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-   -   India-bound Jeep 7-seater SUV, named Meridian (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/indian-car-scene/210746-india-bound-jeep-7-seater-suv-named-meridian-31.html)

What @t2k4 has stated seems to be true, I was searching across Wiki and it Jeep Meridian will not get a 200 horse power engine.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeep_Commander_(2022)

The trunk volume of the Commander is 661 liters with the 5 seats up, 233 liters with the 7 seats in use or 1,760 liters when the second and third row seats are fully folded down.

In Brazil, it is available with a 1.3-litre turboflex petrol engine marketed as "T270" which produces 185 PS (182 hp; 136 kW) and 27.5 kg⋅m (270 N⋅m; 199 lb⋅ft), which is only optioned with front-wheel drive and 6-speed automatic transmission. A 2.0-litre turbodiesel engine marketed as "TD380" is available, and produces 170 PS (168 hp; 125 kW) and 38.7 kg⋅m (380 N⋅m; 280 lb⋅ft) with all-wheel drive and a 9-speed automatic transmission as standard.

Now the YouTube reviews do not talk about the Engine being slow or sluggish but I am wondering who would be pushing such a long vehicle.

Now on this website - https://commander.jeep.com.br/monte.html, the price for the following variant - COMMANDER LIMITED TD380 4X4 TURBO DIESEL AUTOMATIC was coming out to be - 267,209 Real (Brazilian currency), which converts to 4280025 INR. Can Jeep charge such a premium, we know that they do for Jeep Compass.

It appears to be a Compass stretched out to make a 7 seater. Doesn't excite and I feel its performance will be subpar. From GTO's review of the Compass, it seems the Meridian might be suited for even more sedate driving. Think it will be able to compete against the Crysta? No way considering the price difference. So I am confused, who is the buyer profile? Let's hope FCA is not that foolish.

Why would Jeep in any realm want to compete with the Crysta (A vehicle that should be nervously looking over its shoulder because of the Kia Carens)

The Kia Carens? You are joking, right? The Carens, a FWD also-ran wannabe - what on earth does the Crysta have to worry about, when it has been setting the gold standard in the segment with RWD and body-on-chassis structure, for the past decade and more. The Indian buyer has turned into a savvy VFM hunter. And the Carens & Carnivals have to pull up their socks in the core hardware areas, rather than offering the candy-floss bells and whistles.

I think you're giving the Indian buyer too much credit. RWD and body-on-chassis structure don't matter when you've got a cheaper option, with more features that can seat 6/7 in more comfort.

RWD and body-on-frame are not necessarily positive attributes for an MPV. They may be positive for go-anywhere true-blue SUVs, but for someone who primarily uses the car in the urban pot-holed settings, it is actually not a positive. My Father-in-law has an Innova Crysta (and my wide had the first gen Innova before that), so I am used to traveling in these for over 15 years now. The vehicle rocks and rolls so much that the passenger at the rear is thrown about in all directions. There is the side-to-side shake when the vehicle turns direction even slightly. Then there is a massive amount of up and down movement as the vehicle rides over potholes and speed bumps. Finally, there is the completely unwanted front-to-back movement (not seen in most other cars), since the vehicle is very short-geared and has high low-end torque (making it slow down and speed up speed up rapidly) every time the driver takes the foot off the accelerator to slow down and pick pace back up, for a crossing pedestrian or other vehicles. I feel the most uncomfortable in an Innova among all the vehicles in the extended family circle (A Fiat Punto, a Honda Amaze, A Toyota Camry, a New Mahindra Thar, Ecosport (now sold), Honda CRV (now sold), and a couple of luxury cars. - Especially on days when my back is not at its best.

TVC of Jeep Meridian

https://youtu.be/gJK91RLj3no

Another one.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2s3Tj6hRTk4

The root of the discussion in this thread is that the Meridian is going to get just 170bhp power/350NM torque for its 35 to 40 lakh expected price.
This situation is similar to how Honda launched the grossly underpowered diesel CRV at 40 lakhs and expected Indian buyers to lap it up.

End of the day, nobody wants an under-powered or mundane power experience after shelling out 35 to 40 big ones.

Give the Meridian 200bhp and 450 to 500Nm torque at the above price point and it will be a runaway success and it will stop getting compared the likes of Crysta.

The biggest Achilles heel for the Meridian will not be its power or torque figures. It will be After Sales Service. If you guys think Skoda is bad, buy a Jeep. In my case, the dealer was good, at times great, but the sheer apathy shown by FCA reeks of arrogance. There is ZERO support from the OEM. Good luck to those plonking 40 lakhs plus on this.

Do not agree with most of the expert comments here. The 2 liter 170 BHP engine is very competent and powerful enough for the Compass and I think will be the same for the ~100 kg extra Meridian (still considerably lighter than the Fortuner). Yes the auto box is not tuned for performance but in manual guise, the Compass is one of the most fun diesel SUVs around.:)

FCA would do themselves a great favor if they gave a sports mode and paddles but guess that is not happening. Even then, for those who are passing judgement looking at figures on paper, suggest try taking a test drive of the manual Compass. For all others, will suggest we wait for a test drive before writing it off.:thumbs up

In my opinion, this is the only real competition we may have to the Fortuner.

I concur. I don't understand the hate: are people trying to drag race with their SUVs that they need ultra slick shifts?

Being an existing Compass Diesel manual owner I would concur that it is not underpowered at all. It is pretty fun to drive in the Bs4 version in my Compass and also very tractable even in Bs6 guise in my Hector Plus (which we bought recently). This engine still continues to be one of the last good diesel engines that one can get in manual guise. However the auto version is not that great as it is let down by the Zf geabox it is mated to
In comparison it performs way better in the Harrier At when mated to the Hyundai 6 speed gearbox.
The Hector plus that we have also weighs in close to 1730kg of kerb weight and I find it more than sufficient in performance. The Meridian is also likely to be around that weight so performance will not be a challenge as low end torque is good. For an SUV, that is what matters - high rpm power will never be used unless people drive like crazy.
So I would suggest that people do wait for the car and test drive it before dismissing it!
Pricing will be key however and they need to price it at Max 1.5 lacs over the Compass - that will be the sweet spot to maximise sales.

Also on the service aspect, my Compass is now 4 years 7 months old now and apart from battery in 2 years, nothing has failed (fingers crossed) and Only expense has been on regular service (once a year, around 15k) and tyre replacement which I got done recently to Yoko E-400 in stock size. Also I am happy to share that in today's age of skyrocketing fuel prices I am getting a mileage of 16.3 kmpl in mixed use (50:50 city /highway) and this is across the 8500km I have driven in the past 6 months of my office commute daily from Gurgaon to Noida and back.

For everyone expecting the price of Meridian to be close to Compass, here is a bit of info.
The SA I have been interacting with, very confidently mentioned the price to be in 45+ range (he was calling regarding unofficial pre-bookings). I did not have the heart to enquire if he was quoting ex showroom or OTR.

Got to be OTR. Even then, that's serious Fortuner territory. Depends on what they are trying to do - from a sales strategy standpoint.
Jeep better acknowledge that from a reliability, niggle-free product, after-sales service and resale value standpoint, it is really no competition for the big Toyota. They better factor that in - while pricing.

With the 170 bhp engine (in the same tune as compass), a third row best suited for kids only (based on Brazilian Commander videos) and a 4X2 Manual version option, I would only hope that Jeep is planning on entry level Meridian variants to start WAAAy below the Fortuner - I'd say a 1.5 lac ex-showroom premium over a similar-spec Compass sounds reasonable.

Anything more - and Jeep would be over-pricing over its already somewhat over-priced Compass. Only niche buyers, diehard Jeep fans then.