Jeep Renegade – The Unlikely Test Drive

23 November 2016 Redazione News, Tested

JEEP RENEGADE

Words by Marco Rallo

Photos by Enzo Rachelli

I have to admit it, I do not feel properly at ease. I just climbed on the new Jeep Renegade, a sort of completely revolutionary small-sized SUV, especially compared to the model from which it takes the torch. Designed for a perfect coexistence with urban traffic it promises not to be left behind if the road will become arduous and treacherous, perhaps as a mountain trail nestled in the trees. The new Renegade is a FCA product, built on the chassis of the more civilized 500X (or 500L) and gives a nod to a young audience (perhaps mainly female) and could combine practicality, strength, off-road ability and clever fuel consumption. My colleagues left me the key on my desk with a note that says “Find a suitable road!” – at that precise moment, I sling to the computer and open our map of routes (a sort of encyclopedia containing the most beautiful roads in the world) and after hours and hours, retracing every corners of each area highlighted by our placeholder, I realize that ACM has never thought about a proper off-road test drive. I have to improvise, I need a forest, a path, a bit ‘of mud to dirt the body and the thick protective plastic of the baby Jeep. I need some woods! And so I stayed at the office until late but finally I find a place suitable for my purposes, I call the photographer and inform him that the next morning we would have made a different test than usual, a picnic in the deep green.
Green … yes, like this unusual green color, called “Jungle green”, but that turns out to be a slightly questionable choice, especially with the image that the Renegade already offers, playful, almost like it was an overgrown Playmobil toy. This particular model is celebrating 75 years of Jeep and does so with some details that “enrich” the standard versions, through numerous reminders of the Jeep front grille flanked by the shapes of the round headlights, to the funny Jeep Willys shapes that runs along a steep path (windshield) or a sasquatch walking dangling his long arms (rear window) – but do not forget the spider that greets the gas station with a “Ciao baby”, inside the fuel filler cap. In short, a series of useless things that make you smile and point out what Jeep considers important and fundamental which is that desire for freedom, in this case provided by the all-wheel drive transmission and a good ground clearance. My day at the wheel in an unusual place begins early the following morning, with the first light of dawn that force me to wear sunglasses. Inside, the Renegade is remarkable in terms of convenience, it offers a lot of storage pockets and the 9-speed automatic transmission is not bad at all. Okay is a bit ‘mushy, especially when it does not downshift as you would like, or with the fluids cold, but you can limit fuel consumption of the 140hp 2.0cc with no problems at all, making it a perfect everyday companion. But a Jeep, of course, want to be brought where a common car could not go, and so I climbed inland, up towards a mountain hut. I cross the repeaters towers and while our smartphones go crazy, the Jeep does not seem to work hard, even when I try to cut along a quite challenging dirt path.
It is time to try playing with those little gizmos that make a Jeep a real off-roader and then I refer to the locking differential selector, which also reacts differently to the ground we are driving on and the auto brake, which keeps braking the car without having to keep your foot on the brake pedal itself. I devour that little road like a longstanding mushroom fanatic and I go on to the main road, until entering into a forest that looks like something out of “The Blair Witch Project” – if it was night, and I ran out of fuel, I think I would sleep in the car. Another positive aspect of the Renegade is its steering, so precise and that communicates well what is going on below us, then the steering wheel is thick and provides a good grip. Sore point is instead the noise of the 4-cylinder, which mainly standing still will run the local wildlife, worse than a hunt worthy of Henry VIII. Brakes are good, but the overall weight balance accuses an annoying and especially dangerous pitch. After a few shots we’re off again and in the meantime I took the opportunity to deal with the removable roof named “My Sky”, it’s very simple and fast to handle. You only have to use a special key to unlock the two roof portions (removable independently one from the other), operate a handle and store the panels in the back. Here we are at disposal the most pure driving pleasure immersed in nature, without a roof over our heads and a chance to ride where you would not have thought it possible. The Renegade is surprising me a lot and makes me almost want to come to organize a picnic in the woods, forgetting the sound of a powerful V8 for a while, or the adrenaline rush of speeding at the wheel of a supercar. There is also a navigation system, quite accurate but perhaps the 6.5″ display is too small as what we are used to today.
When we ended the shooting, we retrace the same route back, descending in altitude and meeting more and more traffic, until we reach civilization and even in this environment, this last-generation Jeep is perfectly at ease. Compact and easy to park, you can stick it wherever in order to go to the grocery store or at work and you realize that the streets are literally studded with similar models. Also because of a good price (starting at about € 24,000) and the ability to customize it with color combinations that you most prefer, the Renegade does not intend to be an alternative to an SUV – it does not have the prestige, not even the dynamic qualities. What it wants to do is to give everyone a practical and functional vehicle that knows no barriers and also able to make you appreciate the beauty of what is around us, without distractions and without the need to be in first row facing mother nature.