The Jeep Avenger plays tricks on you. It isn’t really a rock crawler, not in the mechanical sense. But you get in the driver’s seat, look around, and your brain tells you otherwise. It feels capable. Tough, even. Reminiscent of the tiny Jimny in spirit if not in spec.
The hood sits low, the windshield rakes up steep, and the dashboard hovers high. You feel perched. Like a general surveying the field. You’re actually barely an inch above the road, but posture creates reality.
Storage is clever here.
There is a shelf running across the top of the dash, right there in front of you. No digging. No fumbling in the glovebox. Things stay within reach. The center console cubby is deep. Door pockets are sized reasonably.
Design that serves function.
The catch is the materials. They are hard plastic. Very hard. Unless you splash out for that bright yellow trim piece across the dashboard, the interior looks plain. Drab, almost.
The Cupra Born feels richer inside. So does the BYD Atto 3. The Smart #1 too.
Backseat passengers aren’t exactly thrilled. Legroom is tight. Worse than the competition. The boot space is okay for a B-segment EV, but a Peugeot or a Kia will eat this car’s trunk for breakfast.
Tech that splits the range
Jeep keeps you guessing. Even the instrument cluster changes based on how much you pay.
Buy the entry level model. Get a tiny 7-inch screen. Boring. Static. Move up to the Altitude or the Summit trim and the display grows to 10.25 inches. Suddenly you can customize it. Switch between maps and battery efficiency with button presses. It matters more than you’d expect.
The center screen looks familiar because it is. You’ve seen it in the Fiat 500. In the Maserati MC20. The same hardware everywhere.
It sits high on the dash, but doesn’t scream for attention. Apple CarPlay works well. Android Auto too. You control the climate settings and safety aids through it as well.
Sound quality is forgettable. Six speakers. Barely adequate.
And the ports.
Two USB sockets in the front. One lonely port in the rear. If you have more than two people with dying batteries, good luck.
Does it matter when the vibe is so good?
