2022 Jeep Compass Trailhawk Diesel 4×4 Review

After the death of the large family sedan, it quickly became obvious that mid-size SUVs are the vehicle of choice for many Australian families, which is something that continues to this day and is stronger than ever before. To get a slice of sales pie locally, one must compete in this segment – even makers of traditionally larger vehicles, like Jeep. Newly updated for the 2022 model year and offering significantly more off-road ability than most other mid-size SUVs, does the 2022 Jeep Compass Trailhawk have what it takes to earn a slice of the mid-size SUV pie? Let’s find out.

Funnily enough, choosing a rival for the Compass Trailhawk is a little difficult as it is kind of sits on its own in the market. Why is that? Well, it’s fairly unique in offering off-road ability in the $50,000-60,000 price bracket but it’s actually also a little smaller than cars like the RAV4, Forester, etc. In saying this, we think that the diesel Mazda CX-5 and diesel Volkswagen Tiguan variants are what will be compared to it, so let’s see how it stacks up against its pricepoint rivals.

Price & Equipment: 6/10

The Trailhawk is the top of the range variant of the 2022 Jeep Compass range. While the Compass range starts at $39,950 plus on-road costs, the Trailhawk will set you back $52,650 plus on-road costs (around $58,000 drive away). It is worth noting that the Trailhawk is the only Jeep Compass available with a diesel engine – an increasing rarity in the new car market.

Being the top-spec model, you would think that the Compass Trailhawk would come with everything. It comes with 17-inch alloy wheels with a full-size spare wheel, bi-LED headlights, auto lights and wipers, dual-zone climate control with rear vents, keyless entry and start, remote start, auto-folding and heated mirrors, electrically adjustable front seats with driver’s memory functionality, wireless phone charging, ambient lighting, a 10.1-inch infotainment screen with wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, a 10.25-inch digital driver’s display, satellite navigation, digital radio, a six-speaker sound system, leather upholstery and a power tailgate with kick-to-open functionality.

There are also a lot of Trailhawk-specific kit like front and rear tow hooks, Trailhawk badging, Falken all-season tyres, four underbody skid plates, a black bonnet graphic, all-weather floor mats and a boot mat.

The safety features in the Compass Trailhawk are plentiful. They include six airbags, high and low speed autonomous emergency braking (AEB) with pedestrian detection, forward collision alert, blind-spot monitoring with rear cross traffic alert, traffic sign recognition, driver attention monitoring, trailer sway assist, tyre pressure monitoring, lane keep assist with lane departure warning, adaptive cruise control with stop and go functionality, front and rear parking sensors with a 360-degree surround view camera, semi-automatic parking and auto high beam.

There are a few options on the 2022 Jeep Compass Trailhawk: the $4,195 Premium Package, which includes a nine-speaker Alpine premium sound system, heated and cooled front seats, a heated steering wheel, premium leather upholstery and a panoramic sunroof, while the sunroof can be had on its own for $2,200. Fully loaded, a Trailhawk costs buyers $56,845 plus on-road costs before the premium paint charge of $895 is taken into account.

We do think that the Premium Pack should come standard for the premium price that the Trailhawk commands. We also think that a heads-up display should be included as well.

The only standard colours available available on the Compass Trailhawk are ‘Colorado Red’ and ‘Pearl White’, which ‘Brilliant Black’, ‘Galaxy Blue’, ‘Hunter Green’, ‘Minimal Grey’ and our test car’s ‘Grey Magnesio’ cost the aforementioned $895. The sole interior colour option is black.

The closest rivals are the $53,880 plus on road costs Mazda CX-5 Akera diesel, the $55,990 Volkswagen Tiguan 147TDI Elegance and the $52,400 Hyundai Tucson Highlander diesel – all cars that are larger in size than the Jeep, but without the Compass’ off-road focus.

Engine & Performance: 7/10

The engine offered in the 2022 Jeep Compass Trailhawk is a 2.0-litre turbocharged four-cylinder diesel engine. This engine is only offered on the Trailhawk model of the Compass range and produces 125kW of power (at 3,750rpm) and 350Nm of torque (1,750rpm). While it says Jeep on the engine cover, it’s actually a Fiat Multijet unit and has been used in a plethora of other FCA (now Stellantis) products.

It’s not the newest engine available and because of that, it is quite noisy at both idle and especially when accelerating. It also doesn’t feel very powerful most likely due to the 1,621kg tare weight of the Compass and a claimed 0-100km/h sprint time of 9.7 seconds proves that. There is a decent amount of torque down low, which helps efficiency, but as soon as the revs rise the engine seems to give up. Having said that, the diesel is preferable to the 2.4-litre petrol engine that’s used in lesser Compass models.

The sole transmission paired to this diesel engine is a nine-speed torque converter automatic transmission – yep, that’s right, nine whole ratios. At lower speeds, the transmission feels a little indecisive and it takes time to decide which cog to use but out on the open road, it’s excellent. At speed the transmission feels much nicer, it is smooth and while there are quite a lot of ratios it doesn’t feel like it.

The claimed average fuel consumption for the Compass Trailhawk is 6.9L/100km and our week spent driving a mixture of city and motorway driving saw an average of 9.8L/100km, which is better than we expected based on previous testing, though still not great. Similar testing in a CX-5 or Tiguan diesel returned fuel consumption closer to the 7.0L/100km mark.

Ride & Handling: 7/10

Behind the wheel of the 2022 Jeep Compass is a fine experience, though it does feel somewhat dated. The ride quality is rather firm for this type of vehicle, which was especially accentuated on dirt tracks, which is where this car was made to go. On road, the raised ride height was helpful for the potholes and speed bumps of city life. We do wish the suspension was a little softer to make the daily drive a little more comfortable. It handles relatively well, however, with good steering feel and great chassis grip.

One major gripe that we had with the Compass Trailhawk were the active safety features. The forward collision alert was overly sensitive and went off way too often and the lane departure warning was constantly tugging at the steering wheel – in the end, we just turned off the lane departure warning. The Compass Trailhawk does come equipped with some off-road tech to help trail off the beaten track. There are drive modes that cover auto (a mix of everything), snow, sand/mud, and rock. There is also 4WD low, hill descent control and 4WD lock. The low setting is not actually a low range transfer case but actually a setting that will hold first gear to mimic low range. While we didn’t get an opportunity to test its off-road ability, other media reports suggest that it’s quite capable for its size.

Interior & Practicality: 8/10

Compared with the interior of the pre-updated Jeep Compass, the 2022 Jeep Compass’ cabin is like night and day. The interior is much more modern than before and has more technology than before as well. The dashboard looks more modern than you would find in a Mazda CX-5 or Toyota RAV4 but the interior is definitely more cramped than those two competitors, thanks to its smaller sizing.

There are quite a few storage solutions in the Jeep Compass. There are two cupholders behind the gear lever with a handy phone holder between the two, deep door pockets with bottle holders, a nicely sized centre console and a wireless charging tray in front of the gear lever for your phone. The quality of materials in the cabin are what we would describe as average. There are quite a lot of hard plastics apart from the faux leather portion of the dash and the leather seats.

The 10.1-inch touchscreen that sits atop the Compass’ dashboard is quite good. It is easy to navigate and the screen resolution is not too bad, although we had issues with the wireless Apple CarPlay. Setting it up was easy but it would drop out sporadically and then stopped working altogether needing a hard reset of the infotainment system to fix the issue. The six-speaker sound system in the Trailhawk wasn’t too bad, though.

Getting into the rear of the 2022 Jeep Compass Trailhawk, you will notice the raised ride height of the Trailhawk variant. Once in, there is a reasonable amount of leg and head room, though a RAV4 or Tiguan are noticeably roomier. There are also rear air vents, one USB-A port, one USB-C port, a 12-volt power outlet and a 230-volt household power outlet. There are also door pockets with bottle holders.

Opening the power tailgate will reveal an average 438-litres of cargo space. There are also tie down hooks, a reversible cargo mat and some storage bins on either side. Lifting up the boot floor reveals the full-size spare wheel. Folding the rear seats down opens up this space to a healthy 1,680L.

In comparison, the Mazda CX-5 has a 442L/1,342L boot and the Volkswagen Tiguan has a 615L/1,655L boot, which shows that despite its smaller exterior size, the Jeep competes well on interior space with its pricepoint rivals.

Service & Warranty: 8/10

The 2022 Jeep Compass Trailhawk comes with the brand’s five-year/100,000km warranty which as far as the term goes is pretty on par with rivals but Volkswagen, Hyundai and Mazda have unlimited distance for their respective warranties. One redeeming feature of the Compass comes is lifetime roadside assistance – only if you keep it serviced through Jeep, though.

Servicing the Compass Trailhawk comes around every 12 months or 20,000km, which is great compared to Mazda’s short 10,000km intervals. The cost to service the Compass Trailhawk over five years or 100,000km is $1,995 ($399 each). The Mazda CX-5 fitted with the diesel engine will set owners back $2,214 (an average of $442 per service) over the span of five-years or 50,000km, which would be especially costly for those travelling over 10,000km annually.

2022 Jeep Compass Trailhawk DiscoverAuto Rating: 7.2/10

So if you’re looking for a family SUV to take on the weekend holiday is the 2022 Jeep Compass Trailhawk the car for you? Well it is the only properly off-road focused mid-sized SUV available (aside from Jeep’s own larger Cherokee Trailhawk), but in our opinion a Mazda CX-5 diesel can do 90 per cent of what the Compass Trailhawk can do but is a superior all-rounder. You miss out on the ground clearance and off road ability, but if you are just going down dirt paths occasionally, the Mazda can more than handle that and offer a richer driving experience, more equipment and a much more refined driving experience.

The Compass offers reasonable competence with a good equipment list, solid driving experience, good off-road ability and a good aftersales experience. But despite a new interior, it still feels a bit dated, its diesel drivetrain is lacklustre, it’s quite expensive and its suspension is quite firm. We still think it’s definitely worth researching, but there are better all-rounders available.