2020 Jeep Compass
This year drew an ordinary 137 complaints for a Jeep Compass — the model's median is 172. What they were about is the unusual part: 37.2% of them mention coolant, against 0.9% across the other years of this generation.
Generation 2 of the Jeep Compass, which began in 2017. Everything below compares this year against the others in that generation, not against a different car wearing the same name.
NHTSA opened a defect investigation into this model year.
| Complaints filed | 137 |
|---|---|
| Median for this model | 172 |
| Involving a crash | 3 |
| Involving a fire | 2 |
| Recalls | 1 |
| NHTSA crash rating | 4/5 |
| EPA combined | 25 mpg |
What the complaints were about
- coolant — 37.2% of this year's complaints, against 0.9% across the other years of this generation (42.4×).
- overheating — 7.3% of this year's complaints, against 0.5% across the other years of this generation (13.6×).
- department — 9.5% of this year's complaints, against 2.7% across the other years of this generation (3.5×). Owners wrote it as: department, involved, created, knew.
Words owners used for the same problem are counted together, so a fault written four different ways is measured once. Grouped by which complaints they appear in, not by a list anyone wrote in advance.
What owners wrote
On December 9th, my Jeep compass caught fire in Tyson’s corner parking lot (1750 Tysons BLVD). The fire department believes it came from the engine. No warning signs such as engine lights or temperature overheating prior. The car was parked in a spot when this…
Coolant mixing with oil three times in a month span with new parts being replaced. With further inspection, driver was not at fault. Vehicle malfunctioned. Overheating after replacement of thermostat, head gasket, and water pump. Auto start/stop goes on and of…
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.
Recalls for this year
- 20V208000 VISIBILITY Fixed free of charge.
How this was worked out
Every year of the Jeep Compass was compared against its own history rather than against other cars, which removes popularity and age from the answer — a common car draws more complaints at equal reliability, and an older one has had longer to accumulate them. A year is flagged when it drew at least 2.5× this model's median and at least 50 complaints.
This is a fault record, not a review. Nobody files a federal complaint to say the car was fine, so it shows what tends to go wrong — not whether owners liked it, and not whether it is a good car.
Source: NHTSA complaints, recalls and investigations, retrieved . Look this vehicle up directly on NHTSA's site to check anything here.
Own a 2020 Jeep Compass? What happened to yours?
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