2019 Jeep Compass vs Subaru Forester

What's the difference?

Now is Jeep’s time in history.

Or rather, its second time in history… Sure, there was that rather significant period of history which built the Jeep name in 1941, but no time since has embraced the SUV so wholeheartedly until 2019.

Naturally, the SUV-only Jeep is now on a roll, largely credited with propping up its parent company, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles with ever-improving global sales figures reaping the benefits of an SUV-hungry world. 

The brand now seeks to plug the gaps with the relatively recently arrived small SUV, the Renegade, and now, its bigger brother – and the car you’re looking at here - the re-booted Compass.

So, does Jeep actually offer anything that other SUV brands can’t? I spent some time in the Limited 4x4 diesel to find out.

Subaru is synonymous with bringing effective – and popular – all-wheel drive wagons to market. And its Forester has done pretty well in the past as a comfortable and capable dirt-road tourer, more than appropriately equipped to tackle low-intensity off-roading. 

But has the company now tipped too far in the direction of style over substance? Has the Forester lost its way as a bona fide campsite conveyance?

Read on.