hat fries is to McDonald’s, spying is to Google,
and potholes are to Mumbai’s infrastructure,
off-roading is to Jeep. They are an integral part
of their respective brand’s ecosystem. While a
certain Mr Pichai and our ignorant and delusional
municipal body would like to sue me for the statements made,
that’s the reality. I would be a lot happier though if Google
stopped spying on me, or at least the roads in Mumbai start
looking like they belong to the wealthiest city in India. The less I
think of the fries, the better it is for my visceral fat deposits. That
leaves us with the American SUV maker, Jeep – the grand daddy
of rugged SUVs.
It’s understood that any SUV wearing a Jeep badge on its
hood ought to be an all-terrain whiz kid. But, when Jeep launched
the Compass in India a couple of years ago, the butch SUV had
everything going for it, apart from that one little detail – the
extreme off-road worthiness like some of its celebrated siblings.
Sure, the Compass was Jeep’s interpretation of a modern-day,
comfortable family SUV with an affordable price tag for markets
like ours, and we bought them in decent numbers. But you
couldn’t deny the fact that it wasn’t rugged enough to be called a
true-blue American off-roader.
Not anymore. What you see on these pages is not just a
Compass with a semi-black hood and dual-tone alloy wheels. It’s
called the Trailhawk and it comes with a certificate that makes
it the most potent Jeep Compass your money can buy. Well, not
technically because Jeep is yet to officially launch it in India – we
reckon it would be in the next couple of months. So, if the idea
of a monster Compass floats your boat, this should interest you.
Just to clear things up, the matte black decal on the bonnet has a
real purpose in life, to prevent sun glare bouncing off the bonnet
while you tackle inclines. Quite thoughtful.
If the Jeep Compass is on your buying list, there are a total of
20 variants you can choose from, including the limited editions
and the variants with optional fitments. The Trailhawk would
be the 21 st variant when Jeep launches it, and there’s a lot that
differentiates it from the rest. Instead of listing them like a
fleshed out brochure, why don’t we talk about them while I hit
one of the deserted trails in the Sahyadari ranges peppered with
W