[cobysmama]

I think I have found a place to get my questions answered! We are in the market for a new vehicle and the Compass is on our list. We currently have a 2004 Wrangler Unlimited but we also have a 1 year old son and the Wrangler is just not working anymore. The other two cars on our list are the Patriot, and the Rav4.

I think we are leaning towards the Compass. We like the price, and my husband is not keen on the style of the Patriot. My concern is the size of the Compass. We live in a teeny tiny town and there is no way we'd be able to visit a Jeep dealership until we make the decision and actually go to buy one. Nobody in our town has a Compass so we can't actually view one and neither of us has actually seen one in real life. I have been browsing every picture of the Compass I can find to try and get a feel for how big it is but then I read somewhere that it is exactly like the Caliber and that scares me. To me the Caliber is a car and we don't want a car, we want a SUV.

Can someone try and explain to me how they would compare the size of the Compass to say, the Caliber and maybe the Rav4. Do you have any pictures of the Compass next to any other vehicles that you can post?

I'd really appreciate any help,

Kristin

 

[i2canoe]

I find the Compass has a bigger feel than the Caliper,?, Caliber. Much more roomy feel inside, I found the Dodge a bit claustrophobic, not so at all in the Jeep.
Maybe the two cars have the same foot print, on the road, when driving the Compass next to the Caliber, looking down at the Caliber, you have the SUV feeling for sure.
RAV4? what's that? I love the Compass. Great looks, great ride, plenty of room.

 

[howdy]

Hi Kristin
Welcome to the forum. I drove a Caliber (rental) for two weeks and it was okay but my wife didn't like it very much. I then test drove a Compass and a Patriot to compare all three.
The Caliber is a smaller vehicle than the Compass or Patriot. Not by much but you can see the difference in them. When I drove the Compass and the Patriot, I liked the Compass better. It drove more like a car and the Patriot had a truck like feel to it. In fact it looks almost identical to my 1994 Ford Explorer. Kind of a outdated look to me.
If your choosing between the three vehicles then I would pick the 5 speed AWD Compass. Still all wheel drive but still a better ride than the Patriot.
Don't know if this confuses you even more or helps. But Good Luck!

 

[rommel543]

Hi Kristin. When my wife and I were looking for a new vechile last year, we were seriously considering the Caliber until we test drove the Compass. With the Caliber the roof is lower and the side slope in. I have 3 kids (all boys and none of them are small) and they were cramped in the Caliber. They all fit comfortably in the Compass.

As well I love the feel of the drive of the Compass. They say that the Caliber and Compass are built on the same platform but the vechiles are very different. When we were looking for a new vechile we test drove the Caliber, a Mazda 5, Compass, and on and on. The handling of the Caliber sucked. It felt sloppy and very loose, especially compared to the Mazda 5. The Compass has a handling much like the Mazda. Very responsive and tight. It's higher than the Mazda so it isn't quite the same, but still excellent. The height of the vechile still gives it an SUV type of feel but still has a car's fuel mileage and handling.

As for comparing to a Rav4. One of the people I work with gave me a ride home from a meeting one night and she has a Rav4. One word.. SMALL. The interior felt cramped and pooly designed after being in the Compass. She even commented on the fact there is no back seat to speak of. When I'm driving the Compass I can't reach the back seat, she could almost reach the back of the seat in the Rav4 to get her sunglasses from her bag.

If you do end up getting a Compass a couple of suggestions I would make:

1) Get the roof bars - Almost everyone I know that has a Compass either has them or wants them.
2) Get the Cargo cover, not the net. We use it all the time
3) The "YES Essestial" Cloth seats are great. My youngest spilt grape juice on the seat which normally is a major stain. Didn't leave a mark. Infact it didn't even soak in, it sat on top of the fabic. A MUST for a parent. They say you can write on the fabic with a permanent marker and wipe it of (not like I'm going to try though).

 

[ancona46]

i never test drove nything else in the same size catergory ....i like the way my compass looks because it has the rallye package but as far as a compass without it IMO they are one of the ugliest cars i ever seen

and all in all the compass feel very cheap and looks cheap on the inside as well to me