For those of you who are interested, Car and Driver just published an article dissecting the new 2015 Jeep Renegade...
Dissected: 2015 Jeep Renegade
Unholy Toledo: Homegrown no more, Jeep has its first import in the import-fighting Renegade.
From the June 2014 Issue of Car and Driver
The significance of Fiat Chrysler’s decision to unveil the 2015 Renegade in Geneva in March is plain: It will be the first U.S.-market Jeep to be built abroad. Sharing a platform with the Fiat 500L and built in Fiat’s Melfi, Italy, assembly plant, the Renegade also has a simple mission: to give Jeep an entry-level model that’s not a Compass or Patriot. While there certainly will be howls from the most reverent Jeep enthusiasts about the Renegade’s immigrant status, the new B-segment crossover should work harder at putting a smile on your spare-tire cover than those two small leftovers from the DaimlerChrysler era. The official line is that the Renegade is not a replacement for those fraternal C-segment twins. But we imagine that’s just corporate misdirection to keep the retail faucet flowing until Renegades hit dealer showrooms early next year with a base price below $20,000.
DESIGN
According to design boss Ralph Gilles, current and future Jeep models will crawl down one of two styling paths: boxy, like Wranglers; or swoopy, like the Cherokees regular and Grand. The more rectilinear the Jeep, the thinking goes, the more it implies a sense of utility and off-road capability. So, while the Renegade may resemble a Wrangler Unlimited Shrinky Dink, Jeep designers made sure it didn’t come out too cartoonish. The black grille and trim give the Renegade a bit of menace, and the taillights—rectangular, with big, inset Xs—resemble army jerrycans. Ten exterior colors will be available in a palette similar to the Wrangler’s.
At 166.6 inches long and 71.0 inches wide, the little Jeep is actually big for its class. The first thing you notice about it when seeing it in the metal is that it’s more substantial than it looks in photos. Its 101.2-inch wheelbase matches the Kia Soul’s, but the Renegade out-measures the Soul in other dimensions and it’s also bigger than the Mini Countryman and Nissan Juke. The Ren*egade is also roomier than expected inside, where the boxy styling makes for a spacious cabin with a back seat large enough to accommodate a pair of six-footers and even a third adult, providing that both the adult and the trip are short.
The Chrysler parts bin was sifted for the switchgear and infotainment system, but Jeep designers used an anodized-look paint to make trim pieces resemble aluminum outdoor gear. The Renegade’s signature feature is an optional pair of removable composite roof panels called My Sky, which is sort of like a T-top rotated 90 degrees. The panels, available in manual or power tilt-and-slide configurations, stow under the floor in the cargo hold when removed.
POWERTRAIN
Of the two four-cylinder engines, both borrowed from the Dodge Dart, the base unit is a turbocharged 1.4-liter that makes 160 horsepower and 184 pound-feet of torque. It’s available only with a six-speed manual. An optional 2.4 rated at 184 horsepower and 177 pound-feet includes the nine-speed automatic from the Cherokee. This setup comes standard on the off-road-ready Trailhawk, which also includes an upgraded version of the Renegade’s optional four-wheel-drive system. Four-wheel drive is available on all Renegade configurations, making it the only B-segment crossover besides the Countryman to offer the feature with a manual transmission—something we heartily applaud. But it also means that everybody else must pay extra for the bigger engine just to delete the third pedal. At least they’ll also be getting reasonable fuel economy. Fiat Chrysler promises EPA numbers for both powertrain combinations of more than 30 mpg on the highway, though we’re betting that’s just for the front-drive versions. Four-by-fours may land under 30, but they at least get Jeep’s Selec-Terrain system with settings for snow, sand, and mud, and an extra “rock” mode for Trailhawks.
CHASSIS
This is the first four-wheel-drive variant of Fiat Chrysler’s “small-wide” platform, modified to endow the Renegade with real off-road capabilities that are sorely lacking in this segment. Jeep engineers trimmed mass, they say, by using an aluminum hood and high-strength steel for 70 percent of the unibody. The 3025-pound base model undercuts its 500L platform-mate by about 175 pounds. The Trailhawk’s extra equipment, however, pushes the curb weight to 3490 pounds. The Renegade has struts at all four corners providing a maximum 6.7 inches of wheel articulation in front and 8.1 inches in back. Ground clearance is only 6.7 inches for front-drivers, but 7.9 inches for four-wheel-drive models. The Trailhawk pushes that to 8.7 inches and offers better approach, breakover, and departure angles than its “trail-rated” Cherokee sibling, not to mention the rest of the soft-roader class
See the whole article with more photos here:
http://www.caranddriver.com/features/dissected-2015-jeep-renegade-feature