Anyone Own a 2011 Jeep Compass?

[jigen]

Just browsing around and came across how much better this SUV looks with the 2011 facelift. With all the cash back incentives you can pick one of the 2.4L 4x4's with a 5-speed for under 20k. Seems like a lot of car for the money.

Anyone have any hands on experience with these?

 

[Smokefan1977]

No jeep product is alot of vehicle, just alot of problems. It's typical to have little nitpicky stuff fall apart on jeep products and the Compass will be no different then the liberty, Nitro, patroit Ect. They always give an intial impression of being a well built product but between 60 and 80k miles odd stuff starts happening and falling apart.

 

[mopar_monkey]

Originally Posted By: Smokefan1977
No jeep product is alot of vehicle, just alot of problems. It's typical to have little nitpicky stuff fall apart on jeep products and the Compass will be no different then the liberty, Nitro, patroit Ect. They always give an intial impression of being a well built product but between 60 and 80k miles odd stuff starts happening and falling apart.


ever owned one? i've had several jeeps all have been very solid and reliable.

 

[Smokefan1977]

I have owned an 03 dodge 3500 cummins diesel. I wont won another. my now wife owned a 06 liberty when i met her in 08. It was the biggest POS on earth and she is very good with maintance thanks to her father and the dealership she worked at. Her mother owns an 06 Liberty the Bezel has fallen out, 4 window regulators ( how does this happen when you never roll your window down)? Both jeeps have had major brake issues. It's not the drivetrain it's everything else DC trys to skimp on.

Heres a funny story, BIL brought his 08 dodge hemi 1500 to the shop a couple of weeks ago for servicing.He always talks up his dodge. We head out for lunch and I notice his drivers side switch bezel is hanging off the door LOL. I ask him whats up with that and he swears that must have just happened when i shut the door.....SOOOO I got to replace that also.

Keep in mind all vehicles have their issues and I work on them all. It's a pick your battles sort of thing and I wont own a DC vehicle ever again.

Some may say Im ford Biased, but I do have a chevy bowtie imprinted in my arm for life and own 3 fords, have had tahoes, GM trucks, dodge trucks and 1 POS 99 malibue. Being a shop owner you see SO much more then what the public see. we work on twice as many DC products then we do ford and GM, and it's not because they sell more vehicles. Granted most are diesel, but imagine if they cant build a decent HD truck just imagine the light SUV and cars lines.

I wouldn't mind an earier model Charokee I could take out and beat on though

 

[wsar10]

I'm a jeep guy and there is no shame in running a vehicle untill 300k mi all my jeeps have been solid and reliable as well.

Ive owned a few jeeps but will not go newer than the 04 WJ jeeps are not jeeps anymore they are soccer mom 4x4's with mini-van motors.

 

[JTK]

Originally Posted By: mopar_monkey

ever owned one? i've had several jeeps all have been very solid and reliable.


+1 to that. I had a Cherokee and then a Wrangler. Loved them both.

That said, $20K+ seems excessive for a basic FWD Compass with a 5spd manual. I know I've seen several used, low mileage 2009-2010 FWD, 5spd Patriots for $13-14K.

Joel

 

[Spazdog]

Of the client's domestic trucks I have that are over 300,000 miles:

Several Chevrolet/GMC C1500s....they are all 2WD.

Don't know what happened to the K1500s.

One Ram 1500 which had 361,000 miles last time it came in.

The rest are Jeeps. Quite a few Cherokees and a couple of Grand Cherokees. All with 4.0s. One of the Grand Cherokees still looks fairly new if you don't look at the driver's seat and driver floor area. They are badly worn.

I would like to tell you of all the Ford F-150s except their LED odometers have quit working long ago.

 

[Smokefan1977]

many 97-03 F150 have LED issues with the odometer, infact mine does but still works 80% of the time and logs correct milage. it's actually quite easy to fix I just haven't had time to do it. No need for high dollor new cluster. If your handy with a soldering PENCIL it's quite easy to fix. It's a cold solder issue on the cluster board

Neither of our 150's have ever been to the shop or have I had any issues with little stuff. I dont think anyone want to get into a milage comparison match with a Romeo 4.6....Oh wait i had to replace the battery in the 07 last year. I guess thats something little

I should retract my statement about seeing the most dodges in the shop. I see more dodges but I also see ALOT of 6.0 PSD, which I would never own either.

I and everyone I know have just had bad luck with DC products. The good thing is they have a good warranty. Drive it until warranty is out and then trade it

 

[Smokefan1977]

My mom also has a Charokee, I think 08. I to fix the major exhaust leak from the manifold last year. totally forgot about that PITA job

 

[Cutehumor]

what is the difference between the patriot and the compass? seems like the same vehicle to me

 

[Pop_Rivit]

Originally Posted By: Smokefan1977
No jeep product is alot of vehicle, just alot of problems. It's typical to have little nitpicky stuff fall apart on jeep products and the Compass will be no different then the liberty, Nitro, patroit Ect. They always give an intial impression of being a well built product but between 60 and 80k miles odd stuff starts happening and falling apart.


Interesting. I've had a number of Jeeps in the past and none have had any "nitpicky" issues, and all went close to or past 200K before I sold or traded. They all were pretty solid, reliable vehicles. Do you have proof of the 60-80K "nitpicky" stuff that falls apart? A list perhaps?

 

[dishdude]

My family had a lot of 80's-2002 Chrysler/Jeep products. Always had good service and never and major (or a lot of minor) issues. Hopefully now that Fiat has cleaned up the place and the interiors are higher quality, I might actually take another look at them.

Diamler and their cost cutting is what sent me from them. The interiors in the 2000's were just awful.

 

[mopar_monkey]

from my understanding (no proof to back this up at this time) is that diamler-benz was having some financial issues when they bought chrysler, at the time chrysler was doing pretty well, and diamler-benz filtered all of their debt into chrsyler and sucked all of the profit out then dumped them. i'm glad to see a company like fiat trying to restore what was lost.

 

[Spazdog]

Originally Posted By: mopar_monkey
from my understanding (no proof to back this up at this time) is that diamler-benz was having some financial issues when they bought chrysler, at the time chrysler was doing pretty well, and diamler-benz filtered all of their debt into chrsyler and sucked all of the profit out then dumped them. i'm glad to see a company like fiat trying to restore what was lost.


Former CEO Robert Eaton seemed like he was only interested in selling Chrysler. He brought in bad GM business practices and stymied the development of arguably the most exciting domestic car company of the '90s.

I mean look at the cars from that time. If you didn't get a Yamaha powered SHO, you got a boring but reliable low power Vulcan or boring but unreliable copy of a Buick 231 in the Taurus. GM was clinging to the '70s Opel design 60° V6 and even older Buick 231. Chrysler had an OHC 24v V6.
If you look at a Cruze today you see the wheels pushed out to the corners to maximize interior space....kinda' like the LH chassis was almost 20 years ago.
And there really wasn't anything in the domestic market quite like the 300M variant of the LH chassis. Built on a narrower European gauge with 250 hp. It outpowered Ford's V8 SHO and GM had to put a supercharger on their W-chassis cars to get those kind of numbers.

And the Neon? Say what you will about Chrysler's first real in house small car but it was good. Enormously successful in SCCA. It was a rare small car that emphasized having as much torque as it did horsepower. It did everything better than GM's aging J-chassis and Ford hamstrung Mazda's B-chassis with that awful CVH engine (constant vibration and harshness)

Trucks? Ford redesigned shortly after Ram redesign. A GM spokesperson said, "We don't need to redesign our trucks. Ford and Dodge needed to to keep up with us." Two years later GM trucks got a complete redesign. Guess he was wrong.

They can't take credit for the Cherokee. That was AMC. But they did move ahead with AMC's Grand Cherokee design. Like it or not, that was a game changer in the segment. The S-10 based Blazer and the Ranger based Explorer had to up their game.

And the Viper. Love it. Hate it. Whatever. It was significant. "We're building the American Sports car now. It's all freakin' power. A big block Stingray with two extra cylinders."

Robert Eaton was dealt those cards. Winning hand. And all he wanted to do was cash in.

 

[cbear]

My mother in law has a new Compass, which replaced her Forrester. The Compass is much nicer all around. The CVT just takes some getting use to.

As far a Jeeps, my father in law had a mid 90s V8 Grand Cherokee. It has been passed around to 4 different family members, has over 400k miles on the clock, and has never had the engine or transmission opened up.

 

[oilmaven]

I test drove a new Patriot and a new Compass last month. The Compass was better equipped and seemed nicer (quieter). They drove OK but seemed a little underpowered (CVT does take a little getting used to). The "world engine" 2.4L 4 cylinder used in them was developed jointly with Hyundai and Mitsubishi a few years back and while not the most powerful or fuel efficient in the segment has proven to be a good reliable motor. Overall reliability of the vehicles since their introduction as 2007 models has been good which was the reason I gave them a try. In the end I found the price a little steep and the "clearance" deals the dealer was touting wasn't that great of a deal. I drove a Suzuki Kizashi and all bets were off...bought the Kizashi and couldn't be happier...got my AWD along with a lot of great features, peppy performance and gas mileage (also the CVT in the Kizashi, while a similar unit to the Chrysler CVT, both Jatco-supplied doesn't seem to moan and rev as much...overall a much smoother drive).

 

[JTK]

Yep, I think I'd trust a Jatco CVT over any other. They've been in CVT realm the longest I believe.

Like said, problems seem few and far between with the 2.4L world engine. No timing belt to contend with is nice and they look good from a DIY maintenance standpoint.

Joel

 

[Spazdog]

Honda was building CVTs as far back as 1983. Of course they were for the Elite and Aero scooters, not cars.

Fuji Heavy Industries introduced a CVT in the 1989 Justy. It was an oddity because not only was it a ECVT, it was also Subaru's only inline engine.

JATCO was still a joint effort between Mazda and Nissan. I don't remember Mazda or Nissan having a CVT in the '80s so I think Subaru and Honda pre-date JATCO.

The problem is, I do not want a CVT. But you have to have a CVT to get the low crawler range.

As far back as 1979, Mitsubishi had a "twin stick" manual transmission that allowed you to have 8 forward and two reverse gears. How hard would it be to make something like that for the 6M Patriot? That was a 1979 fwd car. Surely it wouldn't take much to do that to the Patriot's.

 

[MrCritical]

Biggest complaint I have heard is the fuel mileage. LOW 20's at BEST.

 

[wsar10]

you guys that are bashing jeeps...are driving or looking at sissy jeeps. Jeep is no more after 2004, these liberty's and compass and whatever else soccer moms call them ARE [censored] and VERY poor examples of the jeep brand, I come from a long line of jeep owners and nobody in my family will purchase a jeep that is newer than an 04, even the 99-04 GC compared to the 94-98 GC you could see the decline in there rugid nature but they still held on to the bullet proof 4.0 and after they lost the 4.0 they lost ALOT of dihard real jeep guys.
Real jeeps come with a 5.2,4.0 and even maybe a 2.5,4.7 the 4.7 is prooving to be a motor worthy of the jeep name.

I'm sure new jeeps make great mall crawlers and family vehicles....but that my freind is where it ends !

you dont buy a good jeep for fuel economy and luxary, you buy it to last forever and go WHEREVER you want and make it back alive !