The Jeep Renegade left the U.S. market after the 2023 model year. Elsewhere, though, you can still buy one. Brazil, in particular, seems to love ’em. And not only can you still buy a Renegade in Brazil, but it looks to be much better than the one that left our shores years ago, because it’s gotten an exterior touch-up and interior overhaul.
I always find it interesting when certain cars are discontinued in some places, then go on to live their best lives elsewhere. The Renegade sold well out of the gate in the U.S., with Jeep moving well over 100,000 units in the tiny SUV’s first model year, 2015. (Its platform dates back to Fiat and GM products from the mid-aughts—yeah, it’s that old.) But deliveries quickly fell off a cliff and never recovered.
When the Renegade left us, it still had its goofy, squircle-y dashboard. The one Brazil is getting, however, may as well be a new car on the inside.
Hey, that’s a stylish-looking dash, with nice materials in this Willys-badged model, and a larger screen fitted with Stellantis’ latest infotainment. You still get physical climate controls, too, so that digital expansion hasn’t come at a loss elsewhere.
Outside, the latest Renegade continues the model’s slow descent from upbeat to angry to downright unamused. Jeep’s once-cute-ute looks absolutely tired of everyone’s bullshit now, with a furrowed brow atop a restyled grille that picks up some of the Wagoneer S’ three-dimensional cues. Jokes aside, I think this is the best the Renegade has looked yet.
I’m not going to say that the Renegade left us before it should’ve, or that it needs to come back; Stellantis has the data to know what American buyers want, and the Renegade wasn’t it. Yeah, maybe more investment would’ve gotten more buyers on board, but, in the U.S., at least, really small cars have always been a bit of a hard sell. Plus, today there’s the whole tariff upheaval to contend with, and all of these are made in Italy, China, or—you guessed it—Brazil. The new Compass has taken so long to make its way over here for similar reasons.
The Renegade, though, persists. Even in Europe, which received the newer Avenger some years back, it remains an option for subcompact SUV buyers. And good for the little Jeep. It’s good dating advice, and it also rings true for cars: No reason to waste time on people who don’t appreciate you.
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