Sector: Small SUV crossover Price: €16,000–€25,600 Fuel: 5.1–6.9l/100km CO2: 120–155g/km

Built in Fiat’s Italian Melfi factory, with co-operative, trans-Atlantic engineering and design input, Jeep’s new compact Renegade is a significant contender in the expanding global small SUV-crossover sector.

With a technical platform that shares basic elements with Fiat’s 500L and upcoming 500X, the Renegade is the first modern Jeep to be made in Europe and has the pioneering potential to gain significant international fleet business.

The distinctively styled newcomer, drawing some detailed inspiration from the original 1941 US Army Willys Jeep, uses a five-door unitary construction and according to Fiat Auto Group was designed in Detroit, Michigan, and crafted in Turin and Melfi.

Jeep’s American chassis engineers demanded that the Renegade’s interpretation of the basic Fiat architecture equipped the SUV with genuinely robust 4×4, off-road capabilities. Even if Enrico Atanasio, FGA’s head of fleet for Europe, the Middle East and Africa, admitted that the majority of CO2-conscious, corporate customers will buy the front-wheel drive 1.4-litre, 140hp, six-speed manual petrol and 140/170hp 2.0-litre Multijet, nine-speed automatic versions.

To set it apart from what Jeep claimed are compromised smaller European SUVs, like the two-wheel drive only Peugeot 2008 and Renault Captur, Jeep’s Renegade slots between Nissan’s Juke and Qashqai, whose all-wheel drive sales are marginal. Jeep considers the Mini Countryman and Skoda’s Yeti as more direct opposition.

The Renegade’s upright styling has surprisingly good aerodynamic efficiency and with an eye on a fairly high percentage of user-chooser buyers there is a wide variety of customising features available from US Army star decals to a Jeep-branded attachable tent.

Although two-wheel drive should dominate Renegade fleet sales in most markets, Jeep pointed out that its torque-sensing 4×4 system incorporates the option for drivers to disconnect the rear-wheel drive element resulting in a limited impact on fuel consumption and exhaust emissions.

As with Land Rover and Range Rover the potential capability of all-wheel drive remains central to Jeep’s marketing strategy setting it aside from most rivals with the claim that they can carry virtually anything, virtually anywhere.

The Renegade feels significantly roomier and sturdier than some European and Korean rivals and sits between Nissan’s Juke and Qashqai, with impressive rear passenger space and headroom plus a maximum of nearly 1,300 litres of luggage compartment space.

New market territory for Jeep involves higher-grade interiors, while design details can be customised to a high degree. On the road the front-wheel-drive 140hp, six-speed manual, 1.4-litre turbo petrol model was fairly refined and agile. But as with the 2.0-litre turbo diesel 4×4 counterpart (with the same power output) ride quality was compromised although the diesel’s nine-speed automatic made highway sections relaxed and economical courtesy of high ratio low engine revs. Jeep is working on reducing the two-wheel drive petrol variant’s 120g/km CO level.

Verdict:

Jeep scales up fleet ambitions by scaling down with the smaller SUV Renegade and widening the iconic US brand’s footprint.