Jeep Compass

[Byrd]

I'm thinking that the not too distant future holds a new vehicle for me. What I have now just isn't big enough anymore, and with hubby eventually coming it will be even worse as he's got pretty long legs. I also plan to eventually be a two dog household, and need space to ship two back and forth to events.

Does anyone have a Compass or know someone that does?

I'm just wondering if anyone has heard any negative press on it. I like the look and it's the perfect size. Also, it seems to be the only vehicle of its size that still comes with the manual option, as well as being the only one that finishes under $30,000 with all the options I want.



Thanks.

[happycats]

My nephew is looking for an SUV as well, so bought the lemon-aid book for cars, and the compass did very poor! of all the Jeeps the Liberty was the better one.
I would stongly recomend getting the lemon-aid book before purchasing any vehicle.

He got it a Chapters.

[Byrd]

Really? That sucks!

Did he happen to say which of the SUV's did well?

[otter]

consumers reports also is a good place to look for car reviews (www.consumerreports.org). They rate the Hyundai Santa Fe as their top pick and it has a manual option

[Byrd]

Cool thanks. I would like to have some personal reviews though.

Also, I'm from a GM family and live in a GM town, so I kinda have to drive a North American brand.

[Byrd]

I found this site http://usnews.rankingsandreviews.com...-Compact-SUVs/

I really like the CRV as well, but that's the whole "GM town" problem. GM has nothing I like right now, my family would kill me if I bought a Honda!!!

[otter]

I have a membership to consumerreports.org and I can look up their ratings for any car you like... let me know if you want me to look something up (and yes, they confirm, all the Jeep SUV's are rated very low). Have you looked at the Acadia? It's the best rated GMC and recommended.

Hmmm, not sure if it's manual though

[Byrd]

Yeah, the Acadia is a bit too big.

I like the Saturn Vue, but the pricing is outrageous! It gets to nearly 40 grand by the time I get all the options I want, and one of those doesn't seem to be manual.

[otter]

Are the Vue and the Pontiac Torrent the same thing? they are rated the same (not great but OK).... everything else is rated really poorly.

If you want to try out a jeep for a bit try looking at Enterprise rent a car... they had the Jeep listed for rental on their website. Still, they are not rated well at all.

If you do consider non GM vehicles I give another vote for the Santa Fe - I forgot that's the car my dad has and he loves it, a good friend of mine has one too and she's had very good time with it except repairs under warrantee took longer than she expected.

[happycats]

Basically the lemon-aid guide has poor reviews for the North American SUV's !
Imports seem to fair MUCH better. I Love VW's and I live in a GM town, but am finding many of my GM neighbours are sick of buying GM crap, and have switched to Imports!! Honda being the most popular for them.
I'll check the guide tonight, and see which North American came out the best.

[Elizabeth Ann]

We just purchased a Dodge Nitro in November for a couple reasons.

We have three dogs and were driving a 2004 SX 2.0 (the new neon), or a Grand Prix. And the other reason was for towing.

• A couple things we really liked about the Nitro were
• it's longer then the Liberty (but manufactured on the same line).
• The floor of the back part flips over from carpet to plastic.
• The back seats fold down flat
• The rugged look
• The milage was just five kms less then the escape hybrid
• Did I mention the looks?

After purchasing the Nitro a friend told me that he had read a lot of horrible reviews on the Nitro so I started doing my research (which I guess was to late anyways). I read about a few scary problems but they were all with the first year cars.

We LOVE out Nito and are really happy with it.

• If you are looking for style and comfort go North American.
• If you are looking for a very dependable car and have the extra money to spend then go Import. They also hold their resale value.

(Please remember that all brands have their own problems. V/W have electorial problems, GM have transmission problems, Honda has rusting problems, and so on).

[Ford Girl]

We recently bought a compact SUV, and I think you will find all kinds of pros and cons to each...we ended up buying a KIA Sportage, it's smaller then the Compass...so for that size, you'd be looking at the KIA Sorrento. We love it, it's got the best warrenty and road side assitance (5 year bumper to bumper, road side assit.) out of all the compact SUVs, and was under 30k. My man's very tall too, too tall for a sunroof in any compact suv we tests drove, we drove almost all the makes and models from all the dealerships we could find - we weren't in a hurry this time, which is nice. Ours is a 5 speed manual, 4 cycl, great on gas, excellent service.

Being from a Chev/GMC town, going Jeep wouldn't be any better then going foriegn! Neither will Ford - infact, if you don't go GMC or Chev, you'd be better off going imported....hahha! Chev/Dodge/Ford are competitors, Jeep is made by Dodge. People don't compare domestic to foriegn.

The cons to any of the Jeep brand suv's - they are made for offroading - which means their suspensions are stiffer, rugged, they guzzle gas, and have larger engines, and they come with options that they factor in to the cost regardless of whether you need or want it such as steering stablizers and skid plates, etc...now if you plan on towing a tent trailer, camping, hiking, and need 4x4, those kinds of things - then go jeep, thats what they are made for - they are built tough but ride tough. But if you don't plan on using it as a 4x4, then I don't suggest one.

Personally, we owned a Dodge car, had the same engine as their Durango, the engine blew within the first 100K, so we said we'd never buy another Dodge again...but thats just the experience we've had with Dodge, we also have 2 friends with Dodge Rams, who had had nothing but issues with their new trucks...

When we bought my mans size played a huge role in it...the KIA's had most head and leg room. I'm not a huge fan of imported brands, but I do love my KIA...if we hadn't bought the KIA - we would have gotten a Jeep Liberty (dispite having bad taste in our mouths for Dodge ) - only cuz we do camp and off road and I haul a tent trailer behind me so we would appreciate the Jeep's set up - thats what they are made to do - we would have never lived it down tho - Ford folks driving a Jeep. So I know how you feel about your GMC town...

KIA and Hyandia are the exact same thing, different body panels, same car made in 2 different places....Ford makes Mazda - so if you want the imported options made domesticly, go Mazda - their Tribute is a great SUV, but with domestic warrnety.

Good luck!!

[Byrd]

Well, Chrysler is only two cities over, so it's kind of a GM/Chrysler town. LOL

I do like the Santa Fe, I saw a few today. The Torrent's not so bad either... the Equinox being the same thing. Basically whatever ends up having a descent price and comes in standard will be my choice.

I called Saturn and Honda today and neither the Vue or the CRV come in stick.

The Vue and the Torrent are similar, yes, they are made on the same platform. My ex used to work at Saturn and now works for GM Corporate, so I know a bit along those lines.

[happycats]

Originally Posted by Byrd

Well, Chrysler is only two cities over, so it's kind of a GM/Chrysler town. LOL

I do like the Santa Fe, I saw a few today. The Torrent's not so bad either... the Equinox being the same thing. Basically whatever ends up having a descent price and comes in standard will be my choice.

I called Saturn and Honda today and neither the Vue or the CRV come in stick.

The Vue and the Torrent are similar, yes, they are made on the same platform. My ex used to work at Saturn and now works for GM Corporate, so I know a bit along those lines.

That's wierd, because the lemon-aid guide says the saturn vue comes with 5 speed man or 4 speed auto. But it rated "not recommended" (you couldn't buy a worse SUV)
The Honds CRV is rated recommended it got 5 stars and has a "best buy" award on it. But it comes only in Auto.

[happycats]

Although the Honda CRV comes only auto. the Honda Element comes in 5 speed man, and is rated "above average" with 4 stars.

[rainbow]

Here's a website to check out....

http://www.dogcars.com/

[happycats]

The Hyundai Santa fe got a recommended 5 stars and best buy rating and comes in 5 speed man.
The Hyundai Tucson got above average, 4 stars and comes in a 5 speed man.
Kia sportage got above average 4 stars and comes in a 5 speed-man
Kia sorento got average 3 stars and comes in 5 speed man.

[Byrd]

Hhhmmmm the Tuscon is kinda nice.

I may just have to go for a 'previously loved' vehicle. That's what my current one is, and it hasn't steered me wrong (no pun intended).

[happycats]

But he santa fe has 5 stars

[Byrd]

Yes, but I'm looking for a compact SUV, sized between a regular SUV and a hatchback.

[Byrd]

hhhmmm but the Santa Fe comes in manual tranny in a higher model than just the base. Another to look into for sure.

[Ford Girl]

If you are seriously considering a Hyandai, look at the KIA's, they are the exact same thing, they are made in the same plants, Hyandai has more plastic finishing, only KIA has 2 more years of warrenty! The exact same - Hyandai has 3 years and KIA has 5 years bumper to bumper, power train and road side assitance...for 5 years! This outlasts the payments and has a better resale value.

And to be honest, the size difference is not that much between a santa fe and a tuscon and the sorrento and sportage....they are all compact - they don't even come close to being "full size" like the domestics like the Explorer or Blazer...

I do love my KIA, I fill it every pay day, twice a month, $50 each time, it's a 5 spd manual, with a 4 cycl engine so it's fuel efficient, pulls my 800lbs tent trailer, has all wheel drive....I'm a truck kinda girl - but if I have to drive a smaller vehicle, this works for me.

Keep us posted!!

[Love4himies]

Here is a good website if you want to see what consumers are saying about their vehicles they bought. Probably the most reliable reviews ever. Go under "User Reviews", then select the year, make, model:

http://autos.msn.com/home/reviewerspage.aspx

Hope this helps.

[Kristin7]

How about the Chevy HHR? I am not sure it is really an SUV, but according to the reviews there is quite a lot of cargo space, it gets decent gas mileage (but not as much as claimed by Chevy), and comes in manual transmission. The price tag is not bad either. I'm sure the retro look is not for some, though. I've also been looking around for a bigger vehicle, my little Subaru sport wagon is just not big enough and the ride is fairly rough (my animals don't like it).

http://autos.msn.com/research/vip/re...olet&model=HHR

[Byrd]

Sorry, no offence, but for the life of me I could not bring myself to drive a KIA, personal reasons really. Mostly the whole "Kia stands for Killed in Action" and the commercials with the "aaaeeeeeaaaa" they used to call that "famous last words of a KIA driver". Seriously, it's a subconcious thing now but that's all I think about when I hear the brand.

The HHR is a little too PT Cruiser-ish for me, I like rounded edges and slick design.

This I may just have to buck up and go auto. I really think it may be best to stick with good ole GM considering I am a GM daughter and do get the discount, plus the GM Visa card. I may check out the Torrent, or even the Vibe, it might be big enough.

I'm not rushing into anything, gonna look around, for now, stick with my car, see what happens. Shop around a bit, check out some of the SUV's and Compact SUV's out there, see what's up, if there's anything I actually do like.