2022 Jeep Compass

One naturally aspirated 2.4L across the entire 2022 US range — Sport through Trailhawk — and 177 hp is the weakest output in the compact-SUV class, sitting essentially at the floor of the 150–550 hp SUV band. The 200-hp 2.0L turbo that replaces it does not arrive until 2023.

Not only is peak torque low, it arrives at 3,900 rpm — a naturally aspirated curve with nothing low down, which is what makes the 3,327-lb 4x4 feel lethargic in traffic. The 2023 turbo's 221 lb-ft from 1,750 rpm is a step change this year does not have.

Roughly 1.5–2 seconds slower than the 2023 car on the same body, and slow enough to fall outside the bottom of the 3.5–9.5 sec SUV band — the single weakest number in this category and the one reviewers led with all year.

The Tigershark is unresponsive rather than laggy — there is no turbo to wait on, just an engine that has to be revved toward its 6,400-rpm power peak and gets coarse and loud doing it. Standard stop-start on this engine adds a further roughness complaint. Well into the lower half of the band and clearly below the 2023 turbo car.

The 948TE nine-speed is the most-criticized component of this generation — economy-biased calibration that upshifts early, resists kickdown, and shifts without much polish, all of which compounds an engine that is already short of torque. The 4x2's Aisin six-speed is smoother but has a narrower ratio spread; neither lifts the score out of the lower band.

Standard unibody compact-crossover capability, and unchanged across the generation, but 2,000 lbs is near the bottom of an SUV band that runs to 8,000 lbs — and the front-drive versions are not rated to tow at all.

Four-wheel drive is available on every 2022 trim with Selec-Terrain modes and a genuine 20:1 crawl ratio on Trailhawk — sophisticated for the class — but it is still a cost option rather than standard equipment, and front-drive Sport, Latitude and Altitude versions were sold alongside. That option-not-standard status is the single thing separating this year from the 2023 car, where 4x4 became standard across the board.

The Trail Rated Trailhawk remains the most genuinely capable thing in the compact-crossover class — a 30.4° approach angle, 8.6 in of clearance and a low crawl ratio are real hardware, not a badge — but it is a unibody crossover with no locking differential, no two-speed transfer case, and a highway-terrain tire from the factory. Upper half of the capable-light-duty band; non-Trailhawk 4x4 trims are considerably more modest.

One engine for the whole range with no turbo upgrade, hybrid, PHEV or EV anywhere in the US lineup. The 4x2/4x4 choice and two transmissions give it marginally more configuration breadth than the single-combination 2023 car, but on the measure this item cares about — distinct powertrains, electrified options — it is take-it-or-leave-it.

25 MPG combined for both drivetrains — mid-pack among gas compact SUVs and two points shy of the 27 the 2023 turbo/eight-speed car manages, so this is the less efficient half of the generation despite being the less powerful one.

Standard stop-start and the fully disconnecting 4x4 system keep city economy at the class average, but a naturally aspirated 2.4L hauling 3,327 lbs has no efficiency trick to fall back on — hybrid rivals in this segment beat it outright.

The 948TE nine-speed's tall overdrive gears (0.48:1 ninth, 9.81 ratio spread) make highway cruising the Compass's efficiency high point, and it is the one economy figure that holds up against the segment.

A small 13.5-gallon tank combined with only average economy puts total range near the bottom of the 280–600 mi SUV band, and 26 miles short of the 2023 car on the same tank. Frequent fuel stops are the practical consequence.

Running costs land close to the middle of the SUV band — no premium-fuel penalty, but 25 MPG combined means roughly $150/yr more than the 27-MPG 2023 Compass at the same fuel price.

87-octane regular on a port-injected naturally aspirated engine, with no premium recommendation, no additive requirement and nothing to plug in — the cheapest and simplest fueling situation available.

NHTSA ran the full battery on the 2022 Compass and both drivetrains return an identical 4-star overall. Five stars in every side measurement is the strong half of the result; a 4-star frontal and a 3-star rollover at 20.4% probability are what hold the overall to four.

The 2022 Compass earned Top Safety Pick on the strength of Good results in all six legacy crashworthiness evaluations — both small overlap fronts, the original moderate overlap, the original side, roof strength and head restraints. The two tests IIHS added afterward both go badly against it: the updated moderate overlap front, which grades rear-passenger protection, comes back Poor, and the updated side test is Marginal. An award won under the old bar with failures under the new one belongs mid-band, not in the 80s.

2022 is the year the content moved down: the refresh made Blind-spot Monitoring with Rear Cross Path and Active Lane Management newly standard on every trim, alongside Full-Speed Forward Collision Warning with Active Braking and Pedestrian/Cyclist AEB. Standard blind-spot coverage on the cheapest trim beats most compact-SUV rivals of this model year, which still packaged it. Adaptive cruise is the one hole — the base Sport gets conventional cruise only.

The system takes Superior in the vehicle-to-vehicle front crash prevention test and Advanced for daytime pedestrian detection, and both come standard on every trim — genuinely good results, but all of them against the older, easier protocols. IIHS never ran the nighttime pedestrian evaluation on this car, and the same hardware in the 2023 Compass scored only Marginal once IIHS moved to the tougher vehicle-to-vehicle 2.0 test, so the daytime numbers should not be read as night capability.

Blind-spot Monitoring with Rear Cross Path detection became standard on every 2022 trim including the Sport, which is better coverage than compact-SUV rivals that gate it behind a trim walk — and it is the explicit mitigation for this body's thick rear pillars. It is alert-only, though: no steering or braking intervention, no safe-exit warning, and the 360-degree camera that would supplement it is optional.

Active Lane Management — LaneSense departure warning plus lane keep assist — is standard on every 2022 trim, so the volume buyer gets a competent warn-and-nudge system, and reviewers of this generation describe the corrective steering as gentle rather than intrusive. Sustained lane centering is a different matter: it only arrives inside Highway Assist, which needs adaptive cruise and is confined to the top trims, so most 2022 Compasses nudge but never center.

Full-speed-range Adaptive Cruise Control with Stop and Go is capable hardware, but the 2022 buyer has to climb for it: standard only on Trailhawk and Limited, optional on the two Latitude trims, unavailable on the Sport. Highway Assist, which pairs it with lane centering, is narrower still — top three trims only and a late-availability item, so early-build 2022 cars could not be ordered with it at all.

No hands-free highway driving is offered on any 2022 Compass trim. Highway Assist is explicitly a hands-on Level 2 system, and Stellantis shipped no BlueCruise or Super Cruise equivalent on this platform for the model year.

This is the weakest part of the 2022 car, and worse than the years around it because of a mid-year running change. The LED reflectors that are standard on all models rate only Marginal on cars built before June 2022 — the bulk of the model year's output — and Acceptable on later builds; the Sport's lamps stay Marginal throughout. Good ratings exist only on the LED projector units in the premium lighting and Elite packages on upper trims, which is exactly why the Top Safety Pick award is qualified 'with specific headlights'.

Forward sightlines are fine, but reviewers of the 2022 car consistently flag chunky roof pillars that cut into the over-the-shoulder and rearward view — the standard blind-spot monitor and rear camera are named as the compensation rather than an extra. The 360-degree camera that would properly cover it is optional package content.

The two sources split. IIHS rates the LATCH hardware Marginal for ease of use, but Cars.com's hands-on 2022 Car Seat Check found the lower anchors sit just within the seat bight with easy connection, three clearly marked top tethers with clearance, and room for two seats without stealing front legroom. Boosters are the real weakness — very short seat belt buckles kids cannot work independently, made worse by a heavily bolstered cushion that shoves the booster against the buckle — and three across will not fit.

Five seats across the whole 2022 range with no third-row or captain's-chair configuration anywhere, which sits at the bottom of an SUV band that runs to eight.

Mid-pack front headroom for a compact SUV; the tall, upright Jeep greenhouse buys a little more than the low roofline of the body would suggest, but the panoramic roof costs six-tenths of an inch.

41.8 in is adequate rather than generous — the 103.8-in wheelbase is short and a good share of it goes to the second row, so tall drivers use most of the 8.7 in of travel.

The best interior-space number the Compass posts — the boxy roofline and near-flat rear seat cushion leave real headroom for adults in the second row.

38.3 in is genuinely competitive for the compact class and comfortably above the midpoint of the 30–42 in SUV band — passenger space, not cargo space, is where the Compass spends its footprint.

The Compass is a strictly two-row, five-seat compact SUV — no third row is offered on any 2022 trim, in any market configuration.

This is the Compass's structural weakness: 27.2 cu ft is near the floor of the 25–80 cu ft SUV band and well behind class-standard compact rivals, a gap Cars.com measured directly in its own hands-on cargo test.

Folding the bench only gets it to 59.8 cu ft, barely off the bottom of the 55–100 cu ft band — the 173.4-in overall length and rakish tailgate leave little room to recover.

The 2022 refresh redesigned the console with a usable bin, cupholders and a phone shelf (wireless charging optional), but there is no underfloor cargo storage, no fold-flat front passenger seat and no onboard power beyond a 12V outlet — competent rather than clever.

Rear seats draw praise for bolstering, but the front chairs are the recurring complaint — soft cushions without much support and head restraints angled far enough forward to push a tall driver's head out of position.

The softly sprung MacPherson/Chapman-strut setup takes the edge off potholes better than most small SUVs, but it is firm enough over small stuff that reviewers stop short of calling it comfortable all day.

The weakest comfort attribute of the 2022 car specifically: the naturally aspirated 2.4L has to be revved to make progress, so engine noise is near-constant in a way the 2023 turbo car is not, and wind and road noise are both flagged at freeway speed.

The volume Latitude has manual single-zone climate and pays extra for heated front seats and a heated wheel; heated rear seats and a heated wheel became newly available for 2022, but dual-zone automatic climate and heated leather are a Latitude LUX/Limited walk and no trim offers ventilated seats.

Jeep opened the 2022 Compass at $24,995 for the Sport 4x2 plus a $1,495 destination charge — one of the cheapest ways into a compact SUV that year, and $3,500 below where the redesigned-powertrain 2023 Sport would start. Front-wheel drive was still the base configuration; the Sport 4x4 was $1,500 more at $27,990 delivered.

The Latitude 4x4 — frequently with the Altitude appearance package, which carried identical pricing — was the volume configuration, at $28,025 plus $1,495 destination. It is the trim that adds the equipment most buyers wanted (17-inch alloys, automatic headlamps, fog lamps, available wireless charging) without the leather-and-18s premium of Latitude LUX.

CarEdge projects about $3,351 in scheduled maintenance and wear items over five years and RepairPal puts average unscheduled repair at $526/yr, but the 2022 car carries two specific cost risks the 2023 redesign removed: the 2.4L Tigershark's oil-consumption and oil-pump failures, and rough shifting from the nine-speed automatic (623 owner reports). Both need specialist diagnosis, so a modest premium over the class-average repair line is realistic.

Published residual estimates put the Compass around 56–57%, but the actual four-year mark for this car is already at 57% and still falling: KBB values a 2022 Latitude at about $16,800 private party in August 2026 against its $29,520 delivered sticker. Extending that curve one more year lands near 52%, and the 2022 car is flattered on paper by having been sold into a pandemic-inflated market it is now depreciating out of.

Jeep's 3-year/36,000-mile basic coverage is the industry floor and the bottom of the SUV normalization band — two years and 24,000 miles short of the 5-year/60,000-mile terms Hyundai, Kia and Mitsubishi put on their 2022 compact SUVs.

Five years/60,000 miles is the floor of the SUV band and half of Hyundai's and Kia's 10-year/100,000-mile powertrain coverage — a real exposure given that the 2.4L Tigershark's oil-consumption pattern and the nine-speed automatic's shift complaints are exactly the failures that tend to surface past 60,000 miles.

Every 2022 Compass was delivered well before Jeep trimmed the program on 17 July 2023, so the whole model year gets the more generous Jeep Wave: a 36-month membership covering the first three oil changes and three tire rotations with no mileage restriction, 24/7 roadside assistance for the full 5-year/60,000-mile powertrain term, up to $1,000 per occurrence of trip interruption, and a no-charge same-day loaner during routine service. That beats ToyotaCare's 2-year/25,000-mile term on duration, but three service visits is still thinner than Hyundai's 3-year/36,000-mile complimentary maintenance, which keeps it out of the top band.

$29,520 volume-trim price minus its estimated resale value after 5 years (52% retained, or about $15,350) leaves about $14,170 in depreciation. Add the projected $6,100 in 5-year maintenance and repairs, and owning this vehicle for 5 years costs about $20,270 in total.

Signals genuinely conflict for the 2022 model year: J.D. Power rates it merely average and RepairPal's cost-and-frequency data is actually favorable, but the 2022 Compass carries the heaviest recall and complaint load of any late second-generation year and the one dependability study that surveyed this exact cohort after three years put Jeep far below the industry norm. That mix lands at the bottom of the average band rather than in it.

Jeep sits in the bottom tier of both major brand dependability studies and has done so for several consecutive years. The evidence is unusually direct for this model year: the 2025 VDS cohort IS the 2022 model year, and Jeep finished well adrift of average in it rather than merely below.

2022 is the worst recall year of the generation's second half — four federal campaigns and a complaint count that dwarfs every year on either side of it, driven largely by the first-year Uconnect 5 and body-control-module software. The individual campaigns are mostly software and one improperly welded safety component rather than powertrain or fire risk, which keeps it off the floor, but the volume plus Stellantis' heavy 9-speed TSB record is squarely below-average activity.

The 2022 Compass is the last year of the drivetrain Jeep later replaced, and both halves of it carry documented durability baggage: the 2.4L Tigershark MultiAir2 has a well-known oil-consumption defect traced to piston-ring sealing that produced a class action against FCA, and the ZF 948TE nine-speed fitted to 4x4 models has a long record of harsh shifts, gear hunting and limp-mode events across multiple Stellantis applications and its own litigation history. Stellantis replacing both for 2023 — the 2.0L GME turbo and a Hyundai-sourced eight-speed — is itself a comment on the pairing.

2022 is the refresh year and the cabin is the headline of it — an all-new soft-touch dashboard, reworked switchgear, a new steering wheel and a doubled-capacity console replaced what reviewers had called a bland, plastic-heavy interior. Measured against 2022 compact SUVs it was reviewed as among the better cabins in the class rather than merely competitive, which is why it grades above where the same cabin sits in the later model years after rivals refreshed around it.

Physical assembly draws few complaints — panel fit and switchgear feel were praised as part of the refresh — but fit and finish as owners experience it is dominated here by the first-year Uconnect 5 and body-control-module electronics, which generated the highest complaint volume of any recent Compass year and three of the model's four recalls. Jeep also sat below the mass-market average in the initial-quality study covering this build year, in a year when industry problem rates hit a then-record high.

Coverage is a real strength and is not year-dependent — Jeep runs one of the densest franchise networks in the US, so warranty and recall work on a 2022 Compass is reachable almost anywhere, which matters more than usual given this year's four campaigns. Service satisfaction is the weak half: Jeep does not appear near the top of J.D. Power's mass-market service rankings and Stellantis dealer service draws mixed owner reviews.

A high-volume nameplate on the widely shared Stellantis small-wide platform means abundant Mopar and aftermarket parts, and the 2.4L Tigershark and ZF nine-speed were fitted across so many Jeep, Chrysler, Dodge, Fiat and Ram models that service parts and independent-shop familiarity are plentiful. Measured annual repair cost comes in below the compact-SUV norm.

The volume Latitude gets the smaller 8.4-in panel — the 10.1-in screen is a trim walk in 2022 and only became standard across the range for 2023, so this is the one year of the refreshed cabin where the display size is genuinely below class norm.

2022 is the year Uconnect 5 arrived in the Compass and it is the car's standout: quick responses, clean graphics, logical layout, and physical volume and tuning controls retained beneath the screen.

Wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto are built into Uconnect 5, which is standard equipment on every 2022 trim including the $24,995 Sport — a feature most compact-SUV rivals still gated behind upper trims that year.

Uconnect 5's voice recognition handles command-and-control competently but is not a natural-language assistant, and native navigation with real-time traffic is an extra-cost item on the volume trim rather than standard.

The base six-speaker system is unremarkable, and the upgrade is a nine-speaker Alpine with subwoofer bundled into an option group rather than a standalone choice — a competent premium tier, not a Harman/Bowers benchmark.

The volume trim gets a small monochrome-centred gauge pack with a 7-in colour display only as an option; the 10.25-in frameless full-digital cluster that headlines the refresh is confined to Trailhawk, Limited and Latitude LUX.

Uconnect 5 brought genuine over-the-air software updating to the Compass for 2022, but the scope is infotainment and map software delivered over Wi-Fi or the embedded modem — not whole-vehicle module updates that add features.

The Uconnect/Jeep app covers the core set — remote start, lock/unlock, vehicle locate, diagnostics — but on a 2022 car it runs on a Connected Services trial that lapses into a paid subscription, and remote start itself depends on the vehicle carrying the optional Keyless Enter-n-Go passive-entry hardware. No digital key.

Front USB-A and USB-C are standard and rear-seat ports are fitted on most trims, but wireless phone charging is option-group content on the volume Latitude and there is no household AC outlet anywhere in the range.

Push-button start and remote keyless entry are standard fleet-wide, but proximity (passive) entry and remote start are options on the volume Latitude and only become standard from Latitude LUX up; a power liftgate is optional and there is no phone-as-key.

ParkView rear camera is standard as required, and a 360-degree surround-view system with dynamic gridlines is offered — but it needs the 10.1-in screen, so it is out of reach on the volume trim, and front/rear ParkSense sensors are likewise optional.

No head-up display is offered on any 2022 Compass trim or in any option package — the aftermarket windshield projectors sold for this generation are the only way to get one.

Rear-door openings are wide for the class and Cars.com's hands-on Car Seat Check found the lower anchors easy to reach and connect, but IIHS rates the LATCH hardware only Marginal for ease of use and 27.2 cu ft behind the bench is a genuine constraint with a stroller aboard.

2022 is the year Jeep pushed the content down — blind-spot monitoring with rear cross path and Active Lane Management became standard on every trim alongside full-speed forward collision warning with AEB, so the family-priced Sport and Latitude are properly equipped. It is held back by a 4-star NHTSA overall and headlights that rate only Marginal on much of the build year.

Second-row space is the good news — 38.5 in of headroom and 38.3 in of legroom genuinely fit teenagers — but the combination of near-constant engine noise, a small 27.2 cu ft hold with the seats occupied, no rear climate zone and no rear entertainment makes a long family run harder work than in the class leaders.

The 177-hp naturally aspirated 2.4L paired with the 948TE nine-speed is the specific weak point of the 2022 car: reviewers describe shifts as alternately lazy and hasty and highway merging as sluggish, which is exactly the behaviour that grates in stop-start traffic.

25 MPG combined on 87-octane regular with no premium-fuel or hybrid-battery complications keeps the fuel bill unremarkable rather than cheap — it trails class norms by a wide margin and is two MPG behind the 2023 turbo car on the same body.

A 173.4-in overall length and a 36.3-ft curb-to-curb circle make it genuinely easy to place in a city, and the standard rear camera helps — but thick roof pillars cut the over-the-shoulder view and the surround-view camera and park sensors are both extra-cost on the volume trim.

A 2,000-lb maximum tow rating that Jeep does not recommend using at all on front-drive versions, a 27.2 cu ft hold, and an engine already short of torque unladen — this is a light-duty crossover, not a work tool.

The 2.4L Tigershark and 948TE nine-speed are long-serving, widely deployed Stellantis hardware rather than new designs, and the 4x4 system is proven — but this generation's reliability record is middling and there are no fleet-oriented wear-friendly interior or upfit options.

Roof rails, a hitch through Mopar, cargo tie-downs and all-weather floor liners cover the basics, but there is no onboard AC power, no washable cargo-area treatment and nothing resembling a commercial upfit ecosystem.

The 13.5-gal tank at 25 MPG combined gives roughly 338 miles between stops, the cabin is noisy at freeway speed, the front seat cushions lack support on long stints, and full-speed adaptive cruise is standard only on Trailhawk and Limited — several strikes against it as a mile-eater.

The clear high point of the use-case set: Jeep Active Drive 4x4 is available on every trim, the Trail Rated Trailhawk adds Active Drive Low with a 20:1 crawl ratio, 8.6 in of clearance, a 30.4-degree approach angle and skid plates — real hardware that most compact crossovers cannot match.

Roof rails, a 60/40 folding bench and a hitch option cover the ordinary cases, but the underlying volume is the problem — 59.8 cu ft seats-folded is near the bottom of the SUV band, with a 31.1-in liftover and a 42.1-in maximum opening width that limits bulky items.

The strut-front, Chapman-strut-rear chassis is composed and tidy through corners for a tall, softly sprung crossover, but the soft tuning that helps the ride means body motions build early and nothing about it invites being hurried.

The electric rack is accurate enough on centre but geared slowly at 15.7:1 and weighted far too light, to the point that reviewers report needing continual small corrections to hold a straight line at speed.

Vented 12-in front rotors with solid rears and a vacuum-assisted pedal are conventional compact-SUV hardware that stops a 3,327-lb vehicle adequately; no instrumented 2022 test result surfaced, and no reviewer flags the brakes either way, which puts it squarely at class-average.

The single worst-reviewed aspect of the 2022 car, and the clearest gap between it and the 2023 turbo model on the same body: 177 hp with peak torque at 3,900 rpm gives no low-end response, and the 948TE nine-speed shifts unpredictably — lazy one moment, hasty the next — on top of standard stop-start.

Because the naturally aspirated 2.4L has to be wound toward its 6,400-rpm power peak to make progress, it is audible almost all the time and coarse when worked — reviewers of the 2022 car describe near-constant engine noise, a complaint the following year's turbo largely resolved.

A tight 36.3-ft circle on a 103.8-in wheelbase is one of the Compass's genuinely strong everyday numbers, comfortably better than the middle of the 34–42 ft SUV band, and the Trailhawk's shorter-geared setup does better still.

The 2022 refresh moved the controls to a much better place — Uconnect 5 on a raised screen with physical climate and volume controls beneath it — and the high Jeep seating position gives good forward sightlines, but 8.7 in of seat travel with a power seat only from Latitude LUX up, chunky roof pillars and forward-tilted head restraints all cost points.

Nothing about the 2022 powertrain rewards driving it — roughly 9.7 sec to 60 mph, an engine that gets coarse as it is revved and light, feedback-free steering. The Trailhawk's off-road hardware supplies real character, but only away from pavement.

The 2022 refresh made the base Sport genuinely well equipped for its $26,490 delivered price: an 8.4-inch Uconnect 5 touchscreen with wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, full-speed forward collision warning with pedestrian and cyclist detection, lane departure warning with lane keep assist, blind-spot monitoring with rear cross path detection, 16-inch alloys and a six-speaker system. It sits mid-band rather than higher because four-wheel drive was a $1,500 option (it became standard for 2023), the 10.1-inch screen required Latitude LUX or above, and heated seats, a heated wheel, remote start and adaptive cruise all meant buying up a trim.

The 2022 car buys in cheaply — about $3,500 under where the 2023 Sport would start — and the refreshed cabin is a real step up in perceived quality. What it does not deliver is powertrain value: 177 hp and 172 lb-ft through a six- or nine-speed automatic is the slowest drivetrain in the class at roughly 9.7 seconds to 60 mph, and 25 MPG combined trails rival hybrids by 10–15 MPG at comparable money. Buyers were also paying full sticker or above in 2022, so the low MSRP rarely translated into a low transaction price.

This is the broadest the second-generation Compass ever got in the US: eight trims (Sport, Latitude, Altitude, Latitude LUX, (RED) Edition, High Altitude, Limited, Trailhawk) across eleven listed configurations spanning roughly $26,500–$36,200, and — unlike 2023 onward — a real drivetrain choice, with front-wheel drive and a six-speed automatic at the value end and Jeep Active Drive or Active Drive Low with a nine-speed above it. The Trailhawk remains a hardware step (Active Drive Low with a 20:1 crawl ratio, Rock mode, a one-inch lift, 8.6 inches of ground clearance) rather than an appearance package. It falls short of the top band because all of that breadth sits on a single 177-hp engine with no hybrid or PHEV offered.

Calendar 2022 was a strong year in relative terms — 86,175 US units, up about 14% on 2021 — and the growth came in a year when the whole industry was supply-constrained and the Jeep brand overall was shrinking, so the refresh clearly landed. In absolute terms it is still mid-pack: RAV4 and CR-V each moved several times that volume, and the Compass was running roughly half its own 171,167-unit 2018 peak.

Jeep carries one of the strongest off-road halos in the industry and the 2022 Compass trades on it credibly at the top of the range, where the Trail Rated Trailhawk is real hardware. But the Compass sits at the soft end of the badge — most of the model year's volume left the lot with the 2.4L and, on the cheapest trims, front-wheel drive — and Stellantis' slide in quality and satisfaction rankings was already underway, thinning the premium the name commands here.

2022 was the worst buying environment of the generation. The chip shortage had gutted inventory, manufacturers pulled incentives, and dealers routinely added market adjustments — industry-wide incentive spend bottomed at 2.1% of transaction price in September 2022. Jeep's published 2022 Compass offers amounted to occasional 0% APR for 36 months on select models, small bonus cash and a $500 military allowance; against a car that frequently transacted at or over sticker, that is a bottom-band outcome for the buyer, and a marked step below the negotiable 2023 and 2024 cars.

2022 is the sixth model year of the MP/552 generation launched for 2017, so the platform is old — but it is a genuine change year and the first half of the car's two-stage makeover: a completely redesigned lower, wider dashboard with far better materials, Uconnect 5 with an 8.4-inch standard or 10.1-inch available touchscreen, an available 10.25-inch digital cluster, revised front fascia, headlights and taillights, and newly available ventilated front seats, heated rear seats, wireless charging and a hands-free power liftgate. It is held to mid-band because the powertrain was untouched — the 177-hp 2.4L and its six- and nine-speed automatics carried straight over — and the 200-hp turbo and standard 4x4 that completed the update arrived just one model year later.

One legitimate award — IIHS Top Safety Pick, earned with Good ratings across all six crashworthiness tests and a Superior front crash prevention grade, missing the '+' only on Marginal base headlights. Professional reviews are otherwise lower-half: critics welcomed the new interior and the above-average off-road ability but consistently faulted the 177-hp engine's pace, the fuel economy and the price, and the Compass holds no NACTOY, Car and Driver 10Best or MotorTrend SUV of the Year recognition. Owner sentiment runs noticeably warmer than the expert verdicts.