New Models
New Models

2018 Jeep Compass detailed for Australia

Expanded range coming with at least two engines and front-wheel drive


The all-new 2018 Jeep Compass will land in Australia in the fourth quarter of this year and, while we don't have exact pricing and specification details as yet, we did manage to find out some crucial local information during this week's international first drive in the United States.

There should be at least one more model grade than is currently available in the Compass range that is to be replaced with the 2017 range comprising: Latitude FWD, Latitude 4WD, Limited 4WD and Trailhawk 4WD.

“FWD makes up 50 per cent of the segment,” Glenn Butler, Senior Manager for Communications at FCA told CarAdvice in San Antonio. “So, it would be remiss of us to ignore that altogether.”

A manual transmission is unlikely to be offered in Australia, even though one is available, largely because it makes up approximately only five percent of sales in the segment locally.

CarAdvice understands Australia will definitely get the 2.4-litre petrol four-cylinder engine and the 2.0-litre diesel four-cylinder. Further, there is no 2.0-litre petrol engine currently confirmed for Australia.

"If we do decide to bring a FWD model in, it could have either the 2.0-litre or 2.4-litre petrol engine, as both are available,” Butler said.

Interestingly, 80 per cent of the segment in Australia is taken up by petrol engines, despite the availability of some impressive and efficient turbo-diesel offerings. Butler also explained that through 2016 the split between FWD and AWD was roughly 50/50.

“We’d certainly like this vehicle to be much more successful than the model it replaces, and we believe it will be,” Butler said. “We’re also keen to see what sort of reception the Trailhawk model gets in this category, and this Compass is very much at the vanguard of the Jeep resurgence for the brand in Australia.”

We did some basic calculations on the US pricing of the vehicles we tested, and we reckon Jeep Australia can get the Trailhawk to dealers around the 45-grand mark - which is impressive for a vehicle that is a genuine off-roader in a sea of soft road options.

“We’ve still got eight to ten months to work out the Compass pricing and, once that is nailed down, then we’ll have a look at Renegade as well if we think that needs looking at,” Butler said.

The all-new Compass goes on sale later in 2017.

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Trent Nikolic

Trent Nikolic has been road testing and writing about cars for almost 20 years. He’s been at CarAdvice/Drive since 2014 and has been a motoring editor at the NRMA, Overlander 4WD Magazine, Hot4s and Auto Salon Magazine.

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