Virtual Ownership - 2015 Jeep Renegade Trailhawk Long-Term Road Test

Edmunds.com

Virtual Ownership - 2015 Jeep Renegade Trailhawk Long-Term Road Test

The 2015 Jeep Renegade Trailhawk may not be the perfect vehicle, but it gets a number of things right. Thoughts herein from a virtual owner.

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misterfusion

It's probably too late in the Renegade's stay, but I wish you guys could test some of the electronic mods to see if they improve the transmission and/or throttle performance.

AutoFlash: https://madnessautoworks.com/Jeep Renegade/start-shopping-cid1/performance-upgrades-cid3/jeep-renegade-autoflash-by-madness-pid4169

GoPedal: https://madnessautoworks.com/Jeep Renegade/start-shopping-cid1/performance-upgrades-cid3/jeep-renegade-24l-madness-gopedal-pid608

(No I do NOT work for this vendor, but if they actually found a way to improve that 9-speed, they should be considered for sainthood.)

banhugh

Would you recommend this car to people over its competitors?

jelfalan

banhugh said:

Would you recommend this car to people over its competitors?

banhugh - No, not with the 2.4-liter/9-speed powertrain in our long-termer. The jury is still out on the smaller 1.4-liter/6 speed manual combo, which we're expecting to test in the near future.

jelfalan

misterfusion said:

It's probably too late in the Renegade's stay, but I wish you guys could test some of the electronic mods to see if they improve the transmission and/or throttle performance.

AutoFlash: https://madnessautoworks.com/Jeep Renegade/start-shopping-cid1/performance-upgrades-cid3/jeep-renegade-autoflash-by-madness-pid4169

GoPedal: https://madnessautoworks.com/Jeep Renegade/start-shopping-cid1/performance-upgrades-cid3/jeep-renegade-24l-madness-gopedal-pid608

(No I do NOT work for this vendor, but if they actually found a way to improve that 9-speed, they should be considered for sainthood.)

You're right, it is a little late for us to test this on the Renegade. But I suspect neither device above would solve the drivability issue, since the problem is more deeply rooted: http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/2014/02/zfs-9-speed-9hp-transmission-puts-dog-clutches-on-the-leash/

misterfusion

Ha, I actually recommend that article to others because of how well it explains the hardware engineering of the 9-spd. Even so, it seems that FCA (and possibly other users of this ZF transmission) left plenty of room for improvement in the software. I would take anything I could get at this point...