2018 Ford Escape vs Jeep Compass

What's the difference?

If you haven’t realised that small, medium and large SUVs have taken over the world then you’ve been living under a rock – a rock that someone in a purpose-built dual-range 4WD would have driven over with disdain.

But while popular city-focused SUVs have not been designed, built or indeed marketed for serious off-roading, they can at least cope with dirt tracks and gravel roads. And it is those types of road surfaces which will likely form the outer limits of expected usage in these wagons anyway.

Some mid-sized models achieve a near-perfect marriage of on-road manners and light-duty off-road capability – and Ford’s Escape is having a decent crack at getting that combination just right. But does it succeed? To find out, read on.

SUVs are so ridiculously popular right now that nearly all carmakers have one, and if they don't they're scrambling to work out how to build one.

That's good news if you're looking to buy one because there's a sea of SUVs to choose from, particularly small ones, but it's also easy to get swamped by the choice.

So, just stop for a second – wouldn't it make sense to also check out an SUV from a brand that not only made the first SUV, but has only ever made SUVs? No, not Range Rover... Jeep.

The new Jeep Compass is a small SUV along the same price and size lines as the Mitsubishi Eclipse Cross or Nissan Qashqai. What Jeep was keen to impress on us at its launch was that the top two specs – the Limited and the Trailhawk – were quite capable off-roaders. That is an ambitious statement, and for something to have any off-road ability in this small SUV class is rarer then teeth on a hen.

We went to the wilds of Tasmania to drive these two. The mission: Are they really any good – off and on the road?