Here’s What It’s Like Beating The Snot Out Of America’s Least Favorite SUV, The Jeep Renegade

Beast Mode
ADVERTISEMENT

Word on the street is that America has seemingly fallen out of love with the Jeep Renegade. According to a recent report, there are about two years’ worth of unsold Renegades out there, just waiting for something to happen to them. Well, I think I found the perfect place for the unloved 4×4: The track. I took a Jeep Renegade on a HooptieX rallycross and I found the little Jeep’s hidden talent.

On June 1, our headlining story in that day’s Morning Dump was about the fact that there’s a 753-day supply of Jeep Renegades out there. That’s just over two years worth of subcompact Jeep crossover SUVs just waiting for buyers to bring them home. Here’s a quick reminder of what was going on there, from our Morning Dump:

This all comes from data from online service CarEdge, which scrapes publicly available dealer data and uses it to help consumers try to make informed car-buying choices. I first saw the data in a tweet from CarDealershipGuy (who is not named Michael, but has a newsletter worth reading). The big, big number is that Jeep stands at 753 days of supply.

I talked to CarEdge CEO Zach Shefska this morning to confirm the methodology and try and understand how they got to this number. Basically, CarEdge scrapes the vast majority of car dealership websites for listings every night. “We consider a vehicle listed for sale when we scrape it, and sold when it is taken offline,” he told me in a text. So if you take the days it takes to sell a car and apply that to the total number of lists you get the total inventory (this data comes from a scrape on May 24th).

While this is not a perfect number (for instance, Cars.com shows about 5,500 Renegades for sale and AutoTrader shows about 6,100) it does give a good relative sense of how the consumer retail market is performing. A lot of the data we get as journalists is filtered or skewed, so it’s fun to play with something a little more raw.

The short version is that there’s a glut of Renegades out there right now. Maybe the true number isn’t two years, but it’s clear that consumers aren’t exactly lining up to buy them. Perhaps we can change that.

20230610 152728

Last weekend, I returned to the familiar world of setting hot laps in total junkers. HooptieX is one of my favorite forms of racing and whenever the show rolls into town, I have to take part. I may not always have something to run, but I will at the very least volunteer to help keep the madness alive. But this time, I had the rare opportunity to race something that wasn’t a pile of crap. And oh my, sending this little Jeep Renegade was even more of a blast than I expected. Better than that, it was way faster than anyone expected.

HooptieX

20230610 163225

I’ve written about HooptieX a few times before, but it’s worth revisiting exactly what these events are because they’re a ton of fun. HooptieX (pronounced “Hooptie Cross”) is technically a spin-off of the Gambler 500. See, the Gambler 500 is about taking a total junker–purchased with as few greenbacks as possible–on a 500-mile adventure, with many of those miles being anywhere but pavement. Along the way, you’ll pick up trash, make friends, and maybe even donate to a charity in need. Have you ever watched Wacky Races? Yeah, the Gambler 500 is probably about as close to the real life version of it that you’ll find. Buy a $500 pile of junk, revive it with your friends, then take it on an unforgettable journey that leaves a part of the world better than when you arrived.

One thing that you will be made aware of from the very beginning is that a Gambler 500 is not a race. It is at best an endurance rally and really it’s the perfect excuse to delete some doors and windows from a rusty Ford Festiva and dress up as a golfer. When you go to a Gambler event, there is no award for finishing first. To be honest, most people are just lucky to survive the first 100 miles, let alone finishing at all. A Gambler 500 can be a competition, but you’ll be competing for the most amount of trash removed from a forest.

20230610 163116

Clearly, there was some interest in having some motorsport aspect to the Gambler, and that motivated Chuck Brazer to create HooptieX in 2019. Like the Gambler 500 itself, HooptieX was initially a Western phenomenon. Now, you can find around two dozen HooptieX events dotting the country throughout every year. Thanks to HooptieX, most of those wacky Gambler cars now have a place to compete with each other. Want to know if your Chevy Venture that runs on just five cylinders is faster than a Chevy Aveo on ATV tires? Well, there’s only one place you’ll be able to find out!

What’s So Great About HooptieX

20230610 142900

The best part about HooptieX is that it’s incredibly accessible. Vehicle requirements are slim. You basically have to make sure your vehicle has a fixed roof, a fire extinguisher, a secured battery, and no major fluid leaks. That’s pretty much it. You can run almost anything in a HooptieX from your grandfather’s Buick Roadmaster or a Ford Ranger with blown shocks and rotted body mounts to a Can-Am Maverick fresh off of the showroom floor. Want to rally a limo? Sure, why not! You can go to your local auction, buy the cheapest, worst vehicle imaginable, and run it that weekend.

This is reflected in the HooptieX vehicle classes. There’s a four-wheel-drive and a two-wheel-drive class, plus Hater Class and Super Soft. The first two explain themselves, while Hater Class is reserved for the folks who bring nice daily drivers to run laps. Daily drivers, perhaps, like a pretty Audi A5 with working air-conditioning. Meanwhile, Super Soft is for purpose-built racers. Vehicles in this class will be proper rally cars, various buggies, side-by-sides, and other vehicles built specifically for going stupid fast around a dirt and mud track.

20230610 143925

Now, this seems intimidating. You might show up in a Chevy Cavalier with a slipping transmission, yet the car in front of you is a Subaru WRX STI with a full cage and rally tires. Here’s another fantastic thing about HooptieX. Yes, there is a points system and there are people who will drive around the country competing for the top of the leaderboard. There is absolutely real competition going on. However, HooptieX is racing for everyone, period, and it doesn’t have to be competitive. If you want to take a GMC Yukon out for some laps just for the laughs, go ahead and do it. If you want to go slow because you’re only just dipping your toes into motorsport, again, that’s perfect. HooptieX is competitive, but it’s really about having a good time.

You’ll see a variety of racers out there, from legitimate rally racers to a father just having a fun weekend with his kids. There are plenty of women racers, LGBTQ people, and everyone else you can imagine. I’ve been participating and volunteering in HooptieX since 2020 and, just like the Gambler 500, this racing series is something that can change your life. I’ve watched people who were scared out of their minds start off freaking out but finish the weekend addicted to trying to shave seconds off of each lap. Oh yeah, that’s another great thing about HooptieX, you’ll pay a flat fee and get to race as many laps as you want. You could spend your whole day and an entire tank of fuel putting down times if you want to. It’s truly magical.

Rallying A Renegade

20230611 151134Last weekend, AAH Racing hosted HooptieX Illinois, Nuclear Meltdown 2023 at Byron Motorsports Park in Byron, Illinois, right down the street from the town’s nuclear power plant.

The weekend saw dozens of excited racers descend into a roughly two-mile course with the power plant’s cooling towers as an epic backdrop. I couldn’t find an aerial view of the track, but here’s the promotional image. The dark track down there is the dirtbike track.

You Doodle 2021 04 18t22 20 54z
AAH Racing

I’ll tell you the results of the weekend later, but I have to get into rallying this Jeep. I originally went to Byron that weekend to volunteer as a track worker. Basically, I monitored the first portion of the track in case someone began having a really bad day. If someone stalled out, I’d call it out on the radio to ensure another car would not be sent into the racer’s path. If they broke down, I’d call in a tow. And if they caught fire, I had a fire extinguisher at the ready. After my volunteering was done, I joined up with some great friends who were taking turns hooning a 2020 Jeep Renegade around the track. I asked if I could take it for a spin, and it turned me into a monster.

20230611 152030

There were about four of us sharing the Renegade that weekend. Initially, we just raced each other. I mean, we didn’t expect a bone-stock Renegade on street tires to be that competitive. For reference, the Jeep Renegade rides on Fiat’s Small Common Components and Systems platform. Its platform-mate is the Fiat 500X and a variation of the platform is used for the Fiat 500L and the Jeep Compass. None of these vehicles are known for their rallying prowess. The Renegade has AWD with a system that sends power to the rear wheels through a power transfer unit and rear drive module. Power comes from a 2.4-liter four making 180 HP and 175 lb-ft torque.

20230611 134210

That goes through a nine-speed automatic which in our example, absolutely hated being pushed. On the track, it seemed to shift slower than the single clutch automated-manual of a Smart Fortwo. Seriously, it’s almost as if the Renegade has to do its taxes before it upshifts or downshifts. Making matters worse was the throttle, which at times seemed like a suggestion box. Punch the accelerator and it seemed like you had to wait about two seconds before you got a reaction. On the street, that doesn’t matter, but two seconds is a lot in a time trial.

So, again, we never expected much from the Renegade, but it meant business. The track pictures you see here are from when my friends were behind the wheel. Sadly, my action cam is out of, well, action, or else I would have gotten some cockpit shots.

20230611 130809

At the start of a HooptieX lap, I stare at the person holding the green flag while I go through the course in my head. This time, the person holding the flag was a man named Tyler and he was dressed up as a shark. Tyler was also one of my competitors as he sometimes took the wheel of the Renegade. As I waited for the track to become clear enough for my turn, I tried to make a pseudo launch control. I put one foot on the brake and the other on the accelerator.

20230610 152648

The Renegade huffed for a few seconds before killing the throttle. Lame, but that’s ok, a few seconds is all I need. When the flag dropped, I welded that pedal into the floor, diving down the start and into the first corner.

Before you start your first lap of the day, you tell yourself that you won’t break the car. Especially if you’re like me and it’s not your car. I don’t want to ruin this pretty Jeep. But even if it is your own car, you don’t want to cause yourself any trouble. That goes out the window when the flag drops. Your heart begins racing and it almost feels as if your BPM is matching your engine’s RPM. You told yourself you wouldn’t send it, but the thought of a low time tells you to put the pedal to the metal.

20230610 152650

For our runs, we disabled the Renegade’s traction control, turned off the stability control, and had the SUV in 4×4 Lock in Sand mode. Sure, the Renegade is short of a true 4×4, but it has some nice tricks up its sleeve. Putting it in Sand mode tells the AWD system to send 40 percent power to the front wheels and 60 percent to the rear. Stability control isn’t fully disabled, but the vehicle will allow sliding. We found this to be the best mode for rallycrossing.

Indeed, if I worked the throttle just right and the transmission downshifted at the right time, the Renegade happily kicked its rear end out around in a turn. Modulating the engine and transmission was actually the hardest part. I ended up using the throttle like an on-and-off switch, punching it before a corner’s apex, which gave it enough time to respond and begin revving and for the transmission to downshift.

20230610 152706

Otherwise, my eyes and my focus were on the track. I would push that 2.4 to its redline, give the brakes a pump, flick the steering wheel, then back on the power. If I did it right, the engine would come back just in time to carry me out of a corner.

HooptieX also differs from other forms of rallycross with its thrills. Many HooptieX tracks will have jumps that will have your vehicle soaring like a Cessna on takeoff. You don’t have to hit these at speed and at Byron, the big air jump doesn’t necessarily impact your time.

20230610 162824

So, a quick brake pump saves you from launching into orbit. Me? I’m equal parts daredevil and moron, so I told that little Jeep to give me everything it got. It responded by leaping into the air. I never lifted from the throttle and the Renegade was airborne long enough to bang off of the rev limiter multiple times. Landings were surprisingly soft. Inside, it felt like hitting a curb. But the Renegade always flew a bit like a lawn dart, digging its front end in on every landing. Then the soft rear suspension caused a double and sometimes triple bounce on landing.

20230610 162815

We jumped the Renegade off of the tabletop perhaps a dozen times and nothing ever broke. The only obvious evidence of our jumps were dents in the front bumper cover. Additional approach angle, I say!

20230611 130728

At times, it seemed as if the Renegade was definitely more biased toward the front, despite the Sand mode and 4WD Lock mode. Yet, that wasn’t a bad thing. I’d punch the throttle and the front tires would carry the mini-Jeep through a turn.

20230611 152032

Eventually, running laps turned into an addiction. My first lap was a 1:44, then a 1:40. I became obsessed with seeing the scoreboard show a lower number. As a result, I took turns hotter, made that engine wheeze some more, and used less braking. This turned out to be a blessing and a curse.

Killing Tires

20230611 130011

See, this full-send mentality is sort of a bad thing when you’re trying to do more than say, a couple of laps. On my third lap, I came in super hot for one of the final curves. I knew from the second lap that the Renegade had more left in it on this turn, but I didn’t know that the Jeep’s left front tire wasn’t in agreement. I hit the turn hot, got about halfway through, then heard a loud pop. My lap was over.

I limped the car to the staging area, where the left front tire appeared to be trashed. Believe it or not, that was actually the fourth time the tire had come off that weekend. My other friend, Brian Werblo, was putting down times so hot that in some right corners, that tire would just give up on life.

20230611 133919

At first, we thought that maybe there was something wrong with the wheel. The other three wheels never gave us any issues. But we’d put in a couple of laps just to hear that pop again. And how do you bead a tire in the field? I’m glad you asked!

Now, don’t do this at home, kids, but if you cover a tire in ether, attach an air pump, then light the ether as the pump runs, you can have a rather explosive reaction that results in you having an instantly mounted tire. Just, I hope you weren’t needing the hair on and around your hands. It’s like forbidden Nair.

Screenshot 20230613 123020 Gallery

Eventually, my friends had enough of the tire-popping nonsense and just replaced the whole tire. The logic was that there had to be something wrong with the wheel or the tire. When the tire come off during my run, the blow was so violent that the valve stem got taken with it. Once we got the tire mounted once again, it was moved to the back of the Renegade, where it never blew ever again. One of the rears was then moved to the front.

Unfortunately, our theories about bad wheels and tires turned out to be false, as the tire on the same front left spot blew off from the bead two more times that day.

20230611 161519

The problem was that one particular corner of the track where Werblo and I were just hauling total ass. The sixth and final incident was violent enough to cause the strut to slice into the tire’s sidewall.

20230611 161525

Werblo sent it so hard on that lap that the left rear tire also sprang a leak. We decided to throw in the towel at that point. But we weren’t sad, that Jeep was an epic rig for the whole weekend.

Results

Received 1237424017136655
Jeremy

How good was the Renegade? Well, here are the numbers.

According to the organizers, around 30 vehicles showed up and laid down a total of 330 laps between Saturday and Sunday. I’ll spoil the results right away. My team’s Renegade wasn’t the fastest, but to the surprise of just about everyone, it wasn’t slow, either. The fastest vehicle of the weekend was Steve Kreiman, who piloted this Super Soft class Honda-powered Super Buggy to an impressive time of 01:30.821:

20230610 143220

Taking second place overall and first place in the two-wheel-drive class was Patrick Nielson, who put down impressive lap after another in a stripped-out 1998 Toyota Corolla to a fastest time of 01:33.8:

20230610 142650

Perhaps even more impressive than Nielson’s laps was his physical endurance. He was in that little green rocket from start to finish on both race days, and the days ran from around 9 am to 6 pm with only a lunch break halfway through.

Winning the Hater Class was my favorite car of the event. Pamela Schabica and her partner saved a flood-damaged 2009 Audi A5 from the scrapper. This car showed no signs of life, but they were able to cobble it back together with surprisingly minimal effort. The car basically woke itself up from the dead after replacing all fuses. Even the air-conditioner still works for those comfortable laps. I’ve tried to buy this car more than once! Pamela laid down a respectable 01:44.611 time and golly, she smiled through every single lap.

Winning the four-wheel-drive class was Chris Castellanos, who somehow made a 1997 Subaru Legacy get absolutely epic airtime from the tabletop, all while clocking in his fastest lap of 01:34.4.

20230610 143811

For comparison’s sake, the slowest time recorded for a lap that didn’t involve a mechanical failure was Douglas Shaw, who limped a wounded 2001 GMC Yukon across the line in 02:21.0. Of course, Shaw and his buddy were not there to win, but to make that big beautiful whale of American iron turn some corners and to laugh along the way. Part of why their lap was so slow was the fact that the beast didn’t have working power steering. Oof.

20230611 142428

As for us? Werblo raced the Renegade to a 1:35.1, taking second place in the four-wheel-drive class. He then hopped into his own XJ Cherokee and laid down a similar, albeit slightly slower 1:35 time. My best time was 1:39.5. I could have done better, but I try not to totally send cars that aren’t mine. I’d feel bad for breaking it. The Renegade was faster than numerous Jeep XJs, every Ford Ranger that showed up, most of the Subaru Legacy’s laps, the entire Hater class, most of the 2WD class, and many of the Super Buggy’s laps. Basically, our Renegade, which was completely stock, kept up with proper rally-prepped vehicles.

The Renegade’s Secret Talent

20230611 130020

What did we learn that weekend? America may not be into buying Renegades right now, but maybe there’s a way to move some of these off of lots. Maybe there should be a spec Renegade rally series. I’d race in that! It was remarkable how composed the Renegade was and how it consistently scored good numbers during the weekend despite its lackluster tires and infuriating accelerator pedal. In fact, the Renegade will be making more HooptieX appearances this year. Though, my friends do hope to figure out how to stop the tires from popping off so often.

My takeaway from this is if you have any interest in motorsport, even barely existent interest, then give HooptieX a try. You will have so much fun that before you know it, you’ll be ten laps deep, sweating bullets, and trying to improve your time even more. It’s just that addictive. Even if you aren’t interested in racing, have you ever wanted to just see what a car can do without the restraints of speed limits? Come to a HooptieX, you won’t regret it.

(Topshot: Jeremy. Photos: Author, unless otherwise noted.)

20230611 151642

20230610 162216

20230611 134053

20230610 163001

20230611 162544

20230610 143925

Popular Stories

About the Author

View All My Posts

74 thoughts on “Here’s What It’s Like Beating The Snot Out Of America’s Least Favorite SUV, The Jeep Renegade

  1. “it seemed as if the Renegade was definitely more biased toward the front”

    That is because it IS biased toward the front, as are ALL transverse engine, front-wheel-drive based AWD systems, no matter what marketing departments tell people. As far as I remember, the only transverse engine systems that could send more than 50% torque to the rear were the Lancia Delta Integrale and the Mitsubishi EVO, which had a center differential mounted right at the engine’s output, before and not after the front differential.

    Edited to add: Some AWD systems send more power to the rear wheels by ‘cheating’ and having a rear diff with a different ratio than the front, making the back wheels spin faster than the front and compensating the difference letting the “center differential” clutch pack slip all the time, like the Focus RS and Yaris GRMN.

  2. I love everything about this. Looks like a great time!

    I’ve spent a fair amount of time offroading with a Renegade Trailhawk in our caravan and agree with your assessment. The thing is way more capable than it has any right to be, but the fly-by-wire throttle is shockingly bad (apparently a common enough problem there are aftermarket fixes) and the 9-speed auto is a feat of packaging… but not the most performant model. We’d also found that the longer you push it, the worse it gets as the ECU actually pulls power if the power transfer unit or transmission start getting toasty. Also that engine is just… bad, but you can’t get the Trailhawk with anything else sadly.

    Still, it went everywhere my Discovery could go and sometimes had a much easier time of it. If only Jeep would give it a decent engine and a real transfer case!

  3. I’m just going to jump in and add the helpful information that if you were to grip the Trailhawk trim, you get a 1.3L turbo Fiat plant making 180 hp and 216 f/lbs (torque peaks at 3300 rpm) (also that’s only if you’re running ultra primo dinosaurs) and a PTU that it capable of a full 50% power split front to back. Also a massive dropped first gear ratio to replicate a crawl gear.

    Anyway, even if I do drive one that I got at a considerable discount, still such a bad value proposition for anyone with two brain cells to rub together.

  4. Wish we had kept my fiancees 09 Ford Fusion around for something like this. It needed several things and wasn’t worth fixing as a daily driver for him, but it would have been a blast as a HooptieX car, especially with the V6.

  5. Damn…I just bought a new 4XE, there is absolutely no reason I need a Renegade…just keep telling myself despite the good deals I just don’t need a Renegade…

  6. Did I miss it in the article, but who is the owner of this Renegade who was brave (or reckless) enough to let 4 people beat it up on a dirt track? I mean someone probably needed to drive that to work the next day.

  7. If the Renegade had just a little better performance OR better MPGs to make it more competitive, and the reliability was better on them, there would be one in my driveway right now. The interior packaging is kind of impressive when you stand outside of one and see how small it is, then you sit in the drivers seat and you don’t feel cramped at all, even for taller drivers.

    1. We really wanted to love our Renegade. It was more fun to drive than it deserved to be (slow, but very good handling), as you said it didn’t feel cramped, and was impressive in shitty weather. But it had several warranty visits to the dealer, and that’s a problem…and that 2.4 was starting to use oil at a very alarming rate near its end. Luckily, our dealer was great and always gave us a nice loaner (including a brand new Wrangler Sahara Unlimited one time, thanks!), but it was getting worrisome as we neared the end of warranty and we were about to force the issue on the oil use. It was put out of its misery when one day, I kid you not, an 85 year old man in a C7 ZO6 ran a red and t-boned the living shit out of it and my wife. Thankfully, no one was injured. We replaced it with a Mazda CX-9 (because why not get something fancier), which has had zero issues, and we are now wary as fuck of the Jeep brand.

      1. I’ve been loving my 1.4T manual Renegade since 2015. All the good things you mentioned are there, but opting the MultiAir turbo and the 6-speed stick remove the two worst parts of most Renegades, the 2.4 and the 9-speed. As spec’d, this 2015 Latitude has done 155,000 practically flawless miles on nothing but maintenance and a new radiator after the original was damaged by road debris.

        At the same time, my whole family is wary of newer Mazdas after my brother’s CX-7 ate its turbo on a road trip, stranding him and his family in an unfamiliar city, and then Mazda dicked him around for nearly a year on the warranty.

        Amazing how little differences can lead to totally different experiences.

        1. Let me guess, the cx-7 had the 2.3T MZR engine? That thing was lots of fun in the Mazdaspeed 3 and 6, but pretty fragile and unreliable. I think that and the rotary engines are the only unreliable drivetrains they’ve made over the years though. Everything else is solid.

  8. Looks fun, but Jesus Christ, If it’s supposed to be pronounced ‘Hooptie Cross’, why can’t it just be called ‘Hooptie Cross’?
    I’d have never guessed that HooptieX is pronounced Hooptie Cross.

    1. In the 1980s (possibly in the 1970s) ‘motocross’ became popularized as ‘moto-x’.

      The motorsport called ‘autocross’ is often referred to as ‘auto-x’.

      Using an X to represent ‘cross’ has been around for a while.

      1. ‘Using an X to represent ‘cross’ has been around for a while.”
        Hopefully never to be used that way to represent the three crosses on Calvary.

    1. Fiat never built a 2.4L I4.
      All it is, is an updated Chrysler World engine with a new cylinder head that uses Fiat’s Multi-Air.
      If it has a fault, it’s only because it’s a red-headed step-child of Chrysler and Fiat.

      1. Yay somebody got it correct. Even the recent review of the Compass on Regular Car Reviews referred to the 2.4 as a Fiat Engine. As you said, it’s the old 2.4 world engine (think PT Cruiser, Neon, etc.) with a head adapted for a MultiAir brick.

        1. Too far back. The Neon and PT Cruiser used their own I4’s: Chrysler’s first OHC 4 bangers with some design influence from Mitsubishi (which probably explains why non-turbo 2nd generation Eclipse’s and Talon’s used Chrysler engines). Chrysler’s previous OHC I4’s, their “originals” the 2.2/2.5’s, were built to use as much from the slant 6 as possible.
          The World engines started in the 2007 Caliber/Patriot/Compass, in similar displacements to their previous I4’s, but aren’t pure Chrysler engines. It’s based on the joint venture of Mercedes, Chrysler, Hyundai, and Mitsubishi. They all use the same block IIRC. They feature dual VVT, (IIRC as well, from Mercedes) while the Neon and PT Cruiser just had normal DOHC heads (with their 2.4’s. The original Neon R/T had a dual cam 2L, but most Neon’s came with the single cam 2L).

  9. What a fantastic idea! I actually like the Renegade; maybe I’m a fan for the underdog, but to see it rally crossing so well? I wish I had a little dough to get one as a toy, myself!

  10. ‘Taking second place overall and first place in the two-wheel-drive class in a stripped-out 1998 Toyota Corolla to a fastest time of 01:33.8:’

    (Glances out window at DD Prizm, reads that statement again, glances back out window at Prizm)

      1. But.. I couldn’t do that to “Rocinante”, it’s the most reliable ship in my fleet.
        I need it to get through the day to day, for rescue missions, for salvaging, for parking in the city.
        “The Ranger” is starting to break apart on its return voyage (in mileage) from the moon.
        The “Mazda Probe” has become ancient technology with hard to source parts.
        Due to modern city living I’ve only got three stalls in my hangar bay, and a very limited budget.
        My radar is picking up signals of tough decisions ahead.
        The age old question will need to be answered soon.
        Daily?
        Race?
        Give away?
        And I love them all so much that I don’t have an answer to it.

  11. A Renegade HooptieX series? Anyone got Malcolm Bricklin’s phone number?

    All of the few I’ve seen around here have the same rims. Can these be bought with steelies?

  12. IIRC, when the Renegade first appeared, you could buy a loss-leader version with FWD, no A/C with an MSRP+destination for around $19k, and there were cash back offers.

    It was sort of an American (ish) version of the KIA Soul, and it had its place. Now it is 8 years later essentially the same vehicle, but there’s no strippo model, but the base price is close to $30k with destination. Oof.

    1. I bought a 1st-year Latitude 1.4T manual in summer of 2015, the mid-range trim with all the options I wanted and none I didn’t. $22,100 OTD.

    2. I bought a 18 base front wheel drive for 16,800 after the rebates in 2018. Traded it in in 2021 with 45,000 miles for a Honda pilot and got 19,000 for trade in.

  13. Awesome article and writing, great job. I like the renegade, always have. It’s just too expensive for what it is… if it got better MPG it might be easier to justify, but when it’s expensive and gets awful MPG there are a lot of other more compelling options out there.

    Great looking design tho, and chassis size seems fun.

    1. I’m with you. I love them as rentals, as they are cleverly designed and have more character than a Corolla and more fun to drive than a Sentra. However, they are simply too expensive now compared to what they were when they first launched. Stellantis build quality makes that price seem even more out of whack, but a Trailhawk in one of the bold, fun colors does bring a smile to my face.

    2. I always had a soft-spot for the Renegade. In a line-up of “Look at me, I’m a Jeep, get out of my way or I’ll drive over you durr durr durr”, the Renegade looked as though it didn’t take itself too seriously. It was honest and almost, dare I say it, joyful.

  14. Before I bought my Lexus GX I thought about buying one of these in “4×4” / stickshift and putting an aggressive winch and bumper on the front just because I’ve never seen that and I think it would look cool.
    But then I test drove one and it felt like such a cheap rental car-grade turd I just couldn’t pull the trigger and bought a 15 year old Lexus instead. Probably the best decision I’ve ever made!

  15. One thing about Jeep is that even their commodity vehicles are made to a certain standard that even their own platform-mates do not need to adhere to. They are meant to have a more rigid body and to be able to withstand off-camber or cantilevered sections that would pop the doors off a RAV-4. This generally makes Jeeps heavier, which results in worse fuel economy compared to the rest of the class (whichever class that may be).

    So, while they may be uncompetitive in certain areas like amenities or road handling, they tend to be good at the things you would expect a Jeep to be good at.

    It’s too bad this wasn’t a later-model Renegade, since those received the GSE 1.4 1.3 turbo engine as standard. You would’ve had more torque to play with. And of course the Trailhawk version would give you that better approach angle. (I do agree with the person who said these are insanely overpriced. Jeep should lower the MSRP significantly to get people in the door, instead of expecting people to haggle the price down to something reasonable.)

  16. The Renegade is more proof that Stell has no idea what their market is.
    Dodge had to dump the Charger and Challenger for the Hornet, and the Rampage isn’t getting released here, but this piece of garbage gets to live another year.

  17. That does look like a lot of fun. I wonder how my old SX4 would have faired in an event like this.

    Outside of some pretty rough reliability data for the Renegade despite being a nearly decade old design, all Stellantis and dealers need to do to start moving these is LOWER THE PRICE TO A SANE LEVEL. I personally always liked the design, and I think that it’s a perfectly acceptable car for many. But damn, they have to be willing to sell these for 22k like they used to, not 38k like they attempt to now.

    1. An update on my local Renegade inventory, I’m seeing 14 at my local dealer, all between 34k-39k (yes you read that right, 39k), and ALL of them in grayscale. Isn’t this supposed to be the sort of thing that someone pays a little extra over a compact economy car for the purpose of it being a little more capable, special, and fun? Why on earth don’t they build some of these in a damn color?

    2. Compare this to a Kia Soul, which you can get in the low 20’s.
      They aren’t that different in size, so you are paying an additional 10K or more for Jeep and 4×4.

    3. This prompted me to check my local Jeep dealer…they only have 9 new Renegades in stock, with the lowest priced at $29k and the highest at $35k.

      1. Only 2 at the dealer I just looked at. Almost $5k off one of them.

        46 Wrangler 4xe’s on the lot. Maybe that is the next one to have cobwebs on them at the CDJ dealer.

        1. The dealer I looked at had roughly 63 Grand Cherokees in stock. (Their filters are a bit wonky; there’s a separate category called “new Grand Cherokee,” but all the vehicles in question are WL74s.)

      2. I’ve got to imagine this and the other nearby CDJR dealers are just trying to beat up the last few suckers willing to pay MSRP before they start piling cash on hoods this summer. That place has to be a ghost town right now with those listed prices. People aren’t assuming that you can haggle anything down by thousands of dollars after a few years of MSRP+, so they’re basically just scaring potential customers away.

Leave a Reply