Getting in the rink with the big boys

By Team FHM · Oct 2017 · 4 min read

Read FHM India in the digital libraryEvery issue, every shoot, on TCG Media.Read now

About an year back, we had written about the Jeep Wrangler, an SUV that was beyond capable. And now, we’re back with another baby from the Jeep stable. Wait… is it fair to call the Compass a baby? Maybe it’s more of a beast. But then, only pretentious posers need fancy adjectives. I think we should call the Compass just what it is, a true blue offroader that’s also comfortable on road

Words & Photographs: Hari Govind Nair

Read FHM India in the digital libraryEvery issue, every shoot, on TCG Media.

If only I had known that my time with the Jeep Compass would coincide with one of the worst downpours Mumbai had seen in years... About a month back, after hearing too many good things about the new SUV from Jeep, I decided to get hold of the Compass and check out it’s ratio of marketing is to the real deal. Being from Kerala and specifically from the district of Wayanad, I have seen my fair share of bare-bone off roaders crushing it through tea plantations and coffee estates to reach spots where Google Maps shows no roads and our networks get lost. So with an aim to throw the Compass in a bare-knuckle, no rules fight, I decided to drive down to my hometown from Mumbai in this ‘baby’ Jeep.

Darting Through the Straights

With almost 1200 kms of arrow straight highway between me and Wayanad, the first leg of my journey was nothing but all about going full throttle. With our trucker bothers playing a game of moving slaloms, I had more than enough opportunities to swerve in and out from one end of the tarmac to another at speeds that I am ashamed to talk about. But more than the speed or the dexterity of the Compass, what caught my attention was the absolute stillness in the cabin while making these maneuvers. With minimum body roll, the Jeep Compass manages to pull off a feat that not many SUVs in this segment can claim to achieve.

Killing 18 hours

Unfortunately due to rains, I managed to hit quite a few patches of heavy traffic on our journey and our 1200 km drive was peppered with several high speed runs, lazy crawls and simple standstill modes! This gave me ample time to experience the plush interiors of the Compass and the one thing that really caught my eye was the gear knob. With a nice matt silver coloured finish, maybe bordering on platinum, it has a spherical shape which caresses the palm of your hand with a deft touch. Of course the other elements were also interesting, but this somehow stood out for me. As with every other SUV in this category, the Compass is spacious from every possible angle. But then, which company would want to pit their so called SUVs against the Compass? Tough one!

River, woods and the ghats

Finally having reached Wayanad, it was time to take the Compass to the place it really belongs. One of my cousins who owns a bare bodied Mahindra 4x4 decided in his head that there’s no way an SUV that was so plush could take on the kind of trails that his 4x4 could. The Stinson in me simply jumped out and said, “Challenge Accepted”. The first task was pretty simple, a quick uphill dash through a ghat section with ten hairpin bends. Though there was not much traffic, but at times we still had to make those power bursts to overtake trailers and the over cautious car drivers. From there we headed off to the woods crossing plantations and further up towards the hills. Having crossed misty bends and gurgling waterfalls we reached trails that were definitely not meant for the faint at heart. Extremely narrow, filled with ruts, deep enough to gobble off two wheelers, and climbs at incredulous angles, the Compass just ambled away.

Though my cousin was impressed, he still wasn’t buying it and wanted to throw in one final task. This time he took us to an embankment which had a water crossing deep enough to breach the upper lip of the SUV’s front grille. I was a bit skeptical but could I really backout… No way! So off we went and I gingerly stepped on the gas. Within seconds I was surrounded by water on all sides but there was nothing which could stop my momentum. The Compass kept on going and crossed over to the other side. And with that one move, my hardcore offroader of a cousin knelt down and accepted this built in India, American beauty. Hey, but is it a beauty or a beast? Maybe we will once again skip the big words and call it what it is… A true blue off roader that’s also comfortable on road.