Okay, we're going to do a bit of a walkthrough on the Jeep Compass here. The one you see above is a 2007 model year Compass, coming out
juuuuuusssttttt before the whole bankruptcy thing fell on the head of Chrysler. We're talking about a company, still managed by Mercedes, that largely didn't know what they wanted, much less seemed to know what they were doing. Under the leadership of the one and only Dr. Z, they decided, "Hey! We should have
two compact offerings at Jeep! Ones that are
exactly the same underneath as the Dodge Caliber!" In addition to the Compass, there was the Patriot...
...A Jeep that looked a bit more the part, had a little more going for it in the looks department, and ultimately was the overall sales champion of the two.
Now, I know that there is an argument that can be made for the Compass/Patriot to exist. In fact, I absolutely agree with you. A cheap, easy-to-drive, fairly capable, compact, 4WD
thing was what Jeep needed to increase sales and lower their MPG figures for the upcoming standards raise at the time. Problem was, did there really need to be two of them? Could you make an argument that there were technically
three with the 4WD Dodge Caliber?
Chrysler's argument was thus: The Patriot appealed to Jeep traditionalists, or folks who identified with the basic shape, leading you into an entry level Jeep that was (surprisingly) Trail Rated in some configurations. The Compass, on the other hand, was meant (as they claimed) for "city folk." Presumably with "no taste." And "non-functioning eyes." Jeep was so desperate to sell these damn things, they partnered up with MTV, and made those poor souls on The Real World drive them around in whatever shenanigans they were getting into. But was it really any better than the Caliber? I'd argue no. In fact, it was almost identical in terms of... well... everything.
I can happily say that the Patriot makes total sense. Its the same kind of sense that makes the new Renegade work. But, the Compass simply defies logic in a time of great distress at Chrysler. Too much money was spent putting seven slots on a Caliber. Furthermore, when you make two versions of the same thing, but one isn't capable of being Trail Rated... That's a problem.
... But then there's the other thing...
After Fiat got ahold of Chrysler and decided they wanted to make a significant investment on each of the current models, their reworking of the Compass made a bit more sense:
The Compass turned into something reasonably good-looking, both inside and out, and seemed to be
overall, and purposeful vehicle once the Caliber had gone far, far away.