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Budd Stanley photos
Jeep Renegade
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Budd Stanley photos
Jeep Renegade
The Renegade's interior is both functional and fun.
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Budd Stanley photos
Jeep Renegade
It may not have been a Trailhawk, but this Renegade still loved being off-road.
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Budd Stanley photos
Jeep Renegade
The lower front spoiler on this North Edition take about 9-degrees off the approach angle.
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Budd Stanley photos
Jeep Renegade
Despite some of its issues, this was one of the most fun 4WDs to drive in 2016.
Review & photos by Budd Stanley
After the happy introduction, does the Renegade still live up to our praise?
It has been a long time coming. It was over a year ago when I was first introduced to the Jeep Renegade. Teased with only a days worth of driving, I had hoped that the Renegade would deliver big boy off-road capability in a fun and playful little package. To my great relief, Jeep has supplied just that.
I came home looking forward to getting a full weeks worth of driving in under my own conditions and not Jeeps finely tuned off-road course designed to get the most out of the little CUV. Unfortunately, it has been a year, and the 2015 Renegade I was hoping to get into turned into a 2016.
The little Renegade left an impression on me, and I really wanted to get back into that funky interior, pull the composite roof panels off, and head out into the mountains for an adventure and a spot of camping.
My time had finally come and the Renegade was everything I fondly remembered. I described it as one of very few “truly fun to drive” cars that are still being built today, even if this particular example was not the more off-road focused Trailhawk. Getting reacquainted with the Renegade, I ripped out of Vancouver and decided to take the long way home to Kelowna up the Hope-Princeton highway. This is a fun and scenic road, and there are a ton of great forest service roads (FSR’s) that I have yet to explore along the way, potentially providing the opportunity to give the Renegade an off-road workout right off the bat. That wouldn’t happen though.
Coming into Hope, BC, the weather conditions warned of a late snowfall up in the mountains. Figuring on a long drive, I stopped to grab a coffee. When I came out, I pushed the start button only to have the dash do a little epileptic fit and die. Pushing the start a couple more times yielded nothing, I’d only driven 100 km and the bloody thing was already dead? As any wheeler would, I figured an electrical fault and would begin my diagnosis at the battery. To my dismay, the power lead on the batter did not fit the terminal of the battery, allowing just a couple millimeters of play to run a foul. I shoved a stir stick in, broke it off, and was on my way.
The Hope-Princeton was lovely to drive with a fresh 20 cm dump of powder and the Renegade was an absolute loving it. It carved through the corners with absolute confidence, push it a little harder and all four wheels receive power smoothly to create twice the traction and twice the smiles. The seating position is nearly perfect with a sporty feel but the upright vision you want in a 4WD. The design of the driving position gives a fantastic connection to the chassis, communicating exactly what it’s doing. But then it started communicating something different.
As I slowed coming into the town of Princeton, I could hear a new sound, kind of a scraping sound. With all the snow I was bombing through, I figured it was likely just the wheel wells packed with snow. Pulling over I found that the Renegade had turned itself into a massive snowball. Snow was packed everywhere. Long story short, after quite a bit of time scraping snow off, I found that it had packed its self up under one of the plastic trays that cover the fuel tank. It had packed so much that it ripped three mounting holes and had pealed the panel back, grinding itself to death onto the road surface. With no jack in the car (Renegades use puncture gel for flats), I had to drive the passenger side tire up onto a road barrier in order to fit under to pull off the culprit. The good news is it climbed that barrier with absolutely no problems in 4WD, and the stiff chassis left the rear tire high in the air with plenty of clearance.
The final leg home is a tight and winding stretch of road that undulates up and over a few mountain ranges. This is where my love/hate relationship with the 9-speed automatic rears its ugly head. I am the type of person that will always want the added control of a manual gearbox, especially in a vehicle as fun as the Renegade. That being said, the 9-speed transmission does a masterful job of keeping this 4WD’s fuel consumption to a miniscule 7.5L/100km on the highway (I recorded a best of 9.2 highway, 12.5 city), but it comes with a price. With so many gears, the transmission’s computer just can’t keep up to the constant braking and acceleration of a twisty road, especially one with lots of hills and crests. It all becomes a bit too much and the transmission is often left in mid shift, trying to figure out which way it’s supposed to be going. It only happens in these circumstances, but it is annoying and is another reason why I prefer the manual.
Over the next two weeks, I had no further issues. The Renegade is an absolute ball to drive, whether it’s commuting to work in traffic, burning up your favourite road or blazing new paths into the wilderness. Not being a Trailhawk (this was a North Edition), it didn’t quite tear up the trail. The approach angle is weak as a result of the deeper chin spoiler designed to save fuel, there is no low range transfer case, and the tires don’t offer as much traction as the Goodyear Wranglers found on the Trailhawk. While it might not make it as far out of bounds as the Trailhawk, it will still handily out perform any other Compact CUV when it comes to getting dirty.
Yes, the Renegade comes with some fickle characteristics, and it might not be built to the highest quality. That being said, over the two weeks I spent in the Renegade, my admiration for this plucky ute only grew. In a world of boring crossovers, the Renegade is one of very few enthusiast-focused vehicles. It is unapologetically fun, for the sake of being fun. For myself, its qualities easily drown out its downfalls and I can’t wait to get behind the wheel of the Trailhawk. We’ll have that for you in a few issues time.
SPECIFICATIONS:
- MSRP: $19,995
- Price as tested: $32,930
- Engine: 2.4L Inline 4-cylinder
- Power: 180 hp, 175 lb-ft
- Transmission: 9-speed automatic
- Curb Weight: 1,583 kg (3,490 lb)
- Wheelbase: 2,570 mm (101 in)
- Ground Clearance: 200 mm (7.9-in)
- Approach Angle: 21°
- Departure Angle: 32.1°
- Ramp Breakover: 24°
- Wading Depth: 483 mm (19-in)
- Tow Capacity: 907 kg (2,000 lb)
- Fuel Efficiency (L/100km): 7.5 highway, 9.9 city