The sales race these days seems to be well and truly locked into compact SUVs and Crossover segment of the market. So why shouldn’t Jeep come and play here with their Renegade.
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Perhaps it is worth mentioning that Jeep has been building SUVs from long before SUVs were seen as the must have cool car in the family driveway.
Talking about being seen, the styling of the Renegade is never going to appeal to everybody.
And I personally think that is a good thing. I quite like that it looks like a rugged type Jeep, albeit in a slightly more compact package. It offers something different on the road.
Our test unit was the Limited 1.4T AWD automatic model and this means you get almost all the bells and whistles you could want for R500 000. The modern and rather refined interior offers just the right amount of 1941 Jeep reminders and sufficient space for a full size family.
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Your safety and security is also well taken care of in the form of an array of advanced safety features, including six standard airbags, ESC with Electronic Rollover Mitigation (ERM), Parkview rear camera, Forward Collision Warning-Plus, LaneSense Departure Warning-Plus and Adaptive Cruise Control.
As the first Jeep vehicle built exclusively outside of the United States to target global markets, the development of Jeep Renegade was a global collaboration of Jeep engineering and design, with Italian craftsmanship and execution.
This also meant that it needed to deliver not only on the road, but off it too. On the road it is fine, and the 125kW / 250Nm 1.4 T-Jet petrol turbocharged engine married to an easy shifting nine-speed automatic transmission, kept things nicely on the boil.
Sure a vehicle like this is never going to win any traffic light races, but it did hit 100 km/h in under 11 seconds, the quarter mile in under 18 seconds, the 1km mark at over 170km/h and stopped going at just over 200km/h. Why would you need to go any faster in a compact SUV?
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Fuel consumption was decent too, although the manufacturer claims a combined cycle of 6.9 litres per 100km/h, I managed 9.8 litres for the week I had the Renegade.
I will admit, I never went close to even a dirt road in the time I had the Renegade. Which is either sad or simply an indication that most these SUV Crossover type vehicles never really do any serious off-roading.
But being an AWD Jeep meant that our Renegade probably could go anywhere you reasonable would want to go by making use of an adjustable drive mode dial that toggles between settings such as snow, mud and sand.
And if you feel your go anywhere compact Jeep is not quite as butch as the Wrangler, you can always dip into the Mopar accessories bin.
A wide range of Mopar products have been created just for the Renegade. The Renegade is not a cheap car, but the price of this compact SUV includes a standard threeyear / 100 00 km warranty and a class leading six-year / 100 000km maintenance plan.
So if you are looking for something a little different that can take you to new places, this Jeep deserves a look at.
Road Test Data
Jeep Renegade Limited AWD AT
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