My Jeep Compass 4x4 D AT: 8 key observations after initial 2000 kms

Fuel efficiency is not that great. I am sitting at 14kpl overall mostly long distances. I do not think it can do better than this in the typical Kerala traffic conditions.

BHPian alphahere recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

I have received my Compass 4x4 Model S in Brilliant White and have been driving it helter skelter for the last one week. I have crossed 2000km as of yesterday and I must say it has been everything I expected.

Since all of us here do understand the plus points I will not go in detail. I'm sure there will be more interest to know the negative points, so here goes:

The engine transmission combo feels lethargic during normal driving. I do think this is not a hardware limitation. It seems just the way the throttle has been calibrated. They need to update the throttle mapping to provide a more snappy response and quicker shift decision. The way it feels now it is like driving a 5 ton vehicle with really slow acceleration when you need it. That is in the normal driving cycle. A drag from standstill sees the 80 warning and then the ton come up quite quickly though. So the engine is quite potent.

Fuel efficiency is not that great. I am sitting at 14kpl overall mostly long distances. I do not think it can do better than this in the typical Kerala traffic conditions. The torque converter locks up very late if it does at all. And there is noticeable elastic effect where the engine revvs but the speed catches up later. Surely not good for the FE.

On flat roads, lift off the throttle and it coasts freely. Even touching or applying the brakes will not engage the engine braking. This will surely eat up the brake pads quickly. I just hope they will last at least 15k kms when the first service is due. Other side of this is that on downgrades it senses the incline and engages the engine braking.

Quality issues galore. There are certain squeaks coming from plastic parts like the touchscreen and steering console randomly. No rattles till date but creaky squeaks. Then there are the stalks. They have some play in them. The steering wheel has some sharp molding lines exposed for which I had to take a shaving blade and slice them off. The cover for the rain sensor on the windshield seems flimsy. The outside door handles also have some fore aft play in them. There are areas where the paint job is shoddy. Thankfully in my case they are all hidden beneath the bonnet near the hinges or behind the fuel filler cap. Not expected at this price point.

In the typical Chrysler style no filling fuel past the auto cut off. Any extra fuel filled drains out on the ground from an outlet below the wheel arch. I knew this earlier from a US experience and tried it on my first full tank on the Compass. Confirmed.

The seats can feel hard over long distances. The passengers complained of the same issue as well. This might vary from person to person.

The auto start stop is a bit quirky. Sometimes it waits for a few seconds to kick in. By the time it kicks in the traffic is already moving and the engine fires back up with a hard recoil on the steering wheel if we had begun to turn it. The kick is strong enough to dislocate a wrist bone. Unfortunately there is no straightforward way to permanently disable the start stop. I plan to try out something like AlfaOBD or something like that after a bit if research. I could change the auto start stop default to Off on my X1 using Bimmercode. Hoping for something similar for the Jeep as well.

The rear tailgate open height cannot be adjusted. For those having a low garage ceiling please be careful. If opened by mistake just press the button again and it will close without opening fully. Or it can be stopped with the hand and it will go back down.

These are what I have observed in a week. Now fingers crossed on the reliability aspect.

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