Ferrari 12Cilindri vs Jeep Avenger

What's the difference?

In the near future we’ll look back at the 12Cilindri and say it’s a shame Ferrari doesn’t make cars like that any more. But if this is the last proper, naturally aspirated V12 Ferrari ever, it’s definitely a worthy one. One day you’ll enjoy seeing this in a car museum.

Note: CarsGuide attended this event as a guest of the manufacturer, with travel, accommodation and meals provided.

The Jeep Avenger is a strong move for the brand as a city-focused offering, and particularly as its first EV.

The styling and easy driving experience should be a draw, but its price in an increasingly competitive small SUV (and electric car) market could be a turn-off for some - even if it is only few thousand dollars more expensive than the slightly larger Compass.

Despite a couple of small flaws and a lacklustre safety rating overseas, the Avenger is ultimately one of the best-driving cars the brand has put out in years, and deserves a look if you’re keen on a practical but stylish EV.

So, while I’ll admit a vehicle with such a massive, phallic bonnet and a cabin that seems to sit over the rear wheels is never going to be my favourite Ferrari, personally, it’s impossible to see how you could make a giant-bonneted V12-powered, heritage-hugging grand tourer look better than this.

Yes, it does look striking in pictures but in the flesh it is absolutely gob smacking, a thing of real beauty from some angles, and outrageous showiness from others.

Following one from behind, its massive, hunkered rear end actually brings to mind a Lamborghini Diablo, although I wouldn’t tell the many passionate Ferrari designers I met that.

They have a lot to say about why the 12Cilindri (and can we just discuss that name - yes, it is silly, in English, but when an Italian says it - Dodici Cilindri - with the properly poetical pronunciation, it really does make sense) looks as outrageously lovable as it does.

They reckon they were inspired by the exciting era of car design in the 1970s, but also by science fiction movies, and the desire to build something modern that also feels classic.

Take the black banded front end where the headlights live. “Our intent was to lose the human expression that cars have, to not have an actual human gaze, so it doesn’t have eyes.”

Of course, no car has actual eyes, but you get the idea, they didn’t want it to look like it has them, the way most vehicles do. 

There’s also a lot of talk about dihedrals and monoliths. The 12Cilindri also has an incredible clam shell bonnet, which not only creates a sense of theatre when you open it but means there’s no cut line through the bonnet, adding to that sense of the whole front end being monolithic. 

Then there are the many aero features, including two Batmobile-like flaps on the rear wing that activate to provide downforce when required - some 50kg of it at 250km/h.

I could go on and on, surely they did, but let’s just say this is one hugely impressive piece of car design. I know some people find it a little weird looking in photos, but they are simply wrong. It's beautiful in the flesh.

One of the Avenger's biggest draws for me is its style.

Those who like the Jeep brand for its rugged off-road vibes, but don’t actually want or need to go off-road might enjoy that it still looks very Jeep.

We’re told that the decisions made in this car’s design are all for a purpose, and some of them are very clear.

For a start there’s a deliberate plastic barrier wrapped around the full 360 degrees of Avenger to protect the paintwork and body panels in low-speed collisions that can be just as likely off-road as in a carpark.

There’s also the sunken headlights, which sit far enough back that they’re less likely to be damaged in an impact, being one of the most expensive and breakable parts at the front of a car.

But there’s also a series of little hidden ‘easter eggs’ that the Avenger’s head designer Daniele Calonaci left up to us to find for ourselves.

For a start, the tail-lights feature an ‘X’ shape that’s inspired by the jerry cans used to carry spare fuel and liquids in World War 2.

The ‘X’ theme continues in other places on the Avenger,  though there are some more cutesy design features like a series of seven-slot grille motifs around the car in places like the wheels, tail-light, and even a small one under the front grille.

There’s a 3D ladybug in the roof rail up top, too. But perhaps the most ‘aww’-inspiring is the silhouette of a child looking through a telescope in the lower passenger side of the windshield, up at some stars in the upper driver’s side. The child? That’s Calonaci’s son.

For what it is, a two-seat grand tourer/rocket ship, the space inside is perfectly functional, and there’s a large kind of overgrown parcel shelf where you can throw a back pack or your jackets if you need to.

You also get a 270-litre boot, which is, you guessed it, just big enough for a set of golf bags.

Keep in mind that there is literally no one on Earth who will buy this as their only car.

The outside of the Avenger is plenty of fun, but the inside is a fairly sensible place.

That’s not to say it’s boring, but the use of space for a car of this size is impressive, and there are plenty of places to store things.

There’s a well thought out phone charging pad in a relatively deep storage compartment in the centre of the Avenger, as well as the cupholders in front of the centre armrest and another storage bin underneath, plus a ‘shelf’ along the dash.

The amount of storage is impressive given the Avenger’s interior is a nice, tidy design that still manages to incorporate some useful elements some cars forgo - buttons for the climate controls, for example, are something that are increasingly (and frustratingly) rare.

Anyone who has used a Uconnect system in a Jeep or Fiat in the past might like to know that this one (accessible via a 10.25-inch touchscreen) is a step-up from predecessors.

It’s not perfect, some elements of the menu and feature placement seem a little random at first, but it doesn’t lag, is easy to connect to wirelessly, and has a fairly helpful voice control system.

Functionality is most of the way there generally, but a few missing things like dual-zone climate control or electric adjustment for the passenger seat feel like let-downs, plus the heating on the front seats seemed to be quite weak for a long time before eventually warming.

Behind those seats, the second row is lacking just about any amenities besides a USB port, but it’s not too cramped for a light SUV. Adults might find it suitable for relatively short trips, but kids should be fine for a while.

The sunroof (when featured) doesn’t extend very far back, so the second row also feels a little dark.

Behind that, an impressive 355 litres of boot space expands to 1250 litres when the seats are folded down, plus a plastic lining on the boot lip means you don’t scratch the car when loading or unloading.

Before the Avenger had even landed, Jeep announced a $3000 reduction to the original pricing. While it might seem like this move stems from an increasingly competitive small-SUV market, Jeep says production costs dropped after the pricing was initially set, and the decision was made to pass it along to customers.

In any case, the Avenger now starts from $49,990 before on-road costs for the entry-level Longitude, with a mid-spec Limited costing $54,990 and the appropriately named Summit set at $60,990.

This puts the Avenger among the most expensive offerings in the 'Light SUV' category along with the electric Mini Aceman (from $55,990) and hybrid Lexus LBX (from $47,550), but around the same price as the slightly larger Hyundai Kona Electric (from $54,000) and Renault Megane E-Tech (from $54,990).

It also looks like brilliant value compared to the much smaller and lower-ranged Fiat 500e (from $52,500). Style comes at a cost.

For the Avenger, there’s a bunch of kit that’s standard across the range, plus only one cost-option - premium paint at $990.

Each Avenger gets dual 10.25-inch screens inside, one for the driver instrument display and the other a touchscreen for the multimedia controls, centred on the dash so it can be reached by both front occupants.

Satellite navigation, keyless start, adaptive cruise control and Jeep’s Selec-terrain drive mode system are all also standard features.

The Limited adds partial synthetic leather trim to the seats, keyless entry, more safety features like blind-spot assist and parking sensors, plus a height-adjustable boot floor and more powerful AC charger, with an 11kW version replacing the 7kW of the Longitude. The Limited also has optional two-tone roof paint in black for $495.

Climbing to the Summit means you get the two-tone roof as standard, plus LED projector headlights and LED tail-lights, 18-inch alloys, leather accented heated seats with power adjustment and lumbar massage for the driver, plus it also gets a sunroof over the front occupants.

This stupendous, trumpeting, mid-mounted 6.5-litre V12 (it’s mounted just beneath the windscreen, effectively, which actually looks a bit weird when you lift up that big clamshell bonnet, but makes sense in terms of mid-engine balance for handling) is a further development of what was already a fearsome powerplant in the vehicle that precedes this, the Ferrari 812 Superfast.

This new version also gets an eight-speed dual-clutch transmission, instead of the old seven-speed one, which theoretically provides better economy, as if the owners will care, but also provides “more driving enjoyment” as its shift times are now 30 per cent faster.

The V12 itself, naturally aspirated remember, now revs even higher, with maximum power of 610kW arriving at a very, very loud 9250rpm, just short of the 9500rpm redline.

What is incredible about that rev number is just how effortlessly and easily the engine will climb to those heights, repeatedly and addictively.

Ferrari says it’s also developed something called 'Aspirated Torque Shaping', which allows it to “sculpt” the torque curve in relation to engine speed and the gear selected, with 80 per cent of its 678Nm kicking in from 2500rpm.

The goal of this, on which it delivers, is to provide a sense of “seemingly endless acceleration”, particularly in third and fourth gear, where the car’s happy place exists. 

All that grunt will hurl you to 100km/h in 2.9 seconds or from a standing start to 200km/h in 7.8. No, it's not the fastest power plant Ferrari now makes, but in terms of its intended goal of being the greatest naturally aspirated V12 ever, it's a 10 out of 10 effort.

There is no way that Ferrari will get away with making another engine like this, so it’s fitting that it’s going out on an operatic high note.

The Avenger has one drivetrain for now, a front-wheel drive electric motor, though it sounds like we shouldn’t rule out the possibility of other petrol hybrid drivetrains in the future.

The EV Avenger we’ve got is built on a 400-volt electric architecture, with a single motor delivering 115kW of power and 260Nm of torque.

It’s got a a mode that increases the regenerative braking, though isn’t quite a one-pedal driving experience.

Jeep says it’ll hit 100km/h in 9.0-seconds, but apparently tops out at 150km/h.

Move along, nothing to see here. Well, nothing you wouldn’t expect, except for the fact the Ferrari 12Cilindri is fully emissions compliant with the 2026 Euro-6-E standard. Incredibly. A ceramic catalytic converter is part of the magic, apparently, but a lot of effort has clearly gone into all areas of emissions.

Its CO2 emissions are claimed to be 353g/km, but then its fuel efficiency is a claimed 15.5 litres per 100km, and that’s just having a laugh.

Despite having a 92-litre tank, I was shown a predicted range of just over 415km when full, and was down to a predicted 300km to go after draining a quarter of a tank. Even EVs can do better than that.

The Avenger has a reasonably sized 54kWh lithium-ion battery for a light SUV, which it says allows for a driving range of up to 396km, or 390km in the top-of-the-range Summit, due to the specification.

Under WLTP testing, Jeep says the Avenger is rated at 15.4kWh/100km (15.8kWh/100km for the Summit) for efficiency, and it comes with a Type 2 CCS combo charging socket for either DC fast charging up to 100kW, or AC charging up to 7kW in base Longitude and 11kW in higher variants.

On DC charging at its max 100kW rate, the Avenger should take about 24 minutes to charge from 20 to 80 per cent, while slower AC charging at 11kW takes five hours and 34 minutes.

On the launch drive route, we were seeing between 14.8 and 16.4kWh/100km on the trip computer, so Jeep’s claims seem accurate.

To say that our first drive of the Ferrari 12Cilindri was impacted by nasty wet weather and standing water on slick and narrow European roads would be like saying that going outside naked when it’s snowing impacted your level of goose flesh.

For the first 30 minutes I was breathing like someone who’d just been pushed out of a plane with no parachute. When trucks came towards me, and when the rear wheels scrabbled madly to find grip - bringing to mind the whirling legs of the cartoon Road Runner - I breathed in so severely that I think I now have a pair of boxer shorts stuck in my chest cavity. 

Fortunately, Ferraris have a 'Wet' setting, which is a work of genius, sensing the amount of grip you might not have and adjusting the power delivery to keep you safe. Remarkably, even in this mode, you don’t feel short changed on power in this wild V12-powered machine.

Unfortunately, the combination of my work ethic, professional pride and male ego meant that I could not allow myself to stay in Wet mode and would occasionally switch to 'Sport', when the rain eased up and the road almost dried out.

It was during these times that, after about an hour, I really started to gel with the Dodici Cilindri and found opportunities to enjoy its stupendously operatic soundtrack.

Much as the emissions laws have squeezed the engine, new sound regulations mean this V12 Ferrari must be quieter, in theory, than ever before, at least from outside.

But the sound designers have gone to a lot of trouble to make sure the sensational noise of this engine spinning its way to 9000rpm-plus finds its way into the cabin, and into your ears, and your very soul.

The temptation to give it plenty in the lower gears was thus overpowering and unending, but this grand tourer is so powerful that exploring the upper ranges in any gear means warping straight past speed limits, and sane behaviour. 

Fortunately, the 12Cilindri has stupendous brakes, and while its extreme length - almost 5.0m - causes some nose lifting under acceleration and diving under hard stopping, the car’s mid-engined balance means you always feel planted and in control. 

The steering is also super sharp and, while it takes some getting used to, the accuracy of its turn-in encourages you to push harder and harder. I had a fantastic time driving it through long sweeping bends, and a slightly more stressful time in sharp hairpins.

This Grand Tourer really is two cars in one, however, because if you leave the gearbox in Automatic it really does take all the effort away, riding its wall of torque and seemingly capable of driving at any speed from 40km/h to 240km/h in seventh or eighth gear. 

It is far more fun, and frightening of course, to change the gears yourself, and explore those higher, scintillating rev ranges.

So, it’s a great car, a collector’s piece, because they’ll never make another one like it, and a moving piece of visual drama. The only problem I have with the 12Cilindri is it’s just not the best Ferrari a huge whack of cash can buy.

Indeed, the Ferrari 296 GTB is not only the best Ferrari I’ve ever driven, it’s the best car I’ve ever been lucky enough to sit in, and it’s more than $100K cheaper.

Apparently the thing to do, if you’re a Ferraristi, is to have one of each. Sounds good.

The mix of a fun exterior and practical interior for the Jeep seem to blend into the Avenger’s driving experience. It doesn’t feel too much like an EV, but it is still playful and capable on the road.

Jeep wanted the Avenger to come across like a normal car that just happens to be electric, and the relatively calm take-off (rather than the usual immediate torque push electric cars are capable of) seems to prove that.

Though 115kW doesn’t sound like much on paper, it feels brisk enough for what the little Jeep is built for, and its delivery means even on a wet day like what we copped during the launch drive, wheelspin and torque steer were minimal.

Once up to speed, the Avenger feels pretty light for an EV, and it’s playful enough in corners without feeling like it’s becoming unstuck or hard to handle.

The suspension and steering are clearly aiming for comfortable driving more than sporty performance, and so while both feel well-sorted, neither are particularly communicative. But the steering is accurate and feels nice and light, making the Avenger easy to point into a corner and you can trust it to hold on.

Perhaps the biggest downside is the brake pedal, which is soft and doesn’t grab as quickly or progressively as you’d expect. It takes a few presses to work out how much pressure you need to stop the car.

But a drive mode that adds a bit of regenerative braking helps out there, even if it’s not proper single-pedal driving.

At higher speeds, the Avenger settles well over big bumps and undulations, feels comfy on most surfaces, and despite a bit of road noise and a small rattle in the dash on one of our test cars, it feels pretty easy and confidence-inspiring.

Jeep says the Avenger is built to handle some light off-road driving but I imagine its front-wheel-drive setup would be limiting in some circumstances, especially in the rainy, muddy weather we faced. Despite that, some unsealed mud and gravel driving proved the Avenger capable of gentle inclines at low speeds without risk of sliding.

For reference, ground clearance is 200mm, while the approach and departure angles are 20 and 32 degrees, respectively.

The Jeep Avenger hasn’t been tested by ANCAP, but comes with a disappointing three-star score from Euro NCAP.

Jeep Australia says it’s currently working with ANCAP regarding a potential local score, but wouldn’t detail what that could mean. A small SUV’s score dropping below four stars might concern some young family-type buyers, though most of its poor scoring comes in the categories of Vulnerable Road Users (pedestrians and cyclists) and Safety Assist (active tech).

In terms of what the Avenger offers as standard, there’s auto emergency braking (AEB), lane-keep assist, traffic sign recognition, driver monitoring, a reversing camera and six airbags (no front-centre bag, though).

It’s notably missing rear-cross traffic alert, and the base Longitude makes do with regular adaptive cruise control and parking sensors at the rear only, while higher variants get blind-spot assist, surround parking sensors, and intelligent cruise control.

Like all Ferrari’s, the 12Cilindri comes with a seven-year, unlimited km warranty and a free-of-charge seven-year maintenance program covering all regular maintenance for the first seven years of the car’s life.

Service intervals are once a year, or every 20,000km.

Jeep offers a five-year/100,000km warranty, which is starting to be overtaken by other brands increasingly offering seven-year/unlimited kilometre warranties or longer.

The high-voltage battery system of the Avenger is, however, covered for eight years or 160,000km, whichever comes first.

Jeep also offers capped-price servicing for the five-year warranty, with scheduled visits costing just $250 and spaced out at 12,500km or 12-month intervals.

There’s also the brand’s lifetime roadside assist, but only when you service your car with Jeep.