Can Jeep’s Euro-centric small SUV contender live up to the early hype? Let’s find out…
Why we’re running it: To see if this new Avenger is finally the Jeep to crack Europe
Month 1 – Specs
Life with a Jeep Avenger: Month 1
Welcoming the Avenger to the fleet – xxx xxx 2024
I have worried that what has so far been a fairytale beginning for the new Jeep Avenger will come to an end at some point – and that some fingers will be pointed in my direction for being complicit.
I went to the car’s launch back in November 2022 so was the first Autocar staffer to deliver a verdict on it. I raved about the Avenger so much that it got my vote for the 2023 Car of the Year – a title that it would go on to win – and my voice was the loudest among colleagues to name it Best Small Car at the 2023 Autocar Awards, despite no one else on the mag having driven it at the time.
A year on, it wasn’t a dream; I hadn’t drunk the Kool-Aid. The Avenger really is a good car, and not just good for a Jeep. Colleagues have since driven it and liked its character and the way it drives.
Yet all my acquaintances with and drives in the Avenger so far have been brief, which makes this long-term test even more interesting. It certainly leaves a good first impression, yet what we learn over the next few months will dictate how lasting that impression is going to be now the shock and surprise factors (both positive, I should add) have worn off.
To recap, the Avenger is like no other Jeep before it, and not only because it can be recommended for the way it drives on the road as well as off it. It’s the first Jeep to have been designed, engineered and manufactured away from the US; instead, its creation was led by Italy and the building of it takes place in Poland. Such is its Euro focus that it won’t even be sold to Americans.
Jeep has had a job on its hands because the small SUV is the hardest type of car with which to create something unique and interesting. Such small SUVs mostly look oddly proportioned, particularly when compared with the supermini on which they are typically based (think Ford Fiesta to Puma, Renault Clio to Captur).
Yet not so this Jeep. Maybe that’s because there are no preconceptions about what a small Jeep looks like, but even so, the result of the Avenger is that it manages to look both compact and substantial.
The Jeep design cues work well on such a small car and when you’re inside, you’d never guess how small it is, because that sense of robustness remains. At just 4.08 metres long, it’s shorter than almost every other car in its class, yet somehow it still manages to look the toughest – like a featherweight boxer at a weigh-in.
The Avenger is electric, which is another Jeep first, but it won’t be sold solely as an EV. When we first drove it, the UK was only going to take the electric Avenger, but there’s now also a 1.2-litre petrol version with a manual gearbox coming to bring the entry price point down by about £8500, as well as a mild hybrid.
For launch, though, the Avenger remains electric-only, and it’s offered in three trim levels: Longitude (£35,700), Altitude (£37,400) and Summit (£39,600 and what we have here, each adding progressively more toys: Each model is front-wheel drive and uses a 154bhp electric motor.
The battery pack is 51kWh and offers an official range of up to 249 miles. The crucial heat pump is standard and the charging speed is up to 100k. Our test car has some options, among them striking yellow paint and leather seats, which, along with the infotainment pack, push the price north of £42,000.
This suddenly feels pretty punchy, and it’s a good £10,000 more than the starting price that was talked about back on the original test drive in late 2022. At the time, the mooted price gave extra weight to the praise the car received, but it looks like even the petrol version is going to be £10,000 more than a Renault Clio.Still, prices can be cut, discounts negotiated, deals structured.
What can’t be quickly changed is the underlying quality of a car that you’re getting in return for your money. Early indications show that the Avenger could at last be a Jeep to give the brand lift-off in Europe, a market in which less than one in 100 SUVs sold wear a Jeep badge. There’s much to learn about this Avenger – not only how good a car it can be but also how far it can take the Jeep brand.
Second Opinion
I was eager to drive the Avenger. It looks fantastic, but my worry was that style would win over substance. Yet it was just so… normal: more comfortable, sensible city cruiser than what its rugged, go-anywhere look promised. In my short time with the Jeep it felt easy to live with. Let’s see if it is. W
Will Rimell
Jeep Avenger Electric Summit specification
Specs: Price New £39,600 Price as tested £42,125 Options Sun/Volcano bi-colour paint £1100, black leather with grey stitching £900, Summit infotainment pack £500, puncture repair kit £25
Test Data: Engine Front-mounted permanent synchronous motor Power 154bhp Torque 192lb ft Kerb weight 1,288kg Top speed 93mph 0-62mph 9.0sec Range 248 miles (claimed) Fuel economy 3.9mpkWh (claimed) CO2 0g/km Faults None Expenses None
