2007 Jeep Compass Limited 4X4

2007 Jeep Compass Limited 4X4 - Jeep is busy having kittens. By the end of the year, the brand will have grown from four to seven models. Joining the Wrangler, Liberty, Grand Cherokee, and Commander are the Compass, Patriot, and four-door Wrangler Unlimited. The 2007 Compass is on sale as you read this. The Patriot, with a more conventional shipping-box SUV shape, is due this fall. The “Compatriots,” as the Compass and the Patriot are practically twins, are the first truly soft-road Jeeps, very much cars with lower-hanging bellies (the Compass has ground clearance of 8.1 to 8.4 inches, depending on the tires) and limited appetites for dirt and slick rock. They are about as GI Joe as the Toyota RAV4, Honda CR-V, and Kia Sportage, against which the Compatriot twins are pitched.

Why have both the Compass and the Patriot? Michael Berube, senior manager of Jeep Marketing, believes that customers are waiting. “The compact-SUV segment will double in the next five years, probably triple in the next 10.” Back in 2003, competing concepts for a street Jeep and a dirt Jeep were pitched to DaimlerChrysler’s board as potential spinoffs of the Caliber. Then Chrysler Group CEO Dieter Zetsche, perhaps having downed one Frappuccino too many, ordered the company to build both. The “Compatriot” was born.

Although the Compass and the Patriot are similar, Zetsche’s decision still cost squillions. All exterior sheetmetal above the sills, plus the doors and the glass, is distinct among the Compass, Patriot, and Caliber. Mechanically, they are identical except for different suspension tuning and Freedom Drive I, the Compatriot’s single-speed, electronically controlled all-wheel-drive system. The AWD Caliber has a similar slip-activated stack of computer-controlled clutches to engage the rear axle when needed, but only Compatriot drivers can also manually lock the clutch pack, while driving at speeds up to 10 mph, using a center-console switch. Traction control, stability control, anti-lock brakes, and curtain airbags are standard on all models, as is an anti-rollover gloss to the stability software. The Rubicon awaits!

Following that, we set the Compass on an extended expedition through northeastern Oregon. Like the blood-sucking Pacific lampreys that migrate up the Columbia River to spawn, we backtracked the path of Meriwether Lewis and William Clark through the Columbia River Gorge, past the one-million-kilowatt Bonneville Dam and the 1.7-mile-long hydroelectric dam at The Dalles, each with their fish ladders teeming with steelhead and chinook salmon. We skirted Mt. Hood unnoticed, crisscrossed the snow-salted Blue Mountains, and tiptoed around the glacier-frosted Wallowa Mountains before plunging into Hells Canyon. Across the Snake River we gazed at Idaho’s Seven Devils Mountains, including the Devils Tooth, the She Devil Peak, and the He Devil Peak (tallest at 9393 feet) before heading back — all on paved roads.

The Compass is only a cat whisker larger inside than the Chrysler PT Cruiser and tighter inside than a Chevy HHR. A flight attendant’s rollaway, a duffel bag, and a small suitcase loaded aboard left room only for a couple of pizzas. Folding the rear seats freed up more acreage, but the privacy cover mounts too low for any oversize items to pass underneath. It spent most of the trip removed and wedged behind the front seats. One fun feature: a rechargeable flashlight that detaches from the cargo dome light, standard on the Limited.

We’d be more effusive if Oregon’s coarse highways hadn’t played havoc with the body harmonics. At times the booming tire roar made the Compass no quieter than the cargo hold of a 747. We suspect the optional 18-inch wheels and tires were partly to blame — they compensated somewhat by setting a 0.77-g skidpad performance — along with a shortage of sound insulation.

Most that we have tested post faster times but longer braking distances. The Compass stops from 70 mph in a brief 166 feet. And the Japanese-made CVT maintains momentum up grades without frantic transmission hunting. The optional AutoStick pares the CVT’s infinite ratios down to six for manual selection and only makes sense for downhill engine braking.

Do women want regular reminders that they bought an inexpensive car? Jagged mold-part seams are easy to find. Some gaps are huge, others are wavy. The one-size cup holders appear to have been formed by ramming two beer glasses into soft plastic. A deep dash cubby, handy for sunglasses and other detritus, looks like vacant real estate, as if the passenger airbag had moved to a better neighborhood (it’s in the dash top).