Jeep Compass Pros & Cons

Check out pros and cons about the Jeep Compass that are worth highlighting for a potential buyer. Here are some of the highlights of the benefits of buying the Jeep Compass. We'll also list out the Compass drawbacks to help you make an informed buying decision.

Compass Advantanges

• True Jeep With Premium Brand Positioning

  Jeep Compass is the most affordable Jeep SUV in India. Other SUVs like the Rubicon and the Cherokee are far more expensive than the Compass. The Compass’ rivals, Hyundai Tucson and the Citroen C5 Aircross, are the flagship models from their respective brands. However, the Compass is the entry gate to the Jeep brand in India.

• More Powerful Turbo Petrol Than Rivals

  Jeep Compass comes with a 1.4L turbo petrol engine that puts out 163PS of power and 250Nm of torque. It’s more powerful than Tucson’s 2.0L normal petrol engine which produces 153PS of power and 192Nm of torque. Unlike its rivals, the Compass also offers an option of a 6-speed manual transmission with the turbo petrol engine. The Citroen C5 Aircross, on the other hand, doesn’t even offer a petrol engine option.

• Manual Gearbox With Both Diesel and Petrol Engines

  Jeep offer the Compass with two engine options - 2.0L turbo diesel and 1.4L turbo petrol. Both the engines can either be had with a 6-speed manual transmission or 9-speed torque converter automatic and 7-speed dual-clutch automatic respectively. Other segment rivals do not offer manual transmission options with either of the engines.

• Sensibly-priced Sport Variant

  The base Sport petrol manual variant of the Compass justifies its asking price well. Jeep offer the Compass Sport with turbo petrol manual, turbo petrol automatic and diesel manual at Rs. 17.79 lakh, Rs. 20.37 lakh and Rs. 19.49 Lakh respectively.

• Premium Features With Top Variant

  With the facelift, Jeep India added a host of new features to the Compass. Most of the new features are on offer on the top variant only. Key feature additions include a fully-digital instrument cluster, freestanding touchscreen infotainment with wireless Android Auto and Apple CarPlay, ventilated front seats, 360-degree parking camera, and powered driver’s seat.

Compass Disadvantanges

• Smaller Dimensions Than Its Rivals

  Jeep Compass falls in the C-segment category of cars. It’s dimensions are a tad smaller than its rivals, like the Hyundai Tucson and Citroen C5 Aircross. The C5 Aircross offers a ground clearance of 230mm that is much higher than the Compass’ 178mm. Hence, its road presence isn’t as attractive as that of the Tucson or the C5 Aircross.

• 4WD Only With Auto And Vice Versa

  You can get the Compass 4WD only with the diesel automatic powertrain. Similarly, you can only get the automatic with 4WD as Jeep do not offer a diesel automatic option with 2WD. Therefore, to choose any one of the two, you have to compromise with the other one as well. That also increases the cost between the variants by a big margin. The diesel automatic 4WD is dearer by around Rs 4 lakh than the diesel manual option.

• No Cruise Control With Manual Variants

  Jeep do not offer cruise control on variants of the Compass equipped with a manual transmission. That would have made sense if Jeep were offering adaptive cruise control but that’s not the case. You will have to upgrade to either the diesel automatic 4WD or petrol automatic to get the normal cruise control.

• Poorly-equipped Mid Variants

  The Compass does not offer any of its key features in the mid variants. Newly added features like ventilated seats, digital instrument cluster, 360-degree parking camera, LED projector headlamps, and LED fog lamps are only available with the top variant.