A & B-roads: The Avenger’s small petrol engine has very little inertia, which means it quickly loses revs when you dip the clutch to change gear. It makes it really tough to get a smooth shift unless you’re driving pretty slowly; rushed gearchanges cause the car to lurch clumsily. There’s also very little engine braking from the 1.2-litre unit, so changing down on steep hills achieves very little.
The engine is fairly noisy as you accelerate, but it quietens down nicely once you’re at a cruise. The Jeep also does a good job of dealing with harsh potholes, because the suspension soaks them up without too much crash into the cabin.
However, the Avenger isn’t as comfortable as the Skoda on rough roads, because it can’t keep steady over all the small bumps in the surface. The Jeep’s steering is as lifeless as the Kamiq’s but is also vaguer – particularly around the straight-ahead. And despite the apparent firmness to the ride, there’s a bit more body roll than in its rival.
Motorway: There’s little wind and road noise at speed, and the engine is quiet. Despite having only 99bhp, the Avenger rarely feels sluggish, either. The ride is still a little bumpier than the Skoda’s but the Jeep is comfortable enough on longer trips.
Ownership
We were impressed with the Jeep’s fuel efficiency on our test, because it achieved 47mpg over a wide mix of roads. On this and our many previous encounters with the Skoda, we achieved slightly less, although with a little over 45mpg on the cards, the savings over the course of 10,000 miles will be minimal – less than £20 a year. Neither car quite matched its claimed economy figures, but the Jeep was a bit closer and we found that on the motorway, over 50mpg was relatively easy to get.
