The 2021 Jeep Compass sits in a strange place in the market. It's larger than a lot of its direct competitors, but smaller than some vehicles in the class above. The new Compass is miles ahead of the previous generation, but does that make it a new SUV worth considering? Paul Maric finds out!
Hardness tester results: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/121Auf6HGvaBqRToYcuAz94alin7Sw55SpOPECBDlnKE
Skip Ahead:
Intro: 00:00
Exterior: 00:54
Interior: 03:08
Infotainment: 04:17
Features: 07:34
Practicality: 07:54
On the Road: 10:33
Verdict: 13:16
We review every new car on the market, bust car myths, cover the latest car tech and answer your burning questions.
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#jeep #review #compass @Jeep Australia
Hardness tester results: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/121Auf6HGvaBqRToYcuAz94alin7Sw55SpOPECBDlnKE
Skip Ahead:
Intro: 00:00
Exterior: 00:54
Interior: 03:08
Infotainment: 04:17
Features: 07:34
Practicality: 07:54
On the Road: 10:33
Verdict: 13:16
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:
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Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/PaulMaric
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/PaulMaric
#jeep #review #compass @Jeep Australia
Category
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MotorTranscript
00:00 G'day, I'm Paul. Most of you know the Jeep Grand Cherokee, but one car that you're probably not all that familiar with is the Jeep Compass.
00:07 They don't sell a great deal of them in Australia. So today we want to figure out whether this thing is any good.
00:11 This is the Jeep Compass S
00:13 Limited, so it's one down from the top spec. The top spec is like an off-road focused version called the Trailhawk, so this is more
00:20 your executive type. It's priced at just under
00:23 $46,000 and it competes with cars like the Hyundai Kona, Mazda CX-30, Toyota CH-R,
00:29 I don't know, it kind of competes with them.
00:31 It's in its own little niche-y sort of segment because it's quite big for its size,
00:35 but not quite as big as the next segment up. Today
00:37 we're going to do a detailed review. If you do want to skip ahead to other parts of this review,
00:41 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.
00:45 If you haven't done so already, I'd love it if you could hit subscribe and also the bell icon.
00:49 It's going to tell you every single time we get our bearings and drive a Compass.
00:54 Let's talk exterior. You've got four colors to choose from and all but randomly red is
00:59 $645 extra. So the Compass is all about that sort of nice SUV look, but inherently it's a Jeep,
01:06 which means you've got these pillars along the front here. They're the same in all Jeeps.
01:10 You've got the seven pillar design there and this kind of signifies that it is capable off-road.
01:15 Strangely though, that's all completely blocked out.
01:18 So I think it's there just as a design cue. Black Jeep lettering and then the colors are offset there with a little bit of
01:23 piano black in the center and then a little hole in there to get some air through to the engine. So look, cohesively
01:29 I think it is a pretty nice design.
01:31 This car is inoffensive in terms of the way that it looks and then the Trailhawk version has all these tow hooks and stuff sticking
01:37 out. Kind of gives you the idea that you're an off-road master. Now in terms of headlights, you've got Bi-Xenon headlights.
01:43 This is fairly old technology.
01:45 This is one of the few cars left on the market today with Bi-Xenon instead of LED or halogen. Now down here,
01:50 this looks like an LED daytime running light, but it only comes on when the headlight's on.
01:54 The actual running light is down here and it's a halogen type.
01:58 You do have fog lights down the bottom as well. Jump around to the side. Around here
02:02 you've got 19 inch alloy wheels and a fairly low profile tire. That's a 45 profile.
02:07 So I'll be interested to see how this rides, whether it is firm or whether it is nice and relaxed.
02:13 Normally with these American cars, they tend to be quite soft. So hopefully that carries over here.
02:17 I like the design of these wheels. They look really cool.
02:19 And then you have this trademark Jeep design. It's like a squared off rhombus. Is that shape?
02:25 I don't know.
02:26 Let me know in the comments below. And then this section here, which is kind of iconic to Jeep as well because those plastic wheel
02:32 arches again signify that this is an off-road car. Around the side here, compass badging.
02:38 You have an indicator built into the wing mirror.
02:40 I like the black offset here with the roof leading to that panoramic glass roof.
02:45 Strange plastic roof rails here instead of like a brushed aluminium type thing. Privacy glass. And then come around to the rear.
02:52 You've got more black highlights here with another black Jeep badge.
02:55 You have the S for S Limited and then LED taillights. It's a pretty cool design there how they've integrated that in.
03:01 So let me know in the comments below. Do you like the design? I think it looks nice.
03:05 It's not sort of too outrageous and it looks classy enough. We're inside the compass now. We'll start off with the key.
03:11 This is what it looks like. Unlock, lock, boot release and then a few blank buttons and then around the back we have Jeep just there.
03:19 It's a proximity sensing key.
03:20 So you just leave that in your pocket, grab the door handle and then you have around this side a push-button start.
03:25 Okay, so in terms of styling, this is starting to feel a little bit dated now. When this car was first released, this kind of
03:31 looked modern and it was good, but it's starting to feel its age now.
03:35 This hasn't really seen too much of an update.
03:36 But outside of the styling, it is all soft touch and it feels robust. Kind of has that off-roader feel to it.
03:43 And I think this looks like it's going to stand the test of time. It's just stuff like this that looks a tiny bit cheap,
03:48 I reckon. Now, what about the touch points? That is nice as well. And then you have soft touch on the doors as well.
03:54 So that's all good. But how soft is it?
03:57 Well, we've got our durometer here which tests from 0 to 100 and we've tested all the surfaces around this car.
04:02 And if you want to see how this compares to other cars, you can use the link in the description below.
04:07 And what about build quality?
04:09 Doesn't feel great. You can see there that is moving the entire center section of the car. Not amazing, I don't think.
04:17 Let's talk infotainment. This is Jeep's Uconnect infotainment system.
04:22 It's an 8.4-inch screen and while this car may have some of its shortcomings,
04:26 this infotainment system really is quite impressive in terms of the speed, the functionality and the features
04:32 that are jam-packed into it. So today, I'm going to give you a detailed review of Jeep's Uconnect infotainment system
04:37 so you can learn about it a little bit more and we can go through all the features.
04:39 So starting off here, we have shortcut buttons all down the bottom.
04:43 And then you can control your climate in here as well or you have climate controls further down. In terms of radio,
04:49 you have AM/FM/DAB+ digital radio. So that's fully featured. If we jump over to media,
04:54 this is where you're able to stream through your phone, through Bluetooth connection or through auxiliary or USB connections attached to the car.
05:01 If we jump over to the climate menu just for completedness,
05:04 you can operate your seat heating functions here.
05:07 And then when you do switch the climate on, all of the controls come here and the ability to sync,
05:12 move temperatures up and down and also select different zones as well. In terms of apps,
05:16 you have all of your smartphone connectivity accessed through this screen.
05:20 So this is what Apple CarPlay looks like. Really impressive setup. It is very high resolution.
05:25 And while it isn't full screen,
05:26 it takes up pretty much all of the screen that it needs to and that integration looks really good.
05:31 I'll show you what Android Auto looks like. Another integration similar in size to Apple CarPlay.
05:36 Also super high resolution. If we go into the maps there, it all seems to work really nicely as well.
05:41 So it's good that you have the flexibility of both Android and Apple devices there. And in terms of other apps in the apps menu,
05:47 there really isn't much else there. This is just a shortcut to access other parts of the car.
05:52 If we jump over to controls, this simply takes us back to the menu item related to climate, which is our heated seats.
05:58 Now what I love here, it has inbuilt satellite navigation. If we go to the map here,
06:02 you can see that it is quite a fast and responsive map. But my favorite feature is I can configure
06:08 what the icon looks like. So I can go through here and select different things such as other Jeep products.
06:15 You go for a Wrangler and if we go back to the map menu, there's our little Wrangler there.
06:19 Let's see how quick it is. We'll try and enter a new destination. We'll put in our go-to which is Melbourne Airport.
06:25 It's super fast for typing, you know, I like that.
06:28 Airports.
06:31 Search.
06:33 Yeah, look that's not too bad. It had a little bit of lag there.
06:36 But once it comes up, it gives us all of the options that we need. So that is all good.
06:40 All of this is also backed up by a voice recognition system.
06:42 So one push of this on the steering wheel brings up the native voice recognition.
06:46 And then if you do have a smartphone paired using a wired Apple CarPlay or Android Auto
06:51 interface, it will then send the voice commands through that which are generally more accurate because they're using the cloud.
06:56 Moving on from that screen, ahead of the driver is another color LCD display.
07:00 You control that using the steering wheel controls and you can see here
07:03 there are a number of menus to go through including setup for the car and also display.
07:08 And then you can also switch randomly the speedometer from kilometers an hour to miles per hour.
07:13 Kind of redundant for us.
07:14 And then you have a whole stack of trip computer information along with vehicle
07:18 information too. And then on top of that if you do change drive modes,
07:21 you'll see the screen ahead of the driver change as well as you flick through them. In terms of speakers,
07:26 there's a nine speaker Beats branded sound system. And in terms of connectivity, you have a USB port, an auxiliary outlet and a 12-volt.
07:33 Let's talk safety technology. You'll find AEB, autonomous emergency braking that works at low and high speeds fitted as standard.
07:40 You get blind spot monitoring built into the wing mirror, radar cruise control.
07:44 I'm keen to see what the reverse camera looks like.
07:47 Okay, so it takes up the whole screen, but the quality isn't amazing.
07:51 It's quite grainy there, but you do get front and rear parking sensors. Moving on to storage.
07:55 Where are you gonna put your phone? So it easily fits down here.
07:58 It's like this random little slot here for stuff, but it doesn't really fit too much.
08:03 I guess you could pop your phone down there if you wanted to. In terms of bottle storage,
08:06 easily fits in there and there's these rubber tabs to keep your bottle secure in the door as well.
08:12 You've got bottle storage, center console, reasonably deep.
08:16 Show you what it looks like with the bottle in there. Gives you an idea of how deep it is. Glovebox as well.
08:21 That's pretty decent size. Bottle easily fits into there, but there is a secret mighty hole. Watch this.
08:26 Look, you have stacks of space down there.
08:30 A bottle and other bits and pieces that you won't be able to see from outside.
08:34 Okay, moving on to comfort. You have dual zone climate control, heated seats for the first row.
08:40 Speaking of seats, electric seat adjustment
08:43 for the driver's seat only.
08:45 It's quite fun doing that. And then the seats themselves are leather with Jeep insignia there. Perforations. And in terms of comfort,
08:54 yeah, they actually feel really nice. They hug you in nicely and
08:57 yeah, everything's nice and easy to reach as well. So a big tick on the comfort side.
09:02 Okay, we're in the second row of the Compass. Even with my driver's seat pretty far back,
09:07 I've got a decent amount of knee room. Toe room's okay.
09:11 Headroom isn't fantastic. I think if you're any taller than me, you're going to be brushing up against that.
09:16 But in terms of fun bits around here, you've got map pockets in the back of the seats.
09:20 Randomly, you have a power outlet. So a 230 volt outlet there.
09:24 It's going to come in handy if you've got laptops and other bits and pieces.
09:26 Another USB port, air vents. And then over here, you have the world's biggest
09:31 center armrest that gives you access to the boot. And then two cup holders.
09:35 So that slides in nicely. And this has rubber teeth in there as well.
09:39 Move these out of the way. And then inside the doors, you also have bottle storage.
09:44 ISOFIX points on the two outboard seats. And this cool-looking panoramic sunroof,
09:49 which makes long drives all the more easier. Let's talk cargo capacity. It is a powered tailgate. So one push of this
09:56 brings it open. It's a little bit slow, but it'll get there.
10:00 You've got 438 litres of cargo space available here. And you can see they've got this rubber floor mat here.
10:05 But beneath that, you have a full-size spare wheel. It is a steel wheel.
10:09 Not as good as an alloy, but better than a space saver. With storage on either side.
10:13 Let's see how it fits with our bags.
10:16 So look, it is a decent sized boot with a little light over there. A Beats subwoofer back here, too.
10:22 But if you do want to fold the second row, you just reach over and
10:25 push them out of the way.
10:28 And it creates pretty much a flat floor.
10:33 So we've hit the road in the Compass, and powering this is a 2.4 litre
10:38 naturally aspirated petrol engine. It makes 129 kilowatts of power and
10:42 229 newton meters of torque. And all of that's mated to a 9-speed automatic transmission.
10:49 Now, I know what you're thinking. A naturally aspirated petrol engine in a car this size. Let's give it a punch and see how it goes.
10:55 Look, it's
11:01 not giving me a back massage with that much torque, but it is reasonable.
11:05 I was actually expecting it to be far worse than it is. So it's reasonable, but not amazing. Okay, how quick is it?
11:11 Well, Jeep claims 10.1 seconds 0-100. Let's see if we can match that.
11:18 It is fairly leisurely, isn't it?
11:20 And quite noisy inside the cabin when you get up it as well.
11:23 That engine is really sort of singing into here. So that all results in a claimed fuel economy of
11:29 9.7 litres per 100 kilometres. Let's have a look at how we're doing at the moment. Not great.
11:34 We're at about 10.4 litres per 100 kilometres.
11:37 So that's a pretty good result.
11:39 So, let's see how it goes.
11:41 9.7 litres per 100 kilometres. Let's have a look at how we're doing at the moment. Not great.
11:47 We're actually seeing 14.4 litres per 100 kilometres, which is a fair chunk of fuel for a car this size.
11:53 Remember that it weighs just 1,500 kilos.
11:55 So it's not like it's this big lumbering mass and we have been doing mainly highway driving.
12:00 So it is surprising to see a figure that high. Okay, what about the ride? Look, it's not offensive.
12:05 It's midway between sporty and comfortable.
12:07 It's not overly soft or not overly firm. We're out on a pretty choppy country road at the moment and it's sort of
12:13 handling things fairly well. In and around the city, it could be a little bit better.
12:17 It can be firm over speed humps and cobblestones, but really can't complain out here.
12:22 Now, what about off-roading? You aren't going to be doing a great deal of off-roading in this.
12:26 You'll go the Trailhawk if you want that, but you do get 212 millimetres of ground clearance plus this off-road selector.
12:32 So you have the ability to lock it into a four-wheel drive mode, which locks a centre differential.
12:36 But you can also switch between snow, sand and mud mode.
12:40 So that's going to change the stability control and make this a little better when it comes to tackling those conditions.
12:46 Okay, let's talk about steering feel. You feel what's going on through the wheel. It's not overly communicative, but it is an SUV.
12:52 So you don't expect it to be a sports car and for that part, it does a good job.
12:56 And then on visibility, I can see clearly out the front there, out the back visibility is pretty good.
13:01 It is a narrow envelope and I can see the edge of those seats, but for the most part, that's fine.
13:05 And what about cabin noise? It's a pretty quiet environment.
13:09 There is a little bit of tyre noise when you get up to highway speeds, but for the most part, it really isn't too noisy or obtrusive in here.
13:16 Righto, the Jeep Compass.
13:18 They don't really sell that many of these and there's kind of a reason for that. It's pretty expensive for what it is.
13:23 Yes, it does come with a lot of features, but the rest of the class is getting better and better as they go.
13:28 And this car really hasn't improved a great deal over the years.
13:31 The engine as well is a bit of a letdown. It's not very punchy and it's quite thirsty.
13:35 So if you do have your heart set on this, I'd probably go one rung above and go for the Trailhawk because that comes with the better diesel engine.
13:42 It's also just better as a purchase proposition because it is off-road capable and it kind of fits the bill of that badge right there.
13:49 Whereas this straddles the line between not being very luxurious, not being very powerful.
13:54 And yes, you do have the Jeep badge, but you're not really going to go off-road.
13:56 So let me know in the comments section below, have you bought one of these?
13:59 What's it like to live with? Or if you were looking at this, what did you buy instead?
14:04 I'm keen to get your feedback.
14:05 If you did enjoy this video, hit the like button.
14:07 Also press subscribe and the bell icon as well. I'd love you to do that.
14:11 That's going to tell you every single time we publish something new.
14:13 But until next time, drive safely.