Gadgetory

the new Jeep renegade has the undeniable appeal of a Hot Wheels car it's cool compact and craveable we have the top-of-the-line the trail let's check the tech when I saw this Jeep renegade get unveiled at the Geneva Motor Show back in 2014 I was pretty sure we're looking at a three-quarter scale mock-up so they could get it to fit up on the stand there this actually shares a platform with the Fiat 500x it's a subcompact but with real all-wheel drive as its passport into this very busy sector of the auto bills these renegades are made right alongside Fiat at an FCA plant in Melfi Italy in a sense you're getting an American icon and an Italian car for under 30 grand can't do that with a Pantera now inside the renegade I get the feel if they're trying to emphasize it's Jeep Ness to take your mind off it's Italian this and its smallness the Jeep stick is everywhere it's here it's here it's here and it's there there are several available you connect head units on the renegade ours is an upscale six and a half inch touchscreen also voice driven we've seen and liked this guy before mostly for its simple almost cartoony interface it's got highly rated easy to use Garmin navigation there a handful of familiar apps you can load if the app store itself ever loads and a Wi-Fi hotspot can be configured in this car as well an interesting sunroof option called my sky it powers back like most but then you can also pop out the front and/or rear panels entirely to get a really big hole obstructed however by a structural bar under the hood our high trim trailhawk version has the big engine and even that's only 2.4 liters and four cylinders does 180 horsepower and 175 pound feet of torque through a 9 speed automatic only average mpg is 24 in addition to blind spot technology you can also optional renegade with forward collision technology that will actively brake for you an active Lane Departure technology that will steer you back in your lane those are unusual in this class on the road I'm afraid to report down the drive behavior of this powertrain is rubbery and loopy they made a 2.4 feel like a 1.4 and made a 9 speed automatic feel like a CVT but neither of those is ahead of course on the positive side we have real all-wheel drive underneath including on this particular renegade a 20 to 1 crawl mode of course you've got all-wheel drive walk you've got real low range and it's got a different approach departure skid pans front rear even bright red tones this is a serious off-road er not just an all-wheel drive vehicle it's of note that even a 4x4 renegade like this can be a true front-wheel drive vehicle unless you need all four driven it physically disconnects the rear drive until needed all in interest of less drag and better fuel economy now under our renegade we have the first use of Kony's frequency selective damping shocks these mechanically change their firmness based on the frequency of the inputs coming up through the wheels that way they'll be ideal for handling on smooth roads but be more comfortable and forgiving on bad ones all without expensive electronic adaptive suspension I found the handling on smooth corners was quite good the ride quality on choppy pavement was kind of choppy in some the renegade looks great drives like hell but that's not gonna hurt its sales prospects it's entering just about the hottest category in the US auto market and it's a Jeep four cars driven CNET style standing by now at CNET on cars.com click on the road