Driving the 2015 Jeep Renegade, a small SUV with a big Jeep's heart

The 2015 Jeep Renegade has been a puzzle ever since it was revealed — a subcompact crossover, built in Europe, yet wearing the Jeep name and traditional grille, like an Italian schoolboy holding Captain America's shield.

While Jeep traditionalists will reflexively cast aspersions toward any Jeep without a ladder frame, folding windshield, and removable doors — let alone a wee SUV that’s built in a Fiat plant in Italy — the square-jawed Grand Cherokee has shown us that the company can do crossovers pretty Jeep-ly, too. Still, we and many other insiders were skeptical about the Renegade, primarily for two reasons, and their names are Compass and Patriot. These unconvincing compact crossovers suggested that Jeep-ness may not be scalable this far down the food chain.

But after a thorough test through the California hills, we can say the Renegade is a wholeheartedly better vehicle in every conceivable respect. Especially Jeep-ness.

Start with the design. Oversize round headlamps and a seven-slot grille give the Renegade an unmistakable Jeep face. The T-square profile, upright windshield and side windows, abbreviated overhangs, and trapezoidal fenders are also Jeep-isms that have been brewing for decades. Four trims are offered: Sport, Latitude, Limited, and 4X4-only Trailhawk, the latter riding about an inch higher than other 4X4 models and a full two inches higher than the car-like front-drivers. The Trailhawk is also sprinkled with butch body addenda: a matte black hood patch, red front/rear tow hooks, a 3-mm skid plate, gloss black panels over the windows, and black 17-inch wheels with white letter all-terrain tires. The Limited, by contrast, plays dress-up with a metallic grille (versus black for the other three grades), matching mirror caps, and 18-inch wheels, versus 16s for the Sport and base Latitude.

Interestingly, while the Renegade offers no canvas roof, a la Wrangler, all trims offer two removable “My Sky” panels over the seating area that come off in two sections and stow in the fitted bag in the back. Each panel unlatches with a key and weighs a feathery 10 pounds, making them easily removable by one person. After a bit of rehearsal, we got the procedure down to about one minute. Latitude trims and above also offer a power sliding front panel, but even the powered version remains fully removable. Sure, it can get a little windy with all windows lowered and the roof panels removed, but as with the Wrangler, that’s kind of the point.