The Jeep Compass has been a revelation for the American automaker in India and has brought them into the D-segment volumes game. To keep things going strong, Jeep will add another variant to the Compass line-up later this year in the form of the Trailhawk variant.
As the name suggests, it’s a ‘hardcore’ off-road enabled variant of the SUV and will be introduced at the top of the Compass food chain. This variant will add proper off-road credibility to the Compass family and open up the car to hardcore enthusiasts. We took the standard Compass off-roading last year and while it did manage to clear most of whatever we threw at it, the process was quite a task. You can read about our off-roading experience with the Compass here as well as watch our video for the same at the bottom of this story. This new Trailhawk variant should help the SUVs´ cause quite bit.
The Trailhawk name comes courtesy of a Trail-rated badge that Jeep only bestows on its hardcore mud pluggers. To achieve this, the Compass Trailhawk gets modified bumpers (as compared to the standard car) that offer better ground clearance, AWD with various drive modes and a slew of bash plates to protect the underbody. In addition to the bumpers, you get 216mm of ground clearance and 480mm of water wading ability.
The India spec Compass Trailhawk will be only be offered with diesel power which in this case is the 2.0-litre four-cylinder diesel that produces 171bhp/350Nm. There is a nine-speed AT, AWD system as well as a low-range gearbox as a part of the package.
In the current line-up, the most expensive Compass variant is the Limited 4x4 (O) diesel which is priced at Rs 21.92 lakhs (ex-Delhi). This is one is likely to inch closer to the range of Rs 23 lakhs to Rs 25 lakhs and will go up against the Hyundai Tucson 4WD AT GLS diesel.