Jeep Compass Trailhawk 4X4 SUV Off road review

JEEP COMPASS TRAILHAWK EXTERIORS

The external features of this vehicle have been fine tuned with a major objective of off roading. If you look at the bottom of the bumper, unlike the existing Jeep Compass, here the design is more curved inwards so as to get an approach angle of 26.5 deg and since the ground clearance has been increased marginally by 30mm, the breakover angle of 21.2 degrees ensures that obstacles do not come in contact with the underbody while driving over tough tracks.

Similarly, at the rear too, the bottom of the bumper area has been redesigned to curve inwards, which ensures a departure angle of 31.6 degrees. All this is ideal for off roading or else your front and rear bumpers would simply crash against obstacles. This is how the overall ground clearance has been taken care of.

The Trailhawk also comes with a tow hook at the rear that can carry tug 1.5 times the weight of the vehicle.

The Jeep Compass TrailHawk gets heavy duty 17 inches five spoke alloy wheels. Coming to the bonnet, you find a huge black decal on it. This signature black hood decal ensures that while off roading you don’t get the sun rays reflecting off the bonnet and blinding you while you are making those sharp climbs or dips.

For off roading, the underbody has been amply protected with a lot of skid plates. These protect the cooling module, engine and transmission oil pans, front suspension, fuel tank and the urea tank. Electrical connections and body openings are sealed and the air intake snorkel is a tad higher at 840mm from the ground. The existing Jeep Compass has it at 727mm. The Jeep Compass Trailhawk has a water depth capability of 483mm.  Even if the water splashes on to the front  while water fording, the underbody is protected, the wires are protected and since the front seven slates that make up the grille are sealed, the snorkel too is protected.

JEEP COMPASS TRAILHAWK INTERIORS

The interiors of the new Jeep Compass Trailhawk are quite similar to the Jeep Compass Limited Plus, except for two things. One is the all black interiors in the cabin with striking red finishes. It looks kind of uber.  On the steering wheel, the right side space now has buttons for cruise control and speed limitor. Features like dual zone climate control, a 7 inches wide instrument cluster display and an engine start stop system, a voice and touch interaction screen, smart phone integration, integrated voice command with Bluetooth, reverse parking camera and sensors, electronic parking brake and not to miss the dual pane panoramic sunroof are bound to be exciting for customers. 

JEEP COMPASS TRAILHAWK PERFORMANCE

The true character of the Jeep Compass Trailhawk was tested when we started on the huge off road track built on the hills of Lonavala beyond Pune in Maharashtra. The 2 litre engine, the 9 speed automatic transmission  along with the 4 wheel drive Low feature and a Rock mode got my adrenalin rushing. We depressed the 4WD L button and turned the rotary knob to the Rock mode.  The traction control came into play.  It is this traction that controls the forward motion on snow, sand, mud and rocks. The crawl ratio is a key parameter that determines the Trailhawk  traction character. The ratio is an amazing 20:1.

Thus the Jeep Active Drive Low controls torque distribution while monitoring the engine, transmission and electronic stability control system. It uses every ounce of its muscles to help you crawl uphill and over large rocks and boulders. There was no holding back the TrailHawk in the rocky tracks of Lonavala.

The track to test its articulation looked all dangerous initially. When one or more wheels are elevated , the 4x4 system allows the other wheels maintain ground contact longer to move steadily ahead. The Ramp Travel Index of this vehicle is 321. The index is a way of measuring a vehicle's ability to flex its suspension, a property also known as axle articulation. The Tralhawk comes with McPherson strut with lower control arm in front and at the rear it has multi link suspension with strut assembly.

The suspension of the Trailhawk is not just great when off roading. On roads, the vehicle behaves like a gentleman just out of Harvard. Features like the frequency sensitive damping or FSD have been fine tuned for Indian road conditions while hydraulic rebound stopper or HRS helps avoid suspension noise on potholes and speed breakers. The steering, I felt was tuned perfectly for both off and on the roads.

Hill descent control, ABS with electronic brake distribution, electronic stability control, electronic roll mitigation, hill start assist, hill hold assist and disc brakes on all four wheels, make the vehicle complete

On roads when you step on the accelerator you realise that the gears quickly shift to the higher ones putting the vehicle on overdrive. The initial gears are the one with the low gear ratio which is so critical in all off road conditions. Yes, during the long drives on the road, I wished the vehicle had paddle shifters, but then realising the DNA of this vehicle, it was like asking for candies in a hardware shop.

While off roading was fun, the icing on the cake was sliding down the track 200 metres without engaging the hill descent control button. We simply slammed the brakes and let the ABS and other electronic  functions kick in. Boy, that was fun!

VERDICT

The icing on the cake is that this new Trailhawk has a BS VI engine that is so technologically constructed that it can run even on BS IV fuel. Now, that’s quite a good thing. That means better control of the NOx and other dangerous emissions thanks to the diesel particulate filter and selective catalytic reduction technology with urea injection. Before I conclude, I have only one apprehension. The Trailhawk is definitely a very capable off roader. But how many people are out there in the country who will buy such a vehicle for some extreme off roading at a price which is much higher than a Jeep Compass Limited Plus? Now that is a million dollar question.