Jeep Compass: Problem child that leaves you smiling always

Jeep Compass has been in India for close to a decade now and even has received some updates over time. We take a look at one which has been in a family garage for the past 5 years.

New Delhi: In its fifth year as the family’s long-term stallion, I decided to look at the Jeep Compass from my garage as a tool. When we bought the SUV, I am sure there was a bit of a divide in every circle I was part of. There was a lot of reverence for the car in terms of its mechanics, but the general opinion was to buy something from Tata, Hyundai, Kia, Mahindra and MG. 

In all fairness, we had actually looked at the other options, and to be honest, I did like the MG Hector as well as the Hyundai Creta. After five years, I think I can answer that despite everything, the Compass was the best decision of the lot. Plus, it was also a chance to have a bit of a rematch with an old friend. 

I do know this car, driving it on the asphalt runner’s dream paradise that we call Punjab, traversing between lush green fields. Jeep feels at home in the off-road world, and even though you want to be careful and have reverence, an odd splash in the mud and pacing through washboard does put a smile across your face.

Compass stands upright and is quick off the mark as well

At the outset, I would say that as its owner, my experience has seen both the ups and downs, and the after-sales experience has given me a lot of issues over the years. In fact, my first thought with Stellantis ownership remains: what is the matter with them? From time to time, service centres have been tricky to find and even trickier was finding a good one. I’ll talk about some of these problems later.

Where Compass would stand with modern SUVs

Last year, I stepped out of quite a few SUVs and a lot of them are quite fresh to speak about. The Tata Sierra had impressed as it was the brand’s foot to date. We had driven the Harrier EV, which was fine as a car, but we faced a few issues back then. The Harrier Petrol and Safari Petrol were fine additions, but I would have liked them with a bigger engine. 

After 20 hours of........

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