If your image of Jeep is a purveyor of big, square, rather rough and ready vehicles powered by hulking great engines, the Compass model will come as a bit of a shock to the system. Small and tarmac-oriented, the Compass is at its best when fitted with a 2.0-litre CRD turbodiesel. It's no great beauty but it is curiously effective.

Jeep owners are a passionate bunch. They almost staged an armed insurrection in the US when the old Wrangler went from round to rectangular lights and have a very keen sense of historical rectitude. Many will have fallen over dead at the first sight of the Compass. While it is clearly a Jeep (from some angles at least), it's a thoroughly modern vehicle that is built down to a price and which shares its underpinnings with a whole host of other vehicles from Mitsubishi to Citroen to Peugeot. It is anything but a conventional Jeep. Heck, it can even be specified in front-wheel drive form.

Two engines are offered with the Compass, only one of which is really worth bothering with. The 2.4-litre petrol unit with front-wheel drive is best left glued to the dealership floor. Of far more interest is this 2.0-litre CRD turbodiesel variant with part-time 'Freedom I' all-wheel drive.

The Compass is nothing if not a cosmopolitan global citizen. Based on the same chassis as the Mitsubishi Outlander (and hence the Dodge Caliber, The Citroen C-Crosser, the Peugeot 4007 and even the latest Mitsubishi Lancer), the Compass 2.0-litre CRD's engine is even shipped in from another company, in this case Volkswagen. It's mated to a rather notchy six-speed manual gearbox and serves up 138bhp. Performance is pretty brisk if you're prepared to give the Compass the full beans, 60mph arriving in 11 seconds with a top speed of 117mph. The gearchange is a bit notchy, the indicator stalks require a good prod and the steering is rather gluey but the Compass hangs on tenaciously through a corner and feels light on its feet.

Although the Compass shares the fundamentals with some other vehicles, it has undergone Jeep's own durability testing and the MacPherson strut front suspension and multi-link rear set-up has apparently proven well up to the most demanding tests. Power is deployed using 'Freedom Drive I', a full-time active four-wheel drive system that can squirt up to 60 per cent of power to the rear wheels when needed but in most conditions is operating with virtually 100 per cent of available torque going to the front pair of wheels.

"The Compass is nothing if not a cosmopolitan global citizen."

The Compass certainly looks like a Jeep from dead ahead, the round headlamps softly bulging from the bonnet, and the trademark seven-slatted grille is also present. Move round to the rear three-quarter view and things aren't so cut and dried, the tapered C-pillar looking pretty generic. Nevertheless it's a smart piece of styling albeit one that looks slightly under-wheeled. Bigger alloys would definitely give the Compass that bit of edginess that it needs and will doubtless be the first change many younger buyers make when specifying their car.

What's quite remarkable about the Compass is how small it is when you get up close. Despite the beefy styling cues, it's not a lot bigger than a Ford Focus, sharing the same wheelbase as the Dodge Caliber but riding a little higher. The approach and departure angles (ie the car's ability to climb onto and descend off steep inclines) are also a good deal more aggressive in the time-honoured Jeep tradition. The interior is very plasticky but seems very durable with a decent amount of rear leg room. A particularly nice touch is the compass point detailing on the bezels of the main dials in the instrument cluster.

You'll need to stump up £19,010 for the privilege of owning the Compass 2.0-litre CRD and this could well be the point that sticks in the public craw. After all, it's not going to be a closely guarded industry secret that this vehicle is rather similar to, say, the Citroen C-Crosser which undercuts the Jeep and has a wider dealer network. There's not too much about the Compass's interior that screams big budget either but some of the details are very trick.

Many of the funky features that we loved on the Dodge Caliber have made the switch to the Compass. There's the iPod holder in the centre armrest, the click in/click out torch in the cargo bay and even the option of the fold down speakers that fit into the rear hatch and which provide epic tailgate party potential. It's aimed at a young crowd and simply cannot fail to hit the target demographic. The engine and the Jeep identity are the biggest assets of this Compass.

The diesel version of the Compass is certainly worth shelling out for over the entry-level 2.4-litre petrol car if only for its much better ability to haul the Jeep, four passengers and a few bags uphill but the 43mpg fuel economy figure comes as a welcome bonus and a rebuff to those who hold the rather quaint view that all SUVs are destroying the planet. This one returns better fuel economy figures than a 1.6-litre Ford Ka and emits less carbon dioxide per kilometre travelled than a 1.4-litre Chevrolet Kalos, so you can exempt yourself from the Chelsea tractor brigade.

Depreciation is another area where the Compass is going to shine. A three year old Jeep is always going to have a lot more allure than a three year old Focus or Astra, regardless of whether it is front wheel drive or not. You'll pay more in terms of insurance and the pence per mile figure will doubtless be marginally higher than a family hatch but for most customers the payoff in having a more individual vehicle will be worth the additional expense.

Jeep has long needed a competitive product in to take a slice of the big volume compact 4x4 market. Unfortunately, the Compass may well be an opportunity missed. Its styling will deter many, as will the plasticky cabin. Those who are prepared to look a little closer at what the Compass 2.0 CRD offers will find a car with a decent engine, a modicum of off-road ability and some very useful features.

The fact that the Compass is being paired with its sister vehicle, the more rugged-looking Patriot, is a smart move on Jeep's part, each catering for a discrete slice of the compact 4x4 market. The Compass is the road-oriented product, the Patriot more traditional Jeep fare. Despite a strong brand image and a fundamentally sound engineering, the Compass nearly hits the spot. Trouble is, nearly rarely cuts it.