A new compass to point the way

Certainly up until now Jeep have derived little benefit from offering compact SUV buyers the choice between the Patriot and the Compass.

Buyers shared my soft spot for the pugnacious-looking Patriot which outsold its smoother sibling so heavily that the Compass disappeared from the market two years after its 2007 launch.

But now it's back and set do much better.

There's the styling, for starters.

The bodywork that had some car critics if it was taken out the mould before it had set is no more.

It's a much more convincing proposition now, from the new body-colour rear spoiler to the chrome-detailed seven-slot grille and from the new, slimmed-down roofrails to the 17- or 18-inch alloy wheels.

So now, starting shy of 16 grand, you get a vehicle that mimics the styling of the award-winning Grand Cherokee.

That price tag does not, however, buy you four-wheel drive. That might seem like dissing 70 years of 4x4 tradition, but Land Rover have got away with it with the 2WD Freelander and with Jeep out to tap into the Qash-rich crossover market, dropping four-wheel drive from some models was a no-brainer.

And those treated to the Compass launch event in the deep Wyoming snow – lucky expletives – reckoned that the 2WD versions acquitted themselves as well as some rivals' 4x4s.

The aim, of course, is to offer something to tempt family hatchback buyers who want the comfort and view afforded by the SUV's raised driving position but don't want to spend loadsamoney either in the showroom or at the pumps for the privilege.

The job's a good un, unless you're a boater or caravanner where the 1,200kg trailer limit is even excee'ded by some Korean hatchbacks.

Diesel Compass models will, however, cope with the 2,000kg which one would expect of this class.

Motor Mall provided a top of the range 2.2CRD Limited model for my test drive and the interior is a very pleasant place to be.

The haptics – the science of making things nice and touchy feely – are vastly improved with upgrades that include new soft touch front-door trim panels with a padded upper surface and a new centre armrest.

Door switches, door locks, windows and power mirror controls are now all backlit and the premium feel is further enhanced on lower-spec models by the premium cloth bucket front seats.

Having spent too many hours in Chryslers over the past few years, perhaps I have been corrupted, but I find the Jeep's black and slate interior, with just enough chrome to avoid monotony, very much to my taste these days.

And before anybody thinks this is turning into an advertorial, pause to allow me to award a black mark for a steering wheel that adjusts only for rake, not for reach, too.

Still, getting comfy should prove easy for pretty much anyone while the instrumentation is clear and the switchgear pretty intuitive – give or take the lights switch which is now on the indicator stalk with a normal twist on and off but a pull-twist needed to get the fog lights on.

On the one hand it's a bit fiddly compared to the typical Chrysler twist switch on the right of the dashboard.

On the other hand the Compass does make it difficult to annoy your fellow road users by using front or rear fogs illegally when it isn't foggy. (Fellow motorists, please note. The Old Bill will more than happily issue you a £30 fixed penalty ticket if it catches you.)

And on the subject of niggles, the one-shot window operation extends – as it tends to on motors born in the USA – to only the driver's glass and to the down operation only.

Other than that, the £23K Limited's copybook stays pretty much unblotted.

Rear seat room is good all round and the split-folding seats quickly fold flat, making mixing passengers and luggage easy.

The load floor stands high off the ground but is flat and well-shaped and, bless 'em, a full-size steel spare sits underneath it.

Good job, too – an aerosol of optimism and goo is pretty useless if you pop a rock through a sidewall while off-roading, and Compass will off-road almost as well as the Patriot.

Compass boasts more than 'more than 30 safety and security features,' including standard stability control, roll mitigation and up to six airbags, so sitting in one you should be as impregnable as you feel.

And you should feel pretty well looked-after, too, with hill-start assist to make life easier for the driver, climate control air con in the Limited, Uconnect Navigation with Guernsey mapping and iPod interface, a premium six CD audio system with nine Boston Acoustic speakers and even illuminated cupholders.

Jeep's global 2.0 and 2.4-litre petrol options keep the prices down with the latter coming only with CVT automatic transmission and only in the top Limited spec.

But I would anticipate most people to choose three pedals and the ex-Mercedes 2.2-litre diesel that offers both power and economy improvements over the superannuated VW unit.

Like all good oil burners it delivers oodles of pulling power from low revs and is almost always ready to give you a healthy shove in the back, whichever of the six manual gears you happen to be in. Its 320 Nm of torque are available from just 1400 rpm.

Here in the real world, getting to 100km/h in under 10 seconds and busting 120mph is more than enough and combined mpg of more than 42 is respectable.

If there is any trade-off in agility for that confident go-anywhere ability, I never noticed it.

The steering is nicely weighted, and body roll when cornering enthusiastically well enough contained.

Four-wheel drive models feature Jeep's Freedom Drive, full-time, active four-wheel-drive system designed specifically for regular road use offering extra reassurance in rain and light snow.

A simple-to-operate toggle switch puts the Compass in four-wheel-drive lock mode to handle deep snow or, perhaps more likely here, soft sand.

Will more ex-hatchback drivers cross over to Jeep?

There's no reason not to.... not any more.