Jeep Avenger Summit review

Jeep Avenger Summit review.

****
From £39,600
For – cute to adorable, high quality, great city car
Against – pricey city car, poor highway range, weak regenerative mode
Competition – Hyundai Kona, Smart 1, Kia Niro, Volvo EX3, BYD ATTO 3

“I wouldn’t drive from Calais to Geneva in it. If that’s not on your agenda the Avenger has a great case to make on looks alone. But also as an all-round satisfactory set of wheels”

The new Jeep Avenger must be the cutest ute yet. Its delightful looks make it stand out from the crowd. Believe it or not, just look at the pictures. With a bit of work an SUV can have an eye-catching design.

In a crowded field, it’s surprising that Jeep has managed to do this, but given the worthy, plain-vanilla repetitiveness of most of the opposition, buyers will be beating a path to the door, if the rest of it is up to scratch. Inside the Avenger exudes quality and comfort. It drives exceptionally well.

But in the fast lane on the highway the Avenger shed power at an alarming rate. The range claim of 249 miles was almost perfect. I managed an average 244 miles from six goes at my home charger, so that’s effectively a 100% claim. On my set highway, fast-lane route it was poor, losing juice at close to a 60% rate. Perhaps the handsome shape was at the root of its lack of ability to cut through the air efficiently. 

Hated hills
Unlike the Cupra Born of recent memory, the regenerative braking wasn’t very good either, although not disastrously so. A round trip of 99 miles removed 116 miles from the range availability over rolling A272-like roads. Another 45-mile route cost 53 miles. It hated going up hills but didn’t pay back enough on the way back down. Sadly, this doesn’t make it particularly bad compared with the opposition. Teslas 3 and Y, plus the Kia Soul are the lone long-range standouts here. 

And my time with the Avenger was a delight. It held on to the chosen line through bends impressively, and handled Britain’s potholes with aplomb. The steering felt more like German premium. I liked the push-button gear selection. My previous two reviews were the Volkswagen ID.3 and Cupra Born. Both have the little wheel close to the steering wheel to select D and R etc which doesn’t feel right somehow. The Avenger has buttons in a row for D R N D/B (for regenerative braking!) in the middle of the dash but set fairly low down and easy to punch. 

Surprisingly for a Jeep, there’s no 4-wheel drive, but one is promised in 2024. There’s not much room in the back, but this is a small car. The boot is hopeless for golfers and you’ll have to fold down at least one half of the rear seats. But the ID.3/Cupra Born were the same. I loved the remote trunk opening and closing. Shouldn’t this top-of-the range version have a head-up display?   

Puzzling Sat-Nav
The Sat-Nav was not an easy puzzle, but any buyer would soon figure out how to handle this. There was a neat cartoon of the car’s inner workings in the driver’s eye-line which showed neatly when the power was being accumulated or dumped. Mostly dumped!

Despite the lack of 4X4 and displaying no shame, Jeep lauds the off-road ability of the Avenger, which is made in Tychy, Poland.

“Outstanding ground clearance, approach and departure angles with standard Selec-Terrain and Hill Descent Control,” says the blurb.

The Avenger is available in three core trim levels – Longitude, Altitude and Summit – each boasting generous amounts of equipment, says Jeep.

“At the top of the range, the Summit model brings the Avenger to its most advanced and luxurious level. Diamond-cut 18-inch alloy wheels denote it as the flagship trim from the outside, along with LED headlights, tail-lights and fog lamps, plus automatic folding electric heated door mirrors with puddle lights,” says Jeep.
Prices start at £35,700 for Longitude, £37,400 for Altitude and £39,600 for Summit.

What to buy?
The Avenger doesn’t perform too well on the highway, but then not much else does excluding Tesla. If you look at all the EVs in this category, they are all very accomplished but overpriced city cars. Until the technology improves, that’s the extent of the choice. My recent experience of Britain’s highways shows them to be so congested that sustained high (legal) speed cruising is almost impossible anyway. But I wouldn’t want to drive from Calais to Geneva in it. If that’s not on your agenda, and you don’t live in Europe, the Avenger has a great case, not only on looks alone, but also as an all-round satisfactory set of wheels. 

JEEP Avenger