What Does Trail Rated Mean Anyway? - 2015 Jeep Renegade Trailhawk Long-Term Road Test

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What Does Trail Rated Mean Anyway? - 2015 Jeep Renegade Trailhawk Long-Term Road Test

Our 2015 Jeep Renegade is trail rated according to the badge on the side. What does that means exactly?

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daryleason

On manufacturer ratings, you have to be careful on trusting the numbers they provide. It's like with tow ratings. Everyone flipped out a few years ago when they found out all three manufacturers based their tow ratings on their vehicles after stripping out anything they could without basically leaving it a shell with a 5-gallon bucket for a malnourished midget to sit on to do the pull test.
But, I know what you mean about the dilution of the Trail Rating. Chrysler isn't the only manufacturer that does that. Ford did it with their "XLT" package. At one point, XLT was THE top trim level. Now, it's middle-of-the-pack. "GT", "R/T", & "SS" used to really mean something performance-wise. Now, it's a tape application and/or sound package for the most part for most of the manufacturers. Even when it is a performance package still, it's the low-rent version. Remember when you could buy a base Mustang with the V8, but if you added the GT, you got more performance goodies? Not now. Now, all V-8s are GTs.

darthbimmer

So, what you're saying is that you have to take your Renegade Trailhawk off-roading to test its capabilities. While Moab is always fun there are also a number of great places within day-trip distance of your Santa Monica HQ you could try out.

phildriver

It's the same with BMW; the sport package use to give you a real sport suspension, seats, etc. Now, you have get the sport package which is purely cosmetic in most cases and then you have to option the sport suspension, seats, etc.

desmolicious

I don't even know what Sport means on the Jeep Wrangler Sport.
Maybe they should call it the Good Sport, or GS?