I’d also argue when those Freemont claims were made Ol’ Musky still believed he was going to turn NUMMI into a virtually fully-automated factory where raw material and components went in and finished cars came out with minimal human interaction on the actual line. Tesla seems to have learned the reality: the big kids,…

DTM3: But what if they had put an LS and 4L60E into the rear end instead of the buick engine?

Maybe a missed communication, here. Not hooning. When I say hot-hatch it, I meant grab the Mopar lowering kit, get larger wheels and some lower profile tires, the Magneti Marelli ECU piggy-back, etc. Maybe some questionable aero. . . I don’t think anyone’s really done that build, even though the bones are there. If we…

It’s sometimes hard to feel out intentions when the tone of the comment’s neutral but can be taken as an honest question or a polite suggestion that I’m overdue to see my ophthalmologist. Just hedging my bet, I guess.

In this case I meant the Compass as a whole, as I can really speak to it, and was using “polish” with…

Couldn’t help myself:  must’ve been all the Kool-Aid that was dumped around this site during the lead-up to the North American release.

As another benefit, it helps maintain my street-cred in the “save the manuals” threads when I can whip out my trap card: “I bought a brand-new manual transmission equipped vehicle,…

And my god, is it not soooo much better than the automatic version? Not to tell someone what to do with their own car but since you went straight-up FWD, you totally should lean-in hard and hot-hatch it!

Those EPA numbers on the sticker are definitely low. We’ve been averaging between 26-28MPG combined over around 70K…

I’m going to treat this as a sincere question.

They’re both built on FIAT’s “Small-Wide” platform, and the Compass uses the Renegade’s exact* same powertrain, suspension, brakes, etc. under the sheet metal and interior trim. My statement is literally what happened: they stretched the platform to add rear legroom and…

As someone pointed out in one of the Bronco threads, the supply dried out in a hurry and no dealership stocked them. Our local dealership received two-four manual Renegades in their initial allotment, and I don’t believe I ever saw another one after that. Most people aren’t going to sign for 20-25K without at least…

Hah, that’s what we bought: a sport manual 4x4 with the pop-off roof panels, upgraded audio and alloy wheels. If I had a “complaint,” it feels like the rear axle steps in a little abruptly when driving in anger: it’s like it just decides to dump all the power out back in one giant lump. Other than that, I think if…

The Renegade version is far better and similarly ignored. Hell, you even got the 1.4T out of the 500 Abarth as an added reward for your correct transmission choice. Apparently, my wife and I were either the lone maniacs to sign on that particular dotted line, or people are just boring disappointments.

Take a Renegade, stretch it out a bit and then polish away any character.  Boom!  Compass!

Which is why I’ll just get that instead of my original idea of a Black Diamond with Mid and ‘Squatch.

For others, particularly the Base/manual crowd, not being able to have the more serious off-road hardware, (key words inbound!) covered by factory warranty, without either ponying up substantially more money or…

Oh, it’s not going to sink it at all; just got the impression you were in the pro-manual camp given the 2.7/auto/miss comment in your original post.

. . .Which leads into that I think barring the ‘Squatch from the manual trucks was another (probably larger) misstep, especially as you brought up the magic word: Base.…

Oh, absolutely. We all know the reputations, and we all know people who’ve had a Cavalier that refused to so much as hiccup or owned a Civic that gave them ulcers on a weekly basis.

Sometimes it’s all reading the signs and portents. In the lead-up to the Renegade’s North American release, I knew to avoid the ZF9 like…

It’s a FIAT that got off the boat and then proceeded to buy a nice house in the suburbs and every ‘Murrican flag could lay its hands on: “Melfi” in my post refers to city in Italy where my Renegade was actually built. So it’s not exactly a Jeep, but then again, it’s not like FIAT doesn’t have a charming acronym…

Oddly enough, my manual Renegade has been as reliable as a block of granite and that’s about as FIAT as a Jeep can possibly get. The only issue in 70K miles (since 2015) has been a failed clutch pedal sensor, which IIRC merely caused the e-brake to not automatically engage/disengage. Must’ve been a good day in Melfi.

Th…

I’m guessing you missed the bad news. Well, if you’re also of the mindset that not offering the 2.7 with the manual was a miss, it’s about to get worse: Sasquatch is at present only available with an automatic. The closest you can get while maintaining a manual transmission is the Badlands trim @ forty large USD,…

Part of the reason they got away with it was ultimately nothing mechanical in the GTO was too far afield from what we had here in ‘Murrica. (Otherwise Nissan could’ve just pointed at the R3x Skylines and claimed out it’s kinda like a J30. Damn.) I believe it was for the fuel economy/emissions stuff but if I remember…

I haven’t heard great things about the Tigershark over the years either but I’d loved to try one without the ZF9. I’m half-surprised the 2.4 w/ manual didn’t at least become an option on the Rennie once the Compass shipped as they could’ve just resubmitted the Compass results for the Rennie.* Your instincts were…

Ironically, that’s the crux of the issue: we want to buy manuals but are then repeatedly told we’re allowed to have nothing else alongside the privilege of rowing our own gears. Then we get slapped again with “we don’t produce a manual version any more because no one bought the manuals we built.” Well, no shit, we…