STEVEN EWING wrote:The Jeep Compass and Patriot will be replaced in one fell swoop, and the compact crossover you see here is their successor. Meet the 2017 Compass, which is revealed in this trio of images ahead of its North American showing at the Los Angeles Auto Show in November.
It looks like a tiny Grand Cherokee, and that's fine by us – the current Compass is a dumpy little thing, even after its heavy 2011 model year refresh. Jeep isn't releasing any more hard details right now, just saying that the new Compass will be "the most capable compact SUV ever" (of course) and that it'll have 17 different powertrain options for its global customer base. The new Compass will be sold in more than 100 countries worldwide, with North American sales set to kick off in the first quarter of next year.
We expect the North American version to get, at the very least, Fiat-Chrysler's 2.4-liter Tigershark four-cylinder engine, mated to a nine-speed automatic transmission. Expect some other small-displacement, turbocharged engine to be on offer, as well. We'll know for sure sometime next month, closer to the car's LA showing.
Jeep is showing the new Compass today in conjunction with the start of production at its new manufacturing facility in Goiana, Pernambuco, Brazil. The new Compass was originally supposed to be shown at the 2016 New York Auto Show earlier this year, but Jeep officials decided to hold off, and instead show the Compass at the new Brazilian facility where it will be built. At the time, Jeep boss Mike Manley assured us that "there’s no problem" with the small crossover.
Check out the trio of images below for a couple more views of the new Compass, and scroll beyond that to read the official (but brief) press release. We'll have more from Los Angeles next month.
