Ken Nelson Auto Group

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Driving Impressions

The 2.4-liter engine works well in the Jeep Compass. It's relatively smooth and quiet for a four-cylinder in a vehicle with these prices. This is Chrysler's World Engine and it uses the latest technology, including an aluminum block and cylinder heads, and electronically controlled variable valve timing that helps optimize torque. It makes a reasonable 172 horsepower and 165 pound-feet of torque at 4400 rpm, and delivers an estimated 22/27 City/Highway miles per gallon with AWD and the five-speed manual gearbox, or 21/24 mpg with AWD and the CVT automatic.

An all-wheel-drive Sport weighs 3223 pounds, so the acceleration is hardly neck-snapping, but the Compass is no dog. It just takes some forethought and bit of patience to get it to do what you might demand. Jeep hasn't quoted 0-60 mph times, but a manual transmission model with the 2.4-liter engine is probably in the mid-to-low nine-second range. We'd expect the automatic to be about a half second slower and 2.0-liter models to be one to two seconds slower. Those estimates are adequate, but not near the best in the class. The Compass can also tow up to 2000 pounds, enough for personal watercraft, a snowmobile, a motorcycle or a small boat.

We've driven a Limited with the 2.4-liter engine and the CVT automatic and a Sport with the 2.4-liter and a five-speed manual transmission.

The five-speed manual works well and gets the most out of the four-cylinder engine. But if you need an automatic transmission, you can also work the Auto Stick to get more power when you need it. The CVT is like two transmissions in one. You can put it in the gear you like or just put it in Drive and go.

We like the Auto Stick's manual shift feature. Jeep has made changes to improve noise and harshness each of the past two years, but no four-cylinder is as smooth as the V6s available in some competitors. We were impressed by the crisp and immediate upshifts and downshifts using the six-speed Auto Stick. The nature of the continuously variable transaxle makes such quick shifts possible. The Auto Stick in the Compass is as sharp as any manual automatic we've felt. With such accuracy, it always works: easily downshifting to knock off a few miles per hour for bends, instead of using the brakes; or downshifting to pass on a two-lane, instead of waiting for the transmission to kick down on its own.

Along the winding wooded roads between Portland, Oregon, and the Pacific Ocean, the Compass revealed itself to be steady and silent thanks to liberal use of sound deadening material, sealants and structural adhesives. The suspension does all the work as it should, isolating the cabin from the bumps and tosses. We aimed for potholes and weren't jarred when we hit them. There was none of the old Jeep head-toss, or side-to-side jouncing, and there was no trace of wallow over ripples. Only the good feedback was transmitted through the steering wheel to our hands. The turn-in for corners was secure, with no play in the wheel or wandering.

Jeep has designed a new all-wheel-drive system for the Compass, which it calls Freedom Drive I. On a dry, flat road, virtually all of the power goes to the front wheels, but as traction is needed elsewhere, as much as 60 percent can shift to the rear wheels. The coupling is through a two-stage clutch system that's magnetic and electronically controlled, rather than viscous, and Jeep says this is markedly more efficient. The system also has a locking center differential.

We drove the Compass over 30 miles of loose, wet gravel roads that climbed, descended and twisted in every direction. We pushed it to find some limits, and they were surprisingly high; the Compass didn't skate on the slick round stones as we expected it to, even with standard touring tires, though the ESP activated a couple of times to keep us out of the ditches. We slammed on the brakes at about 40 mph, and the ABS with rough-road detection worked hard but successfully.

When we reached the beach, we climbed into a Compass Sport with the CVT and optional Goodyear Wrangler all-terrain tires that aren't available with the Limited. The Jeep people pointed toward the top of the nearest steep sand dune and told us to floor it. Amazingly, the Compass climbed to the summit, where there were no other vehicles except ATVs. The CVT is the ideal mechanical means for transmitting engine power in deep sand, because its pulleys and steel belt provide an infinite number of gear ratios, allowing the engine to stay in its most efficient operating range.

It's difficult to imagine getting stuck in snow or mud in the Compass Sport with the Goodyear on/off-road tires. The locking differential can offer the best possible traction from a standing start, and the Brake Traction Control dabs the brakes (at lightning speed) at individual wheels to keep them from spinning. The locked differential keeps the torque evenly distributed at 50/50, up to 10 miles per hour, at which point the torque begins transferring again, as calculated by the electronic control module based on vehicle speed, turning radius and wheel slip.

We charged full blast back down the steep dune, and found a stretch of whoop-de-doos near the waves at the bottom. It wasn't exactly our intention to turn the Jeep into a motocross bike, but we gave it a go. We finally bottomed out the front end, but it wasn't easy.

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