Jeep Renegade 1.0 Longitude 2019 UK first drive

You may have seen Jeep now outsells Land Rover in Europe, reversing the trend of a lifetime. And it’s the Renegade – the brand’s sure-footed crossover hatchback, built on the same platform as the Fiat 500X – that’s responsible for this surprising development, with 10 examples sold for every trail-hard Jeep Wrangler.

So it follows that, a few years into its lifespan, the Renegade warrants some fettling, which it has now had. Along with pin-sharp new LED headlights for higher-spec models, the front bumper has been tweaked to bear a stronger resemblance to the Wrangler, and Jeep claims to have improved cabin storage while refreshing the interior in general and, for anything other than the most basic models, swapping the 5in Uconnect touchscreen display for one of 8.5in.

Mechanically there are more substantial changes, with a raft of new engines. It’s the 1.0-litre three-cylinder petrol ‘Firefly’ driven here, otherwise known as Fiat’s Global Small Engine. It replaces the asthmatic old 1.6-litre at the base of the range and adds forced induction, making 118bhp at a relatively high 5750rpm and 140lb ft at a commensurately low 1750rpm – an encouragingly broad spread. 

There’s also a new four-cylinder petrol with 148bhp, and a further pair of MultiJet II turbodiesels with up to 168bhp. You’ll need to opt for diesel power to get Jeep’s GKN-sourced ‘rear-axle disconnect’ four-wheel-drive system – the very same used on the Range Rover Evoque. Everything else is front-drive only. 

Slide aboard and the Renegade still feels charming enough inside, with generous head room and panoramic visibility through a windscreen that seems to sit almost bolt upright. Many of the plastics remain perceptibly low-rent, however, and there’s a greater emphasis on fun than finesse and quality, certainly in comparison to alternatives from Seat and Skoda. It's utilitarian, to put it kindly.

The driving experience itself is mostly inoffensive, with just enough body control to avoid any overt feelings of queasiness. In fact the Renegade is a surprisingly easy car to place on the road, and while it often feels as if the mass of tall bodywork is going to tug the tyres this way and that, road-holding is good and on smoother roads you'll make good progress. 

Elsewhere the ride is poor, though – choppy in a manner that most of the industry seems to have left in the past, at least on smaller roads. Anybody buying in this class should expect to give away some dynamic finesse to larger crossovers, but even for a company whose off-road roots run deeper than almost any other, the Renegade is simply too reactive to a less-than-perfect road surface. The steering is also awkwardly elastic in its action and lazily geared, but at least it possesses some weight.