Jeep Avenger Review (2023-present)
Jeep Avenger cars for sale
4.0
Expert review
Pros
Rugged good looks
Compact dimensions but decent interior space
Good to drive
Cons
Jeep's patchy past reliability record
Pricing could be keener
Annoying indicator noise
The CarGurus verdict
The Jeep Avenger is a really brilliant little car. It’s swamped with rivals of all kinds in this crowded price arena, from hatchbacks to SUVs and estates, and it’s certainly not the cheapest option of those. But it is fun yet comfortable, practical yet compact, full of ‘want one’ cheekiness and prices are competitive if not low. We would have been tempted to give it five stars, if Jeep had seen fit to offer a longer standard warranty to rival alternative brands like MG. Even so, the Jeep Avenger is comprehensively recommendable whether you’re buying with your heart or your head (or both), and it is right up there as one of our favourite small electric cars.
What is the Jeep Avenger?
The Jeep Avenger is a small, pure electric SUV: the very first electric Jeep, no less. It’s based on a heavily updated version of the same ‘e-CMP’ platform that underpins the Peugeot e-208 and e-2008, Vauxhall Mokka-e, DS 3 e-Tense and many more electric cars that are produced under parent company, Stellantis. It gets a 54kWh lithium-ion battery, and an official WLTP driving range of 249 miles.
For now it’s only available with front-wheel drive and – at only 4.08m long – the Jeep Avenger is noticeably shorter than the most compact SUVs, including the Ford Puma, Renault Captur, Toyota C-HR and Jeep's own Renegade.
Despite the dinky size, the new e-CMP platform allows for some clever packaging that means the (five-door only) Jeep Avenger still has a fairly practical, roomy interior that’ll suit a small family just fine, while the more compact dimensions are useful for awkward urban roads and car parks. Although it’s front-wheel drive only, Jeep has also sprinkled some of its macho magic on the Avenger to ensure that it still delivers the best off-road performance of any of these b-segment SUVs, with standard Selec-Terrain allowing you to choose from Mud, Snow and Sand settings via the drive mode switch, to get the best traction.
Styling is also unmistakably Jeep, with trademark cues including the seven-bar grille, slightly squared-off wheel arches, rugged plastic cladding and the distinctive cross rear light signal. It’s certainly an appropriately rugged looking car that manages to be cute yet aggressive at the same time.
How practical is it?
The Jeep Avenger feels surprisingly roomy given its dinky proportions. There’s enough space in the rear seats for a couple of average-sized adults to sit comfortably, although six-footers will likely find their heads a little closer to the ceiling than is ideal. One of the key benefits of this second generation of the e-CMP platform is that the batteries have been moved about to give more foot space to occupants, so the floor isn’t too high (a common problem in electric vehicles with batteries sandwiched into the floors), although the Avenger’s sill that you step over to get into the car is still a touch higher than on conventional petrol alternatives and so is easy to trip over. Even so, being higher than a normal small car, access to the rear seats is good, whether you’re leaning in to faff about with baby seats, or you’re loading in passengers with limited mobility. There’s no centre rear armrest, though, which is a shame.
It's very comfortable up front, where a tall driver will find plenty of adjustment to the seat and steering wheel, and better visibility all round than you enjoy in a Nissan Juke, for instance.
The dash is a very smart piece of design, too; the body-coloured insert of our test car is a £150 extra, but even so the horizontal lines and chunky finishes reflect the exterior styling and have an appropriately robust appearance. There are also plenty of cubbies, including a deep central storage area that’s revealed by peeling back the magnetic, textile lid, door bins that’ll take a couple of small bottles, a rubberised tray for pens or other loose items and a conventional glovebox.
A 355-litre boot is very good for such a short car, and there’s even storage under the boot floor for your cables. Unfortunately, there’s no ’frunk’ storage under the bonnet of the car. Still, it’s usefully more than the 310 litres you get in the Vauxhall Mokka-e, for instance, and is similar in size to the (hybrid, but not pure electric) Renault Captur E-Tech, while the substantially longer Peugeot e-2008 does better with 405 litres. However you look at it, the Jeep’s interior space is very good, and in the context of such a compact car that’s got a 54kWh battery shoehorned into it, it’s getting on for miraculous.
What's it like to drive?
On the road, the Avenger is smooth, comfortable and quiet, yet surprisingly fun on a good road when you want it to be. Power comes from a new, 154bhp permanent magnet electric motor that’s now 5% more efficient than in previous e-CMP cars such as the Vauxhall Corsa-e and Peugeot e-208. That doesn’t mean scorching performance: in fact, the 0-62mph time of 9.6sec is decidedly sedate by electric car standards; the MG ZS EV is faster, for instance. But the Jeep Avenger still feels sprightly on the road, with more than enough gumption to execute a safe overtake or cheeky merge into fast traffic.
In the Normal and Eco modes, the Avenger’s steering is light and quite quick to respond, so is great for wheeling around roundabouts and car parks, yet it’s also keyed-in enough to deliver confidence on a fast, windy road or on the motorway. Stick it into Sport, and the steering weights up noticeably, making the Avenger feel dartier as you turn into corners, but in many ways we prefer the more natural-feeling steering that you get in the other modes even for a decent B-road drive. Whichever mode you choose, the Jeep Avenger is a thoroughly competent small SUV to drive.
Ride comfort is good, too. Our test car was on 18-inch alloy wheels, and it dealt really well with most road surfaces, soaking up bigger bumps very well and staying fairly composed even over undulations and expansion joints. Even the suspension noise and wheel-bounce that affects other e-CMP models such as the Vauxhall Mokka-e has been largely resolved with this updated version of the platform. The Avenger is quiet, too, with that new electric motor giving off very little whine.
With hill descent control, ground clearance of just over 200mm, and the Selec-Terrain modes to help get the most from the traction control, the Avenger is no Wrangler when it comes to off-road unstoppability, but it is about the most rugged of the urban SUVs. A full 4x4 version is rumoured to be on the way, too.
Overall, this really does feel like quite a grown-up car that you’ll be happy to do high miles in despite the compact dimensions. One bugbear, however, could be the 'beatbox' sound made by the indicators in place of a conventional 'ticking' noise. Why, Jeep? Why?
Technology, equipment & infotainment
The Jeep Avenger is offered with three trim levels. Entry-level Longitude cars will get 16-inch alloys, a 7-inch digital driver’s display and rear parking sensors. Limited is the next trim up brings a handsfree tailgate, upgraded upholstery, the big 10.25-inch digital driver’s readout and adaptive cruise control. At the top of the range is the Summit trim, which gets ambient lighting, wireless phone charging, heated seats and windscreen, 18-inch alloys and a semi-autonomous driving mode, plus a host of unique style features.
Various equipment packs are available on the lower specced-models, too, including a seat pack for heated seats, the semi-autonomous drive mode and more.
Infotainment on every Jeep Avenger is via a wide, high-set 10.25-inch touchscreen that’s perched on the top of the dash, with the latest Uconnect software being a big improvement over previous Jeep models. It’s not the quickest screen when it comes to response times, but the graphics are good, you can personalise the home page widgets to make it easy to hop between the functions you use regularly, and you get TomTom sat-nav, Bluetooth, wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto.
There are also over-the-air software updates, and a Jeep mobile app that allows you to remotely control or check on charging status, as well as to pre-set your cabin temperature.
Jeep Avenger running costs
At launch, the Jeep Avenger starts at £35,700, while the mid-spec Limited is £37,400 and the flagship summit is £39,600. That’s a lot for a fairly small car, but in the context of a pure electric car with a very decent driving range, style appeal to spare, a roomy cabin and even a dash of off-road confidence, it’s still a reasonable price. Sure, alternatives like the MG4 and even the bigger MG ZS EV make the Jeep look pricey, but MG is doing that to just about every electric car right now, and next to any other rival the Jeep is competitive.
Jeep will also offer the Avenger on a subscription basis, meaning that all of your servicing, insurance and other additional maintenance and running costs are included in the fixed monthly price you pay, and you only cover the cost of the electricity.
As for real-world range in the Jeep Avenger, we’d expect to see around 160 miles to a charge as a worst-case scenario in very cold conditions on a motorway run, while warmer weather and slower driving should see you get close to 240 miles. Assuming an average year-round range of 200 miles to a charge, you’ll be paying around 11p per mile if you’re charging on a domestic tariff at 40p/kWh. That’s compared to some 15p per mile for a diesel doing 55mpg, or 19p per mile for a petrol car doing 40mpg.
Rapid charging an electric car is much more expensive and will make your fuel costs per mile similar, or even more expensive, than an efficient petrol or diesel, so do factor that in if you expect to use public chargers regularly. Otherwise, if you’re charging at home, and especially if you can use a cheaper overnight tariff, electric cars remain usefully cheaper to run than combustion-engined equivalents.
Jeep Avenger reliability
The Jeep Avenger is too new to have been subject to any owner feedback on reliability, and it’s worth considering that the Avenger is also a new platform and new powertrain to the brand. The hardware is all shared with sister brands including Peugeot and Citroen, since Jeep has become part of Stellantis; the parent company that was formed when FCA (Jeep’s owner for many years) merged with PSA Group.
For all the fact this is a fresh start for Jeep when it comes to all-new parts, new owners and management, and a new propulsion method, it’s impossible not to wince at how poorly the brand fared in the 2022 What Car? used car reliability survey, where it came last out of 32 brands.
A three-year, 60,000-mile warranty is standard on the Jeep Avenger, while the battery has a warranty for 100,000 miles and eight years. That’s industry standard, and on a par with cars like the VW ID.3. But, with alternatives like the Kia Niro and MG ZS EV offering much longer warranties, if we were those new bosses of Jeep, we’d be working on offering a usefully longer warranty to allay fears over poor reliability.
- Regenerative braking is the system that all EVs have, where they use the car’s braking or natural forward motion when you’re coasting to harvest energy and improve efficiency. The result is that it feels like the car’s braking as you lift off the throttle pedal, with many EVs offering different levels ranging from completely off to so heavy that you don’t even need the ‘proper’ brake pedal in slower driving situations. In the Jeep Avenger, the brake regen’ is mild, and feels very similar to normal engine braking, so you’ll feel comfortable driving it even if you’ve never driven an electric car before. Select ‘B’ mode via the drive selector switch and the regen’ gets heavier, slowing you down very noticeably as you lift off the accelerator pedal, but it’s not a ‘one-pedal’ driving mode that rivals like the Nissan Leaf and Renault Zoe offer.
- One excellent feature of the Jeep Avenger is that it gets a standard heat pump, which makes electric cars more efficient (thereby giving you longer driving range) in winter conditions when you’ve got the cabin heating turned up. It’s a particularly notable standard feature given that you’ll pay over £1,000 for a heat pump on a lot of electric vehicles, including plenty that cost far more than the Jeep.
- The Avenger is only offered as a pure electric car in the UK (it is available with a petrol engine in various other markets). It’s compatible with CCS or Type 2 chargers, which are the European standard socket types and are compatible with the vast majority of public charging stations in the UK and Western Europe. The socket is located on the rear wing of the car, where you might expect a fuel filler cap to be. Charging speeds of up to 100kW mean that you’ll get a 10-80% charge in around 30 minutes from a powerful enough DC rapid charger, or a 100 mile top-up will take some 20 minutes. Plug into a 7kW home charger and the battery will be fully charged in under nine hours, and the cable to do that is provided as standard.
- If you want the best value: Stick with the Jeep Avenger Longitude, as it gets most of the essential comforts and style features. Heated seats may well be an option worth adding, though.
- If you want the longest range: Again, go for the entry-level Longitude, as it gets small, 16-inch alloy wheels that will bring the longest possible range.
- If you want the sportiest: Every Jeep Avenger has the same electric powertrain and performance levels, but if you want the sportiest-looking car then go for the Summit or track down a used 1st Edition trim, which has the coloured interior inserts, striking alloy wheel design and styling cues really makes the most of the Avenger’s styling.
- If you want the best company car: Being a pure electric car means that the Jeep Avenger will be very cheap on Benefit in Kind company car tax regardless of which version you choose. For that reason, go for the top-spec Summit if your company will allow it, otherwise the mid-spec Limited is the best bet.
