SPEAKER 1: This is the 2017 Jeep Compass Trailhawk.
And we're here to put it through its paces
to see just what it's capable of.
The Compass Trailhawk is trail-rated,
and there's a few things that go into that.
It's got taller tires that raise it up a little bit.
Suspension is higher, too.
So the whole thing is almost an inch higher
off the ground than other Compasses.
You can also see that the rocker here
is sculpted to give it a better brake-over angle.
There are a couple of skid plates
underneath in critical areas, too.
Up front, you can see that the front end's been chamfered
to give it a better approach angle,
and there's the two bright red tow hooks,
and there's one in the back as well.
And also the spare tire in the back
is a full size spare tire, which is what you really want if you
have a flat tire off road.
Before we get going, I should explain
that Trailhawk specifically has a multi-terrain select system.
There's an auto mode, and then there's
separate modes for snow, sand, mud, and rock.
You can lock the system to distribute
power 50/50 between the front and rear axles,
and there's a four wheel drive low position,
which basically freezes it in first gear.
It's a nine-speed automatic, so first gear
is a really low gear.
You get a 20 to one crawl ratio that way.
Not as good as a Wrangler, obviously, but this
isn't supposed to be a Wrangler.
So for this first pass, I'm going to leave it in auto
and see if it sorts itself out.
Oh we've got some logs here.
Make sure we tiptoe over these, but we
should have no problem we have eight and a half inches
of ground clearance, and the brake-over angle
between the front and rear tires is
24 degrees, which is pretty healthy for a car like this.
It's spinning a little bit.
I think it would be happier if I locked the four wheel drive
system.
So I'm going to do that right now.
And now I won't have any spinning,
and it should just go right over.
So it's nice to have because a lot
of the other crossovers in this class don't have that feature.
You would have that spinning go on for a lot longer,
but I was able to punch the button and keep going.
So the Trailhawk has a 2.4 liter four-cylinder engine.
It's got start-stop It just started up there.
Right now, I've got the four wheel drive system locked.
Last time, I did it an auto.
Locked seemed to be the better way to go, and it would be.
If you knew you were going to do this,
you might as well lock it.
So here we go.
We've got plenty of clearance over that peak.
And as we approach these logs, we
have 30 degrees of approach angle
clearance on this car, which is more than a standard Compass.
The rear is even better, 34 degrees of departure clearance,
also better standard Compass, enough for it, I believe.
There, that was pretty good.
Normally, when you get a crossover
vehicle in this class, you get a basic four wheel drive system.
You don't have terrain maps.
You don't have this much clearance, especially
the approach and departure clearance.
And you pretty much have a system that's
designed for ice and snow.
This is designed to do a little bit more than that
because it's a Jeep and it's trail-rated.
But of course trail-rated doesn't mean the same thing.
This is not able to do the same thing
that a Wrangler Rubicon can do.
It's a sliding scale depending on the category
that the car competes in.
So this Compass will be better off road than the car
as it competes with just like the Wrangler is
with the cars that it competes with,
or the trucks I should say.
There isn't as much suspension articulation as a dedicated off
road vehicle might have, but the traction management system
makes up for that partially.
And so compared to a CRV or an HRV
you might get in the same type of category,
this has got better clearance and better traction.
So what have we learned after all that?
Well, the 2017 Jeep Compass Trailhawk
has excellent clearance.
It's got great departure angle, approach angle in the front,
clearance angle underneath, eight
and half inches of ground clearance.
You can see it doesn't have a ton of suspension articulation,
but the traction management system
that it has with all of its four modes
is really something that you don't find in this segment.
The Trailhawk offers something that the competition doesn't.
So for that reason, it's worth a look.
For more information on the 2017 Jeep Compass Trailhawk,
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