Jeep Compass: Overpriced and Worse than the Creta
I did an extended test drive of the Jeep Compass crossover1, and evaluated it against my requirements. I won’t be buying it.
The top model costs 38 lakhs on-road in Bangalore, and it’s worse than the Creta, which costs 26. Considering its flaws, I’d be willing to pay 16 for the Compass. The Compass is cramped and less comfortable, and feels heavy to drive. Its AC doesn’t work properly. Buy the Creta instead.
If you got what you wanted, you can stop reading here.
If you want to understand strengths (+) and weaknesses (-) in detail, read on:
+ The interior is high quality, better than the Creta, better than anything else I’ve driven.
+ The reverse camera shows curved lines that move as you rotate the wheel, showing you where the car will go. This lets me reverse quickly and smoothly in an unfamiliar car!
+ Rain-sensing wiper.
- The interior has leather, which I don’t like because it involves cruelty to animals.
Comfort
- My head is too close to the windshield header2.
- I have to lower the seat to have adequate headroom, but that presses my stomach a bit.
± The low position of the seat is too low.
+ The steering wheel doesn’t touch my knees when it’s adjusted.
+ 12-way electrically adjustable seat: front / back, backrest angle, up / down, and lumbar!
+ Thigh support is adjustable.
- You feel imperfections and undulations in the road, since the suspension is firm, unlike the Creta, which floats on the road.
- You feel these road imperfections even in the steering wheel.
- There’s a lot of vibration and noise, even before you get going, since the car comes only in diesel.
- The front seats feel boxed in, with thick A pillars and a high console, unlike the Creta or the Carens, which feel open. The Compass faces this problem in the rear seat, too. I feel uncomfortable at some level, like I’m traveling in a jail on wheels. I’m exaggerating, but I hope you got the point.
- The center armrest is too high.
- I can’t honk with one finger, as I can in my Ritz.
+ The doors open wide.
- The under-arm storage’s lid keeps bouncing up and down as I drive, which is annoying.
Driving
+ The car comes in front-wheel drive and 4x4 options. This is the first time I’m seeing this. No other FWD car I’ve driven offers a 4WD option. I’ve seen only RWDs offer a 4x4 option, as with the Thar.
+ The steering wheel is light.
- 2-liter diesel, turbo
+ 9-speed torque converter! I’ve never driven a car with so many gears. The max I’d driven is 7 — Creta, Seltos and Taigun.
+ Gear changes are seamless.
- Unfortunately, the car doesn’t show the current gear. As a geek, I like looking under the covers to see what it’s doing, and it would be interesting to see it work through 9 gears. For example, does it commonly skip gears, because they’re close together?
- The car weighs 1.7 tons, and it feels like 1.7 tons. It’s heavy to drive. By contrast, the Creta, despite weighing 1.5 tons, is so agile that it feels like 0.5 tons. Newton said that the default state of any object is to be at rest, and you have to make an effort to get it moving. The Creta’s default state is to be moving! It feels less effort to drive. This is a marvel of engineering, to create an illusion so complete that it feels like reality. It’s not just a marvel of automotive engineering but of engineering.
- A lot of throttle input is needed to make the Compass go. If you press the throttle a bit, nothing happens. In most cars, there’s some acceleration, even if mild. By contrast, the Compass seems unaware that you pressed the accelerator. You have to press it a lot, at which point it notices, “Oh, he’s pressed the accelerator, so I need to accelerate.”
± Flooring it requires a lot of pedal movement.
- There’s turbo lag even for mild acceleration, which most cars don’t have. They have turbo lag when you accelerate fast.
- Even when I floor it, the acceleration is smooth and medium, since it’s a diesel. This is ideal when you have a sleeping infant, or elders, or someone who’s sick or prone to carsickness. Or someone who likes comfortable driving, as I do when I’m not driving. This is not a car for spirited driving, for enthusiasts.
+ The salesman says this is for rugged drives.
+ The car doesn’t have modes like eco and sport, which is for the better, since these are a gimmick — if you floor it in eco, you’ll get almost the full acceleration. Not having these modes simplifies the driving experience without losing anything significant.
- Sometimes the engine revs when you take your foot off the accelerator.
+ Auto hold.
Digital features
+ CarPlay works on the USB-C port. This is unique! Most cars can do CarPlay only on the A port, which I don’t like because it charges slower, and I’m power-hungry.
+ There’s a C and an A port both for front and rear seats.
+ CarPlay worked seamlessly compared other cars that had a multistep procedure.
- The car comes with “UConnect Alpine” speakers, which are not as good as the Bose’s premium 8-speaker system.
- The car has a voice search, which doesn’t work.
- The car UI shows up as a top bar in CarPlay. It can’t be removed.
- The Jeep UI is uglier than CarPlay.
- I can’t pinch to zoom in Google Maps. I often want to check the route, because Google Maps routes me wrong, such as through narrow roads that are stressful to drive. If I’m not using CarPlay, I pinch to zoom out and see the entire route. I can’t do this when using CarPlay. I have to exit navigation, see the route, then search for the destination again, make sure I’ve selected the right destination, and start navigation again. This problem occurs with all cars, and Google / Apple is probably at fault for this, not Jeep.
+ You can see the car’s location using the app.
Cooling
+ Space for 4 liters of water in 6 bottle holders.
+ Panoramic sunroof where both the glass and the opaque part opens fully
+ Cooled seats, not just ventilated. This means you get cool air from the AC against your back, not just normal air from a fan. This is unique!
- But only the lower back.
+ Climate control
- In every other climate control system, when I set the temperature to Lo, the fan runs fast. Not in the Compass. The cabin became warm. I had to manually adjust the fan speed.
- In every other climate control system, if you set the temperature close to the ambient temperature, the fan runs slow. This makes sense because you don’t need a fast fan when you need only a little cooling. But in the Compass, the fan runs at the maximum speed and blasts air at me. I have to manually reduce the fan speed. If I turn off the AC (say because I’ve parked) and then turn it on in auto, this happens again.
- When I try to adjust the AC temperature or speed, it keeps turning off.
- Dual-zone, but you can’t sync both zones. This can be more nuisance than single-zone.
- If you’ve parked your car in the summer sun and it’s hot, you can’t turn on the AC remotely using the app.
- No cooled glovebox
- No rear window sunshades.
Safety
+ Seat belt pretensioner with force limiter
+ Electronic stability control
+ Front and side airbags for the head, torso and hip.
+ Dual-stage airbags to reduce facial impact
- No ADAS like lane departure warning
- No blind spot monitoring
+ DRLs
+ Auto headlamps
- No multi-collision braking
- TPMS
+ Hydraulic brake failure compensation (backup brake)
+ Dynamic steering response
+ Active rollover protection
Front passenger seat
- Can’t stretch fully
- Headroom not great
Rear seat
+ The panoramic sunroof is very nice and extends to the top of my head.
+ Can stretch legs comfortably
- Headroom not great. It’s not great in most cars, but since this costs 38 lakh, I expect more.
- There’s black everywhere, which feels severe.
+ 12V socket
+ Rear AC vents
+ Can turn AC on or off
+ Dual AC vents with up/down/left/right adjustment
+ The armrest is padded
With a unibody / monocoque construction.
The horizontal metal bar between the windshield and the sunroof.