:
Intro: 00:00
Exterior: 00:59
Interior: 03:26
Infotainment: 04:58
Safety Tech: 06:16
Practicality: 06:42
On-road: 09:54
Off-road: 13:21
Verdict: 15:40
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#jeep #review #compass
Hardness tester results: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/121Auf6HGvaBqRToYcuAz94alin7Sw55SpOPECBDlnKE
Skip Ahead:
Intro: 00:00
Exterior: 00:59
Interior: 03:26
Infotainment: 04:58
Safety Tech: 06:16
Practicality: 06:42
On-road: 09:54
Off-road: 13:21
Verdict: 15:40
We review every new car on the market, bust car myths, cover the latest car tech and answer your burning questions.
Whether you need new car advice, purchase validation or simply love learning more about new cars and technology, we are your car experts.
Subscribe to Car Expert: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7DvMhvy3H7ntEgn9n3xQcQ?sub_confirmation=1
You'll find us dropping new video content three times a week. If you'd like to ask a question about one of our videos, simply leave us a comment. If you'd like to give us any feedback on our content, feel free to email us, or alternatively, hit us up on social media.
Finally, we want this channel to grow with your support and feedback. If there's anything you don't like or would like to see us change, we'd love to hear from you!
Follow us on social media to see what we're up to and to ask any questions!
CarExpert:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CarExpertAus
Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/CarExpertAus
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/carexpert.com.au
Paul Maric:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PaulMaric
Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/PaulMaric
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/PaulMaric
#jeep #review #compass
Category
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MotorTranscript
00:00 G'day, I'm Paul. So the Jeep Compass, I know that we have already reviewed it and concluded that was probably a little bit too expensive,
00:06 but this is the Jeep Compass Trailhawk,
00:09 which is the off-road focus version of the Compass, and it's kind of unique to this segment because there aren't really any other off-road focused
00:16 small SUVs. So I thought we would do a review of this. Because this is the top spec,
00:22 it's priced at just under $50,000, and it competes with things like the Hyundai Kona, the Mazda CX-30, the Toyota CH-R,
00:29 but it's clearly bigger than those, so bridges the gap between those and the medium-sized SUVs.
00:34 Like I said before, it is kind of unique because it's got a whole stack of off-road equipment. Today
00:38 we're going to do a detailed review with a little bit of light off-roading as well to test the trail rated
00:43 credentials. If you do want to skip ahead to other parts of this review,
00:46 you can use the time codes up on the screen there, or if you're on YouTube, just scroll down and use the chapters below.
00:50 And if you haven't done so already,
00:52 I'd love it if you could hit subscribe and press the bell icon so you can find out every single time we drive a
00:57 trail rated car.
00:59 Okay, let's talk exterior. You've got six colors to choose from, and all but red are an additional
01:04 $645. You can tell this is the Trailhawk because of the sticker here on the bonnet.
01:10 You've also got these red hooks, which are common to Trailhawk models, and it also means that it is trail rated,
01:16 which I'll explain in just a second. So, design-wise, I still think this is a pretty good-looking SUV.
01:21 There is an update to this coming. It was just revealed in China,
01:24 and I think we'll be getting that in Australia at some point next year.
01:27 It comes with Jeep's seven-pillar grille and then these recovery hooks. Now, the red obviously is there to show this car off,
01:34 but it also gives you an idea of what you need to hook up to when you do get this stuck, and these are
01:38 rated as well, so you can hook onto that and recover the vehicle without it
01:42 detaching from the car and then severing someone's head.
01:45 You have a radar sensor buried down the bottom there, and then over here, slightly old-school, bison and headlights with LED
01:53 daytime running lights. You also have a fog lamp down the bottom. Jump around to the side.
01:57 Okay, so you've got highway terrain tyres, but they are a little bit chunky for some light off-roading.
02:02 You have 17-inch alloy wheels with a decent profile on the tyre there, too.
02:05 So, keep in mind that these are more for off-road use, which is why they look a little bit different to the standard
02:10 Compass tyres, and the wheels look pretty cool as well.
02:13 You've got the chrome element on the outside and then the darker part on the inside.
02:16 Wheel arch protectors there, so everyone knows that you drive off-road. Now, this is interesting. Trail rated,
02:22 you'll see this on Jeeps, hardcore off-road vehicles. This means that it is capable of doing off-road driving effectively,
02:29 so it has the credentials for higher ground clearance, better wading depth and that kind of thing.
02:33 But trail rated also means that it's been tested at Moab in Utah and also the Rubicon Trail in California.
02:39 So that's where they go to test these cars to give them that trail rating.
02:42 They don't get that sticker until the car passes and they've made the tweaks that are required to it.
02:47 So, that is the history to that. Now, what about the rest of the car?
02:50 You've got these black mirror caps with indicator built in. The red outline on the Compass again indicates that this is
02:56 trail rated and also the Trailhawk model. You have roof rails there. This one has the optional sunroof.
03:01 Privacy glass and then around the rear, another Trailhawk badge. LED elements on the outside of that light.
03:08 Diesel badge down the bottom and then a 4x4 badge. Another recovery hook there. Now, this is a diesel.
03:14 You can't get this with the petrol.
03:15 I have previously tested the Trailhawk with the petrol in the States and it really wasn't very good.
03:19 So, I'll be keen to see whether the diesel actually makes this feel any better behind the wheel.
03:23 It's quicker and more efficient than the petrol. We are inside the Jeep Compass. Let's start with the key. Here it is here.
03:30 So, you have unlock, lock, boot and then remote start.
03:34 So, you can switch this on from a distance to start cooling or heating the car and then two blank buttons down the bottom.
03:40 Then on the backside you have Jeep.
03:42 It's a proximity sensing key and that means you leave that in your pocket.
03:46 Once you're inside the car, you have a little push button start off to the side here and it kicks everything on. Let's talk styling.
03:52 So, I mentioned earlier that there is an update to the Compass coming and it's going to bring a few interior styling changes.
03:57 But for the most part this looks reasonably fine.
03:59 I know that it is getting on in age now, but this still looks modern and a little bit old-school, but modern nevertheless.
04:06 All of the materials they use throughout here are soft to the touch.
04:09 So, it feels a little more premium and it kind of needs to be with the asking price for this car.
04:14 It is worth pointing out as well that in comparison to a standard Compass, you get some of these red highlights.
04:20 So, you can see that there. You get trailhawk on the seats and also the red stitching on the doors.
04:24 So, helps it set itself apart a little more from the rest of the Compass range. Now, what about your touch points?
04:30 So, soft here on the center console and soft on the doors. If you do want to know exactly how soft it is,
04:36 we have tested the main surfaces in this car.
04:38 And if you want to see how it compares to other cars that we've tested, just use the link in the description below.
04:43 Now, what about build quality?
04:45 This thing has been making an annoying noise for a little while.
04:49 Not a huge fan of that, but aside from that, the rest feels pretty good and well screwed together.
04:57 Moving on to infotainment, you get an 8.4-inch Uconnect infotainment system.
05:03 If you want to see a detailed review of this, click up here. We've done a sort of in-depth look at it previously.
05:08 Today, I'll just give you a brief overview.
05:10 Now, this is a really good infotainment system and it is better than what you'll find in other vehicles in this segment.
05:15 And the reason is, it is just really fast. You click a button and it just gets straight to the point.
05:20 There's just no lag. And it's also a really high definition screen. So, you get AM/FM, DAB+ digital radio.
05:27 You also get smartphone mirroring. You need a cable for it, so you get Apple CarPlay and Android Auto.
05:31 What I'll do now is show you what Android Auto looks like. So, full screen integration,
05:35 well, aside from the bottom, which is your shortcut buttons. And it is really fast and really sharp as well.
05:42 Super easy to use. And this is what Apple CarPlay looks like. Another, well, almost full screen integration.
05:47 Very nice and quick.
05:50 Sharp there as well.
05:53 Yeah, really big fan of that. Also, ahead of the driver is another LCD display,
05:57 which has your fuel, engine temperature and also trip computer plus a couple of other functions.
06:02 In terms of audio, you have a six speaker sound system. And then on the connectivity front,
06:06 you have one USB port, one auxiliary outlet and a 12 volt outlet.
06:11 Keep in mind though, when you do have a smartphone connected, you won't be able to charge any other devices.
06:15 In terms of safety tech, you have low and high speed autonomous emergency braking,
06:20 radar cruise control, blind spot monitoring, which is built into that wing mirror,
06:24 lane keeping assistant. You have front and rear parking sensors, a semi-autonomous parking system
06:30 and also a reverse view camera. Let's have a look at the quality of that.
06:33 Look, it's not amazing. It's a tiny bit grainy. It could be a little bit better,
06:37 but you do get guidelines and also an assistant if you are reversing into a trailer.
06:41 Moving on to practicality. We'll start with storage. We'll get rid of this cable.
06:45 Phone, where's it going to live? Well, there's not a great deal of room up the front there,
06:49 especially for a larger phone, but it can live in the cup holders.
06:53 In terms of the cup holders, what about our coffee cup?
06:56 Fits nicely in there. It means you can grab the coffee and not spill it everywhere.
07:00 And then bottle storage is also straightforward. You've actually got some rubber sort of lips on the side there
07:07 that hold the bottle in nicely. And then inside the door pocket, you have room for a bottle plus other bits and pieces.
07:12 It's in a console. The top slides forwards and backwards. It's fairly deep.
07:17 Let's see how much of the bottle you can fit in there.
07:19 You've got some netting down the side there. And then finally a glove box, which fits your bottle very easily.
07:25 Moving on to comfort items, you have dual zone automatic climate control,
07:29 seat heaters for the first row, which are activated here on the screen,
07:33 electric seat adjustment for the driver. The seats themselves are actually quite comfortable.
07:38 So they have a firmer base to them, but they hug you in nicely.
07:41 It's just a good place to be seated. The steering wheel sits nicely in the hand too,
07:45 with a couple of secret controls on the back. And all of these controls are super easy to reach.
07:50 Okay, we're in the back seat of the Compass. Let's have a look at how much room we have here.
07:55 Reasonable amount of knee room. Toe room's a tiny bit cramped.
07:59 And headroom is slightly compromised just because of this panoramic roof.
08:03 Keep in mind though, I do have my driver's seat pretty far back.
08:06 Now, what else have we got here? So, map pockets in two of the seats.
08:10 I like the little red highlight there that says Trailhawk on it.
08:13 You've got air vents and also an actual power outlet, which is really cool, and another USB port.
08:19 Now, you do have a Cinerama ST. You just have to access it by pulling this down,
08:24 and that reveals two cup holders, which will fit your bottle easily, and it gives you access to the boot.
08:29 Then you can also put your bottle in the door, where you have room for one bottle plus a couple of odds and ends.
08:35 It's actually a nice place to be seated, especially with that optional panoramic roof.
08:39 You also have ISOFIX points on the two outboard seats.
08:42 Okay, let's talk cargo space. So, you've got a power tailgate.
08:47 When this opens, you have just under 350 litres of cargo space available.
08:51 It's slightly less than other Compass models because you have a sort of blind type thing here that comes as an accessory,
09:00 but beneath the cargo floor, you have a full-size spare tyre.
09:03 It's not on an alloy wheel. It's on a steel wheel, but that means that this elevates,
09:08 which means you can't move your cargo floor down to the next level, which affords you extra space.
09:13 So, you are limited there in terms of what you have, but for the most part, that's going to do the job.
09:18 You've also got storage off to the sides, hooks on the back here, and interestingly,
09:23 this is where the button is for the boot. Instead of being located up here like it is on most cars,
09:27 it's just on the sidewall here, which is interesting.
09:29 I'll show you what it looks like with our luggage in here. So, laptop bag in there.
09:34 Give that a bit of a tap. There you go. So, that's just going to fit in there. Made a mess of that.
09:41 And then if you do want to expand it even further,
09:44 you have a little over 1,250 litres available if you do drop the second row out of the way,
09:49 which you have to do by leaning over this cargo blind, and there you go, you have a fairly flat load floor.
09:56 We've hit the road in the Jeep Compass Trailhawk.
09:59 So, powering this is a 2-litre turbocharged four-cylinder diesel engine.
10:03 It makes 125 kilowatts of power and 350 new metres of torque.
10:09 That's all mated to a nine-speed automatic transmission,
10:12 and then you have some additional four-wheel drive controls that I'll run through a little later on
10:17 in terms of how you can lock it into four-wheel drive modes,
10:19 but predominantly it's two-wheel drive and then we'll send torque to the rear when required.
10:23 Now, what's this engine like? Well, it's actually not too bad.
10:27 Once you get stuck into it, it pins you back in the seat nicely.
10:30 350 new metres of torque is a decent amount for a car that doesn't weigh that much.
10:35 You've got to remember that this is well under two tonnes,
10:37 so it feels nice and sprightly behind the wheel and the gearbox is responsive enough.
10:41 It's got a nice torque band there that you can lean on without having to run back through all the gears.
10:47 And just on the noise as well, the diesel isn't too noisy either.
10:51 Yeah, if you do get stuck into it, you can hear a little bit,
10:54 but it's not a thrashy sounding diesel, which is good news.
10:57 The official 0-100 time is 9.7 seconds.
11:01 Let's see how it goes against the stopwatch.
11:03 [engine noise]
11:15 The official fuel economy figure comes in at 5.7 litres per 100km, which is pretty efficient.
11:22 Let's see what we're sitting on at the moment.
11:25 7.7, so near enough to that figure, and I think over a long-term average,
11:30 this is over about 1,000km. That's the figure you'll be expecting
11:33 if you're doing a lot of city driving and then the occasional highway run.
11:36 OK, let's talk about ride. It's actually really good.
11:39 So despite the fact that this is focused for off-road, they've been able to tune in a lot of compliance.
11:45 So out here on the country road where it's fairly choppy, especially as the speeds increase,
11:50 it just feels nice and comfortable and, I don't know, it's really hard to complain.
11:54 It's a pretty impressive setup for long-distance touring.
11:57 Righto, let's talk handling.
11:58 Yes, I know, SUV, it's not going to be amazing, and with the off-road tyres,
12:04 look, it's OK. The steering feel is good.
12:08 Where it lacks a little bit is when you try and get stuck into it out of a corner,
12:11 the gearbox can take a little bit of time to respond, but you can shift gears manually
12:15 using the gear shifter, and that will just leave it in the sweet spot,
12:18 so you can actually just hit the throttle and get the torque that you need.
12:22 Now, despite the fact as well that this uses off-road-focused tyres,
12:25 there isn't a huge amount of road noise coming into the cabin.
12:28 You can hear a little bit when you're driving above 80km/h,
12:31 especially on a course-chip road, but for the most part, it's fairly quiet and subdued.
12:36 Let's talk visibility. So, looking out the front there, I can clearly see down the front of the car.
12:40 You can actually catch some of the reflections of that black highlight on the bonnet too.
12:45 Visibility out the rear is OK. The envelope is slightly narrow,
12:49 and those headrests get in the way a little bit, but it's not too bad.
12:52 The wing mirrors have the blind spot monitoring built into them.
12:55 They could be a little bit bigger, but with the blind spot monitoring,
12:58 at least that's going to help you spot anything down the sides of the car.
13:01 Now, what about the turning circle? 10.76m.
13:05 That's actually not terrible for a small SUV.
13:09 Normally, when they're all-wheel drive, they require a little bit more to turn around,
13:13 especially with off-road components, so that's going to mean you don't need to do
13:16 a litany of three-point turns all the time.
13:20 OK, so let's do a little bit of light off-roading here,
13:23 but I'll run you through the specs first. So, you have 480mm of wading depth.
13:28 You have 225mm of ground clearance, which is pretty reasonable for this segment.
13:33 You also have a 30.3 degree approach angle.
13:36 That's the angle of the face you can approach before you hit the front of the car.
13:39 And then a 33.6 degree departure angle, which is the same, but in reverse.
13:43 Now, if you do need a little brush-up on what all that means, click up here
13:46 to watch our four-wheel drive controls explained video.
13:49 Down here, also, you have different four-wheel drive modes to choose from.
13:52 You have Auto, Snow, Sand, Mud and Rock, and they all vary stability control
13:56 and what those systems do in the background.
13:58 You have a hill descent control, a four-wheel drive lock button,
14:00 which permanently engages torque to both axles,
14:03 and then a four-wheel drive low button, but it's not a low-range transfer case.
14:07 It is simply a button that holds first gear and does some fancy Jeep stuff.
14:11 It's not actually a proper low-range transfer case.
14:14 So, let's go up Log Mountain.
14:16 So, for this instance, I'm going to put it into that four-wheel drive low setting.
14:20 It disables traction control and the forward collision warning.
14:23 Let's see how it goes.
14:25 This is all nice and dry at the moment, so it shouldn't be too hard to get up here.
14:29 But let's see what happens.
14:32 OK.
14:35 Yeah, look, that's fine.
14:36 A tiny bit of wheel slip there, but this diesel has plenty of punch
14:40 in this four-wheel drive low mode.
14:42 I'm going to be holding the first gear of that transmission.
14:45 About too many dramas.
14:47 Excellent, that was all good.
14:48 OK, let's go down our rocks.
14:51 Hopefully, these don't destroy the underbody of the car.
14:54 I'm not loving that brake pedal.
14:58 It kind of, it's quite firm, so it feels like the car is running away from you.
15:04 A little tap there.
15:07 Yeah, I think I would like a little bit more feel through there,
15:10 because you kind of panic a little bit and then slam the brake pedal down
15:14 because you're worried about the car disappearing away from you.
15:18 But aside from that, it's doing a good job.
15:20 Here, another tap there.
15:24 OK.
15:26 This actually feels OK.
15:27 Let's try popping our hill descent control on as well.
15:29 Let go of the brake.
15:33 That's pretty good.
15:34 It's controlling our descent easily.
15:37 That's good.
15:38 That's definitely not a bad system.
15:40 OK, so the Jeep Compass.
15:41 The last time we drove this, I concluded that it's too expensive for what it is,
15:45 and you're better off looking at some of the competitors.
15:47 But this time around, it's a different story.
15:49 If you are an adventurer, if you do like doing off-road driving,
15:53 I think the Trailhawk actually makes a whole lot of sense.
15:55 It's quite capable off-road.
15:57 It has a diesel engine that's really efficient and fairly punchy as well.
16:01 And I don't think you'll be able to find a competitor in this segment that's going to match
16:04 what it can do off the beaten track, and then it's reasonably compliant on-road as well.
16:08 So, ticks all of those boxes.
16:09 The tech is pretty decent.
16:11 The room inside is not too bad.
16:13 So, now, let me know what you think in the comments section below.
16:15 Did you buy a Compass?
16:17 Have you been trail-racing, trailhawking, whatever you want to call it?
16:20 Let me know in the comments section below what you think about it and how it's all going.
16:24 Now, if you did enjoy this video, make sure you hit like.
16:26 Also, subscribe and press the bell icon, because that's going to tell you every single time we drive something new.
16:31 But until next time, take it easy.