evo India – July 2019

JEEP COMPASS TRAILHAWK

Jeep Compass

Trailhawk

http://www.evoIndia.com 45

HIS IS THE COMPASS OFF-

road enthusiasts have been

waiting for! This is also the

Compass that Jeep needs to

re-ignite sales in India. The Trailhawk builds

on the already best-in-class off-road ability

of the Compass by adding 4-Low on the

4x4 drivetrain while, finally, introducing an

automatic transmission on the diesel. The

latter is crucial to rekindle sales, now that

nearly 50 per cent of SUVs in this segment

are bought with an automatic transmission

— though for now it is only the Trailhawk that

gets the auto, and regular versions will only get

it later in the year. The former now puts the

Compass in a sweet spot, no other SUV in this

class or at this price offers low-ratio 4x4 and

together with changes to the approach and

departure angles, greater ground clearance

and more off-road oriented tyres, the Jeep

Compass Trailhawk can raise eyebrows when

the going gets nasty.

On the road

The big changes to the Jeep Compass

Trailhawk are in its off-road ability but first

we have to get to 19 Degree North adjacent to

Aamby Valley in Lonavala. It’s a 20km drive up a

familiar road and it reconfirms what we’ve said

in the past about the Compass — once you

pick up speed, the ride quality is fantastic. The

all-independent suspension and Frequency

Sensitive Damping (retuned on the Trailhawk)

just flattens all ruts and bumps in its path and

feels solid and unflappable. A big benefit of

FSD dampers is the quicker rebound, so when

the wheels leave the ground the dampers

force them back down to ensure the tyres are

always in contact, there is always grip, and

thus you get better traction both on and off

the road. And to prevent the clonk when the

wheel drops there are hydraulic bump stops.

The extra 30mm lift in the suspension

over the regular Compass did not lead to any

noticeable difference in its on-road dynamics;

no extra body roll, no floatiness, though the

more off-road-oriented pattern on the tyres

does lead to a bit more tyre noise and an

earlier onset of understeer. The noise from the

Multijet II diesel is well damped, there is plenty

of power (170.5bhp), solid torque (350Nm)

and now that there is an automatic gearbox

the long distance mile-munching ability of the

Compass goes up several notches since you no

longer have to deal with the heavy clutch and

gearbox. Plus this engine is BS VI compliant

and it can run safely on BS IV fuels. It has an

AdBlue tank that needs to be topped up every

7000 to 10,000km which means once by the

owner between every service.

The steering has also been retuned

for reduced effort — the engineers say it

is somewhere in between the very light

weighting for US markets and the very heavy

for Europe. After driving it on road I can

confirm it is well judged for India.

Nine-speed automatic

This is a first-in-class, nine-speed automatic,

and the gearbox is imported from the US.

In terms of the shift smoothness, it is as

we’ve come to expect of modern automatic

gearboxes — smooth, non-intrusive,

completely jerk free. It is a bit relaxed though

and many a times, especially when overtaking,

you will want a quicker and more urgent

T

Test location: Lonavala

Photography: Rohit G Mane

Building on the Jeep go-anywhere-do-anything DNA, the Compass

now gets low-ratio 4x4 with a nine-speed automatic