Jeep Compass bags 10,000 bookings; Production boosted at Ranjangaon

Jeep, in India, seems to have hit a home run with its latest offering – the Compass. The American SUV maker owned by the Fiat Chrysler Alliance (FCA) has secured 10,000 bookings for the Compass, in about 2 months of bookings. Over 92,000 enquiries have been received for the vehicle since bookings began on the 19th of June 2017. The SUV, which competes with the likes of the Hyundai Creta and the Mahindra XUV500 was launched on the 31st of July. Deliveries began on the 6th of August.

To meet the high demand, FCA has decided to boost production at the Ranjangaon factory, where the Compass is built not only for India, but for all right-hand drive markets around the world. The automaker will run two daily shifts, 6 days a week to produce enough to satiate the demand. Waiting periods are likely to dip in the coming months. The Compass rolls out of one of the most advanced production lines in India, with cutting-edge technological processes such as laser welding and hot stamping.

The Jeep Compass starts from 14.97 lakh rupees for the base 1.4 turbo petrol variant, going all the way up to 20.65 lakh rupees for the Diesel 4X4 variant. The Indian government’s proposed an additional 10 % luxury cess for all cars measuring over meters in length, and this means that the Compass could get expensive by about 1.5-2 lakh rupees once the cess is applied. For those of you waiting on the fence, the best time to buy this SUV is now. Jeep will add more variants of the Compass in the coming months. A diesel-automatic variant will be introduced early next year.

Meanwhile, those of you who find the Compass out of budget needn’t fret. Next year, Jeep will introduce the Renegade compact SUV, a vehicle that’ll sit well below the Compass in terms of price and positioning. The Renegade will be Jeep’s lowest priced offering, and is likely to start from a little under 10 lakh rupees.