Jeep Meridian booking and delivery timeline unveiled

Jeep has revealed its new 7-seater SUV that is based on the Compass. It is called Meridian and Jeep will start accepting bookings on the 3rd of May while the deliveries of the SUV will start from mid-June. Jeep has not yet revealed the pricing and variants of the Meridian. Once launched, it will be going directly against Toyota Fortuner and MG Gloster.

The manufacturer is already selling the Meridian as “Commander” in some of the global markets. However, Jeep has made changes to the alloy wheels, headlamps and the front bumper design. Meridian is based on the same platform as the Jeep Compass but the design has been heavily updated so that no one confuses with a Compass. It gets a longer wheelbase and rear overhang and the rear tailgate has an upright design. Overall, the Merdian does look imposing and should have a lot of road presence because of its size.

Ralph Gilles, chief design officer of Stellantis which is the parent company of Jeep said, “Except the windshield, front seat frame and maybe a small part of the instrument panel, everything else on the Meridian is unique (vis-à-vis the Compass). We’ve given a lot of consideration to widen the vehicle, the front doors are custom, and the whole rear architecture is completely unique, as is the entire front end,”

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At first glance, the interior of the Meridian does look similar to the Compass. But, Jeep has made changes to the colour schemes. The Compass gets an all-black colour scheme whereas, for Meridian, Jeep chose brown which does give an upmarket look to the cabin. What else adds to the premium feel are the brown seats with perforation and quilted leather. The rest of the cabin layout stays the same. Jeep will be offering the Meridian as a 7-seater only. So, the second row will be a bench seat. Having said that, we think Jeep can do a 6-seater version with captain seats for the second row considering MG is already offering Gloster as a 6-seater. Moreover, the 6-seater version will look even more premium than the 7-seater.

So, there is a 10.25-inch digital instrument cluster, a 10.1-inch touchscreen infotainment system with Android Auto and Apple CarPlay, wireless charging for mobile phones, electric adjustment for the front seats, dual-zone climate control, 360-degree parking camera, traction control, electronic stability program, 6 airbags, hill start assist, hill hold control and much more.

In India, Jeep will sell the Meridian only with a 2.0-litre Multijet diesel engine. It is the same engine that is doing duty on Tata Harrier and Safari, Jeep Compass and MG Hector Twins. It still produces 170 PS of max power and 350 Nm of peak torque. However, Jeep will re-calibrate the engine to handle the additional weight.

There will be two transmissions on offer, a 6-speed manual gearbox and a 9-speed torque converter automatic transmission. You would be able to get the SUV as a front-wheel drive or all-wheel drive. There would be different drive modes on offer.

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