The Jeep Compass is set to go on sale in August this year, but at launch its diesel variant will be available solely with a six-speed manual gearbox. However, an automatic gearbox will also be offered from early 2018.

The gearbox in question is a nine-speed automatic transmission engineered with small gear ratio steps for smooth transitions between shifts. The gears have a wide ratio spread, with the first few gears allowing for quick initial acceleration, and the top four overdrive ratios there for relaxed cruising and also eking out best fuel economy. Drivers will also get the option to shift gears manually with the gearbox's 'Autostick' drive modes. In order to live up to Jeep's off-roading credentials, the gearbox also features an in-built low crawl ratio setting of 20:1 that maximises torque output
to all the four wheels.

Interestingly, in August 2016, ZF, which manufactures the nine-speed transmission issued a recall to address the possibility of the gearbox unexpectedly shifting to neutral. The fault was rectified by a software update. This recall could be a reason for Jeep's delay in introducing this gearbox in India.

Also read:Jeep Compass complete variant and equipment breakup for India