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newbie looking for advice

3K views 13 replies 5 participants last post by  Chris Jacobs 
#1 ·
hey all! Currently not a owner but looking to purchase soon. What's the pros and cons of the new Compass Trailhawk? I'm moving on from a 2013 hyundai veloster turbo
 
#2 ·
Welcome! I'm a new owner too so I can't offer in-depth advice, but so far my Compass has been achieving phenomenal fuel economy: consistently above 30MPG overall. Only mechanical problem has been a grinding noise in 5th gear, allegedly cured with a software update which I had done yesterday. We'll see if that solves the problem.

Oh, you realize a Jeep Compass is not a performance vehicle. You won't be beating anything but cement mixers away from a stoplight.
 
#7 ·
I would not call them light trail which to me says not much more than a gravel road or dirt road buster. This is where Mazda 5,Honda CRV,Toyota Rav4 and such are at. Any trim 4wd Compass is much more capable than these with the Trailhawk being the most off road capable Compass trim. I place the Trailhawk at a medium trail vehicle. It's skid plates, rock mode,AT tires,gearing, approach,departure and breakover angles and slight ground clearance advantage all work well together to get the Trailhawk over some pretty rough terrain.

If it had a true low range T-case it would place on the higher end of medium. But the automatic transmission helps a lot in this aspect and I have yet to be in a situation with our Trailhawk that I missed having a true low range. But then I have been wheeling for some time now and know the limits of what I'm driving. To this extent the Compass Trailhawk has surprised me a bit and I have found it more capable then I thought it would be. Which is part of the reason we have used those skid plates and brushed the ground with the front and rear fascia. The only real things I have yet done is deepish mud and snow. I had my thrill of mudding years ago and since we bought this Jeep we have not had a good deep snow. We have run up some fairly steep muddy grades and while it was shuffling traction around a lot it did just fine. I know better than to go rock crawling in our little Jeep but it has taken on some little rock gardens. grin:
 
#5 ·
My wife and I looked at all kinds of SUVs and AWD wagons. We settled on the Jeep Compass because we do go where the pavement ends often whether getting to favorite hiking spots or just out riding around on very rough forestry roads. Nothing in the price range beats the 4wd Compass in this aspect. Our original plan was a 4WD Latitude with manual transmission and sunroof. But reading on this forum before buying a member here commented that the 6sp with the Latitude gearing was a bit steep for any real offroad wheeling. My wife and I started going over the places we go in our Chevy Suburban and lifted 4x4 Chevy Tracker in doing so we started leaning towards the Trailhawk and that is what we ended up getting with no regrets.

Our Trailhawk has taken us any place we have wanted to go and given the fact we have bounced it off it's skid plates a few times,Had to drag a tree out of the road which was the only way back off of a mountain top and pulled a car out of the road that dropped it's front wheel off an embankment all confirming we made the right choice.

If your intent is to hit the trails I think you would be hard pressed to find anything in this class and price that will do the job better than the Compass Trailhawk. But keep in mind these even though having a rock mode are not hardcore offroad vehicles. The Compass Trailhawk low range is not a true low range. The gearing of the Trailhawk is such that in normal driving the transmission uses 2nd gear to take off. The "low range" locks the transmission in 1st gear to give you that 20:1 crawl. So if you want to really crawl the big rocks get a Wrangler or other serouse off road vehicle.

But if your just hitting rough terrain and not out to run the big rocks the Trailhawk is up to the task. We have had 2 wheels unloaded and nearly off the ground shifted into rock mode give it some gas just till it started moving and let the 4wd system work it's magic to keep us moving. While the aggressive brake lock differential programming in rock mode is not the same as a true locked axle I have been very happy with how well it works.

The only real downside I have found is the start/stop system it is at best annoying at worst it can present a danger if your wanting to jump into traffic from a start right when the system is shutting down the engine. Most of us are in the habit of turning it off when we start up (it defaults to on every start cycle) but given I drive 2 other vehicles without this sometimes I forget till it kicks in. It is the one so called feature that will have you cussing the Jeep engineer that thought it was a great idea to save like 3 drops of gas. LOL

Here is an important note though when it comes to electrical get what you want on your Compass when you buy. These have proven to be difficult and expensive to modify. Most of the main lighting is run on a Canbus system which makes switching to leds a pain. Even installing a trailer hitch/wiring is a pain.

Another thing is these things are not even on the radar of most aftermarket manufacturers yet. I went to the Great Smoky Mountain Jeep Invasion and talked to venders and none of them knew of any plans for up coming products for the new Compass. I think they are holding off to see if the Compass can survive as it is almost a stand alone in the market. There is nothing that directly competes with it. While it gets tossed in with other SUVs for its size nothing comes close to it's off road ability. But with that comes cost. It is pretty slow compared to everything but the Subaru non turbo Crosstrek or Forester with their CVT that has proven troublesome in its 1st gen. I will say though I have found ours to be quick enough to handle day to day traffic and even merging into interstate traffic. The Compass also does not ride as smooth or get the MPG of some of the others it gets lumped in with. So there is a big question mark I think if there are enough people willing to sacrifice some of these things to gain a lot in off road ability.

If I were you I would take a Trailhawk out for a long test drive if your ok with the ride and it's acceleration not looking to go out and do crazy off roading but will go out on fairly rough terrain I think you will be happy. :)
 
#9 ·
Color is a personal thing get what you like!

When we were thinking we where going to get a Latitude I was certainly moving the Laser Blue to the head of the list as the Spitfire Orange is not an option on those. But once we decided on the Trailhawk and 2 local dealers had the Spitfire Orange that I could look at that quickly became what we wanted. Others I liked was a Redline Pearl which looks amazing on the Trailhawk as well. I liked how the red matched up with the seat stitching and Trailhawk on the seats then of course the Lazer Blue.

But the Orange to us is just awesome and we have only seen 2 other Spitfires on the road none in our local area. We saw a Spitfire sport in Knoxville TN and another Spitfire Trailhawk in Pigeon Forge at the Great Smoky Mountain Jeep Invasion. The other dealer that had a Spitfire was in Boone NC and I have not seen it around so don't know what happened to it. Our dealership also has not gotten in any more Spitfire Compass at all. I'm starting to wonder if it is a limited color and might not be available on future Compass we will have to see so keep that in mind.
 
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