2015 Jeep Renegade Sport 4x4 1.4T Manual

2015 Jeep Renegade Sport 4x4 1.4T Manual 2015 Jeep Renegade Sport 4x4 1.4T Manual
Instrumented Test From the May 2015 issue

The biggest fear of Jeep die-hards, worse than nuclear war or Disney measles, is the steady dilution of their favorite brand. Like anti-vax­xers, Jeep’s fanboys refuse to accept the ­science, namely that Jeep (and Fiat Chrysler) needs more mainstream vehicles in order to prosper. They hated the car-based Compass and Patriot, and now they’ve directed their disdain toward the new Renegade, which suffers from the affliction best known as “not-a-Wrangler-itis.” You’ll have to pry the ladder frames and live axles from the die-hards’ cold, dead hands.

With the Renegade, however, we’re not convinced that their vitriol is well-aimed. Sure, the Italian-built Renegade is the crossover vaccine Jeep needs in order to keep expanding sales and meet stringent fuel-economy standards. But the base-model Sport is a Renegade reduced to its essentials, something even the Moab mob could find admirable. At $20,990, the Sport, with four-wheel drive, gets steel wheels, black-plastic body cladding, a manual transmission, and an adorable resemblance to a chubby Jeep DJ mail truck. Its Spartan list of features sounds suspiciously like that of the Wrangler’s.

Power mirrors, aluminum wheels, and A/C raised our Sport’s ask to just over $23,000. At that price, there’s still austerity in the gaping crevasse of black plastic standing in for the grille and the similarly stark monument to injection molding serving as the interior. But everything feels of a piece, while cutesy Jeep heritage cues keep it all from feeling too cheap. A touch screen is optional, but navigation aids are down to a paper map or a smartphone taped to the dashboard. Step up to the mid-level Renegade Latitude if you want onboard nav.

Despite the Sport’s temperance, beneath its stubby hood sits a modern turbocharged 1.4-liter four-cylinder producing 160 horsepower that mates to a six-speed manual. Ordering the optional nine-speed automatic changes the engine spec, installing a 2.4-liter naturally aspirated four that powered the Renegade Limited we tested in March. The turbo cedes 20 horsepower to the 2.4-liter but squeaks out an additional 9 pound-feet of torque. It also has to propel less Renegade; the Sport is nearly 300 pounds lighter than the feature-laden Limited and thus reaches 60 mph 0.1 second sooner. In spite of its narrower, 65-series tires, the slimmer Sport’s braking and cornering figures also improve.

It might look like a Jeep as drawn by Richard Scarry, but the base Renegade with a manual is a straightforward and likable tool.

It isn’t a road-burner, but it’s a revelation for a Jeep, cornering in a way that suggests that the front and rear ends actually work together. The combination of a stick shift and four-wheel drive feels elemental in the Renegade’s boxy wrapper, like the kind of Jeep that kids have been taking to ­college for decades. And with so few distractions, drivers are left to ponder gear selection and what’s going on outside that big slab of glass in front of their faces. It’s fun, in a throwback sort of way.

We find it all charming and Jeep-like, even sans a “trail-rated” badge. Let’s hope the target ­demographic (youth) can put down its smartphones long enough to learn how to operate a manual transmission.