Jeep Avenger Review | A FWD Jeep?!

Welcome to what has got to be the windiest hillside in southern Spain and, more importantly, Jeep's first ever all-electric vehicle. It's going to have a petrol engine in the fullness of time but for now at launch it's an electric car only. It's called the Avenger, it's priced from around £35,000, it's got a 249 mile range, fast charging, loads of off-road tech and, to my eyes at least, I think it looks fantastic and I say that because Jeeps, for me, have got to look characterful and distinctive and fun and I think this does that. It's got that squared-off front and rear end and it's also got a really nice profile and stance thanks to those bulging wheel arches that you can see and the black plastic inserts around the bumper and the side sills, it's integrated really nicely into the design so they're there for functional purposes if you bump it when you're off-roading or in traffic but it actually looks good as well. It doesn't look cheap or an afterthought. It's a similar kind of design to the Citroen Cactus and, while I'm at the front end, take a look at this. I reckon that this vertical grille design here with the slats going down and also the rectangular headlamp profiles, that reminds me of an 80s Cherokee which I think is one of the best looking Jeeps ever. Of course you've got slats on most Jeeps that go like this and these are a bit wider and it's not a proper radiator grille but still, the whole design, it just works. For those with a keen eye there's plenty of smaller design touches too. The Jeep lights and grille logo appears throughout while the windscreen has a stars graphic and a silhouette of a boy with a telescope and a person lying down, apparently depicting the designer of the car and his son. Look even closer and on the inserts for the roof rails you'll see a tiny plastic ladybird with seven spots which is the same amount of grille slats as you'll find on the famous Jeep logo. Why are any of these things here? Well, who knows but it's a nice touch regardless. Now all of that is great, lovely attention to detail but there's something about this car that I feel like I should tell you quite early on in the review because it's not very Jeep and if you mention the name Jeep to anyone they'll think off-roaders. The name can be traced back to World War II reconnaissance vehicles but this, the Avenger, it hasn't got four-wheel drive. It's front-wheel drive only. I mean there is a four-wheel drive version coming but it's not available now and that's no good. Jeep has however included a few electronic off-road aids on the Avenger to make sure it's not embarrassed when the going gets tough. Hill descent control is fitted as standard as is the select terrain drive modes including specific presets for mud, snow and sand. It's not all about clever tech though because Jeep has also adapted this car's platform so that the front and rear overhangs are as short as possible and that means that you've got an approach angle of 20 degrees, a departure angle of 32 degrees, ground clearance of 200 millimetres and a maximum wading depth of 230 millimetres. They've also done things like make sure the bottom of the car is as flat as possible and that helps protect the key components when you're off-roading and it also helps with aerodynamics which is never a bad thing. Now I'll be honest I haven't tested this car on a hardcore or even semi-hardcore off-road course because Jeep hasn't let us and I can kind of understand that but for what it's intended to do which is a heavily rutted track going up to a house in the countryside or perhaps snow conditions or sand perhaps, it does the job really well and it does offer an extra level of ability that you simply won't get with other cars in this sector that are not aimed at off-roading. The one thing I would say is that the increased approach and departure angles are great. You can definitely use that but if it's for example a muddy field then I'm not sure how much difference the drive modes are going to make. I reckon you could do most things in normal drive mode and let's not forget that a lot of off-roading especially in a muddy field is going to be down to the tyres on this car so if you put regular road tyres on this and then you put off-roading or semi-off-roading tyres on an Alfa Romeo Tenale and then you go to a muddy field the Tenale would be the better off-roader so it's got its limitations so you've got to bear that in mind. The Avenger maintaining some of its off-roading ability is crucial to the car's character but as we know from big selling rivals small SUVs are usually bought on the basis of their on-road performance and their cabins. Climb into the Avenger and the rugged but fun theme continues in here and it's largely because of this big body coloured slab of trim that goes the full width of the dashboard. It's definitely needed because otherwise it's a little bit dark and grey and black but this this big bit of yellow looks fantastic. Obviously you need to get an actual bright colour on the outside so that it looks bright in here because it wouldn't work as well if it was grey or black but in yellow yes I really like it and it's punctuated by ambient lighting around the outside there which you can get in eight different shades so I'm a big fan of that. Trim levels you've got three to choose from there's longitude, altitude and summit and all of them come with a 10.25 inch touchscreen infotainment system and a seven inch digital dashboard display unless you go for the top two trim levels and then that digital dash increases in size to 10.25 inches so the same as the infotainment screen. I'm actually pretty impressed with the infotainment system it's probably not the best on the market quite but it's nice and responsive the menus are clear the graphics look good it's got built-in sat nav and apple carplay and android auto and also the digital dash is nice and high def and you can customise it so there's lots of different icons and information that you can see and overall it works well and it fits in nicely with the car so again thumbs up with that. What else am I a fan of? Oh yeah the steering wheel it's made of a material called urethane and it's very very smooth and quite satisfying to hold so I like that and actually the driving position as a whole you are in a jeep you can tell that it's something which is a bit different to say your supermini because of how you're sat quite high but it doesn't feel too wide it's not a big thing to pilot down a narrow road also it's got proper physical buttons for the climate control and the volume which is fantastic some Stellantis products don't and it's a big pain in the arse but this really easy to use and crucially if you're going to do some rugged off-roading which you might because it's a jeep then you can press all of these buttons with gloves on. Another thing which is very practical and definitely not boring is the storage space in here. Jeep claims that there's 34 litres of space in the interior and that's a little bit hard to get your head around but I mean there's a nicely sized door pocket down here there's a space just above those buttons where you can put all sorts of odds and ends you've got the glove box this bit it folds back quite neatly like so and there's your wireless charging pad on higher spec models and also a really big bit that goes in there as you can see that just completely gets swallowed and you can put that in there as well and you can still close it up and then move the armrest back and there's two places there's one for your bottles and there's one for your other bits and bobs like your passport and your wallet it's just filled with space in here. It's easy to forget that the Avenger isn't a big car but even so there's still enough space in the back for a couple of tall adults the boot meanwhile is available with an electronic tailgate and luggage capacity is rated at 380 litres helped by the fact that the batteries are stored further forward in the car there's also a false floor for storing valuables or a charging cable and the boot lip is nice and flush making it easier to load those bulky items. Now this might come as a surprise but one of my favourite bits about the Avenger and how it drives is that it doesn't feel too quick and it's not too quick it does 0-62mph in about nine and a half seconds it's got 156 brake horsepower 93 mile an hour top speed and that's just right ever since electric cars have started coming out thick and fast they've all had loads of power and in some cases it's great but when it comes to a little compact SUV like this that's supposed to be affordable and easy to drive you don't need it to be ballistic and warp speed it just needs to be brisk which is exactly what it is you put your foot down you go it keeps up with traffic it's more than enough but it's not excessive and that's important what i'm more interested in is the range so it's got a usable battery and that means that you've got a 249 mile WLTP range which is pretty good jeeps say that if you do lots of urban miles that'll easily get to above 300 miles and i believe them actually because the range readout we've done about 40 kilometers on this trip so far has dropped by what 39 40 kilometers so it's pretty much bang on which is what you want when you've got to plan your electric car journeys and not run out of juice at the critical moment this is accurate and you can rely on it charging speeds well there's a 100 kilowatt dc charging capability which means that you get 20 to 80 percent charge in around 24 minutes which is good then the ac charging is 11 kilowatt only and that means that you've got zero to 100 percent of charge in five and a half hours i do like how this car handles it feels agile it's got a nice front end there's lots of grip it's got a really good turning circle weighs about 1500 kilograms which yeah sounds heavy but for an electric car actually isn't too bad but the main issue is the steering like the tonale that this car shares a platform with it's over assisted does weight up a bit in sport mode but in normal mode it's too light and also there's no feel so although as i said it's got good front end grip you really can't feel it so you end up sort of sawing your way into corners just to get a sensation of what the front tires are doing which is a shame because actually i think it could be quite good fun you've got the instant torque as i said it's not too quick so you're not driving along and instantly breaking the speed limit and it resists roll well too but yeah i don't really know what the front wheels are doing in fact my ears are telling me more about the front wheels through what the tires are doing than my hands which is a strange sensation despite not having adaptive suspension the jeep manages to stay flat and agile in the corners as well as being comfortable on the move the ride is supple and it's quiet at motorway speeds with only a small amount of wind noise this is a surprisingly relaxing car to drive around in i do like the way that the avenger drives minus the lack of steering feel it's very accomplished it's comfortable it's quick enough smooth all the things that you want i think the one little bit that maybe lets it down is that it doesn't have the character in how it drives as the rest of the car does because you look at this thing and you think oh wow it looks fun it looks cool is it going to drive like that no but then it is an ev and as we know getting character and making a car an ev feel unique when it hasn't got an engine that's a really hard thing to do so i don't think we can be too hard on jeep for that but just bear in mind that if you think that this is going to drive completely differently from any other ev rival in this sort of sector then yeah it's not it's good to drive but it's not unique i've spent two days driving the avenger around southern spain and i honestly think that they've pretty much nailed it lifeless steering aside it's hard to fault and while it doesn't exactly feel much like a jeep to drive that could be seen as a good thing when it comes to the type of use that most customers will want it for it's the jeep badge and looks but without the usual on-road compromises and if that doesn't the brand's ticket to mass market success in europe but i really don't know what will