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
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