2008 Jeep Compass
This year drew an ordinary 172 complaints for a Jeep Compass — the model's median is 137. What they were about is the unusual part: 43.6% of them mention rusted, against 14.1% across the other years of this generation.
Generation 1 of the Jeep Compass, which began in 2007 and ran to 2016. Everything below compares this year against the others in that generation, not against a different car wearing the same name.
NHTSA opened a defect investigation into this model year.
| Complaints filed | 172 |
|---|---|
| Median for this model | 137 |
| Involving a crash | 3 |
| Involving a fire | 4 |
| Recalls | 0 |
| EPA combined | 24 mpg |
What the complaints were about
- rusted — 43.6% of this year's complaints, against 14.1% across the other years of this generation (3.1×). Owners wrote it as: rusted, frame, recalled, cross.
- ball — 29.1% of this year's complaints, against 7.1% across the other years of this generation (4.1×). Owners wrote it as: ball, tie, joints, ball joints.
- years — 25% of this year's complaints, against 9.3% across the other years of this generation (2.7×). Owners wrote it as: years, arms, control arms, old.
Words owners used for the same problem are counted together, so a fault written four different ways is measured once. Grouped by which complaints they appear in, not by a list anyone wrote in advance.
What owners wrote
MY JEEP COMPASS IS ONLY 4 YEARS OLD AND HAS 35000 MILES ON IT. THE LOWER CONTROL ARMS AND TIE RODS NEED TO BE REPLACED. SO FAR THIS IS COSTING ME $500.00. AND I AM NOT DONE YET. WITH A NAME LIKE JEEP I WOULD THINK IT WOULD BE A BETTER BUILT CAR. TO ME THIS IS…
THE FRONT SUSPENSION, BALL JOINTS AND TIE ROD ENDS HAD TO REPLACED. THE ENTIRE FRONT SUSPENSION WAS LOOSE. THE VEHICLE WAS TAKEN TO THE DEALER FOR ROUTINE MAINTENANCE AND DURING INSPECTION THEY NOTICED THE FAILURE ON THE FRONT SUSPENSION. THE REPAIR COST WAS $…
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.
How this was worked out
Every year of the Jeep Compass was compared against its own history rather than against other cars, which removes popularity and age from the answer — a common car draws more complaints at equal reliability, and an older one has had longer to accumulate them. A year is flagged when it drew at least 2.5× this model's median and at least 50 complaints.
This is a fault record, not a review. Nobody files a federal complaint to say the car was fine, so it shows what tends to go wrong — not whether owners liked it, and not whether it is a good car.
Source: NHTSA complaints, recalls and investigations, retrieved . Look this vehicle up directly on NHTSA's site to check anything here.
Own a 2008 Jeep Compass? What happened to yours?
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