The Jeep Compass was one of the most exciting vehicles launched last year, but its petrol automatic variant has a drinking problem
The Jeep Compass was one the top vehicles of 2017 and it has finally given FiatChrysler Automobiles a hit on their hands, the ‘Made-In-India’ Jeep Compass is actually an Indian manufacturing story the government can go to town with. In less than a year, FCA India has built over 25,000 Compass’ at their plant in Ranjangaon in Maharashtra and a fifth of them have been exported across the Asia-Pacific region. If you look at a Compass, you see a piece of quality production, and owners of the Compass would have noticed the hidden Easter eggs across the car, like the loch Ness monster on the rear windshield.
The Jeep Compass limited 4x4 that I had driven last year was powered by the 170 horsepower two-litre diesel. This was a great four-wheel drive car, a comfortable ride and a very capable off-road car. It is a sort of vicious circle with SUVs, you see the guy in the next lane with a big car and you want one yourself. Most SUVs are nothing more than estate cars on stilts, they’re neither really sporty or utilitarian, but the Compass 4x4 can actually do what it says on the label.
But, if there is an issue with the Compass, it has a six-speed manual, and frankly, driving a manual in the city now is a pain. I will be honest and admit that most of the cars I get for a test-drive nowadays are automatics, it is just so much easier to drive in traffic. This is clearly evident in car sales today, from basic and affordable automated manual transmissions on small hatchbacks to the advanced dual-clutch transmissions on luxury cars, automatic transmission sales are gathering pace in India with a third of sales on some car models being automatic transmissions. Dual-clutch transmissions promise higher levels of fuel economy based on the premise that the next gear is kept ready to engage and helps gear shifts happen in the blink of an eye, and in really advanced systems even faster than that. If you have ever driven a Volkswagen GT TSI you know dual-clutch shifts quickly and because it minimises the loss of power, it feels like riding a constant crescendo of power.
So I looked forward to driving the Jeep Compass 1.4 MultiAir. This is the same engine that is found in the awesome Fiat 595 Abarth with the same 160 horsepower. The 595 Abarth was ruined by an irritating gearbox, but you could possibly fit the 595 inside the cabin of a Compass. The Compass was much bigger, but it had a new seven-speed dual-clutch gearbox. Sure, the Compass is a bigger car but this new gearbox would be better. RightIJ
First things first, you have to understand about the engine. The MultiAir is a great engine, but the problem with a turbocharged engine is that until the turbo starts spinning fast, you won’t get power easily. Now, some carmakers have been working around that, using stored energy to spin the turbo sooner. In Formula 1, some of the reasons for Mercedes-Benz stunning success is how they have packaged the turbo. Now, the way a turbo works is by taking the hot exhaust gases from the engine to spin a turbine to pump in the even more fresh air into the engine. But at lower engine speeds, the turbo is not really effective. You can feel this on any turbocharged diesel car as well. However, as the turbo kicks in, you feel another surge of power, but while on diesel cars this surge is often unbearably short as the engine redlines at around 4500 revolutions, on petrol cars, the faster spinning engine keeps on going will around 6500-7000 revolutions.
The MultiAir on the Compass seems to have nothing whatsoever below 2500 revolutions, and this is the problem of putting a small turbocharged engine in a big car. See until the turbo kicks in, the engine is producing power like any traditional aspirated engine. And a small petrol engine struggles on the Compass, and while the power comes on and boy, does it come on, the automatic Compass is very thirsty as a result.
When I received the ear, the trip computer remained from the previous drive, and that showed that over 300 kilometers the Compass had done a measly 6.6 kilometers to the litre and I had thought to myself that during the last drive, they must have really driven the Compass hard. On the first day, I had the Compass Automatic, I drove to Noida in the evening, in not particularly bad traffic, a 30 km drive and I drove it gently. And the onboard trip computer, which I had reset showed that I had done a measly 7.5 km per litre. Sure, a heavy car would give poor fuel economy, but remember this is a small engine giving the same sort of fuel economy that a sports car would give; you would get something similar in a Ford Mustang GT which has a five-litre engine, three and a half times the size of this engine with three times the power.
After a week with the car, including some highway stretches, I returned the Compass having driven around 300 km and returned it with an economy of around 8 km per litre with no particularly aggressive driving. Sure, I used the onboard gadgets and air-conditioning occasionally but nothing out of the ordinary. Sure, fuel economy, even on an automatic depends on the driving style. While on a manual, the way to operate both your feet together, how quickly you change and while synchromesh gearboxes make things easier, in an automatic how hard one accelerates and brakes can make a difference. Even then the Compass has a published fuel economy of 14 km per litre, much more than I got. Either this means that I have a very heavy right foot or that the Compass is tremendously thirsty in city conditions.
That said, the Compass is still a great car, just buy it in diesel and there is supposedly a diesel automatic in the works as is the Compass Trailhawk which is likely to have a bigger petrol engine as well. The MultiAir Automatic though, which in the limited Option specification I drove, costs Rs20.5 lakhs. This is quite steep, and when you will certainly be spending a significant amount on fuel, maybe it is a bit too much.