Jeep from America

A Jeep from America means, above all, engines Europe no longer sells. The 3.6 Pentastar V6 is the American standard across the range, and a new one cannot be bought from a European dealer. Above it sit the 5.7 and 6.4 HEMI, the SRT and the supercharged Trackhawk: Stellantis stopped importing the large naturally aspirated V8s into Europe over the emissions standards. Import is the only route to such a car — which is a reason to want it, and a reason to check the emissions tax and the registration category before buying it.

The drivetrain is the trap that catches most people, and it does not read the same on every model. In Europe a Jeep comes with four-wheel drive almost by default; in America 4x4 is often an option. What matters is what 4x2 means on the particular car: on a Grand Cherokee or a Wagoneer it means rear drive, and on a Compass, Cherokee, Renegade or Patriot it means front drive. Those are different cars and they do not drive alike. Check the lot, not the trim — Laredo in Europe means 4x4 as standard, and in America it means nothing.

The diesels of the two markets barely overlap. America sold the 3.0 EcoDiesel V6; Europe got the 2.2 MultiJet in the Wrangler and the 3.0 CRD in the Grand Cherokee. The Gladiator is the reverse — in Europe it was sold only as a diesel, and the 3.6 petrol was never officially imported. So a diesel from an American auction may have no European twin, no service habit and no part on a shelf, while a petrol Gladiator cannot be a European car at all.

Not every Jeep is American, and the VIN says so. The Renegade is built in Melfi, Italy, on the same line as the Fiat 500X — its VINs begin with Z. The Compass splits: Melfi for Europe, Toluca in Mexico for America. The Patriot stayed wholly American to the very end of production in December 2016, at Belvidere, Illinois.

On two of the gearboxes the year matters more than the trim. The nine-speed ZF in the Cherokee and Compass drew recalls in its first years — 2014 is the worst, from 2016 it is materially better, and after the 2019 facelift the problem is history. On the Patriot the trap runs the other way: the CVT stayed only on cars ordered with the Freedom Drive II off-road package, so the more off-road specification carries the weaker gearbox.