Review: Tough choice between electric and petrol versions of Avenger

I’m still not so sure about it. The vehicle in question is the Jeep Avenger.

I had it on test recently with a 1.2-litre petrol engine. I drove it a lot, around town and down the country.

It was only natural for me to wonder if I would buy it when there is a perfectly good electric version on sale.

And prices are madly different. The petrol range starts at €31,495, the electric kicks off at €35,995. Yes there’s a few thousand euro of a difference, but that would surely be clawed back by lower running costs over a few years.

That’s what you’d expect, but all isn’t quite what it seems.

On the face of it, I am making a strong case for opting to go electric. And if you take into account that prices at the lower end of the market are falling as automakers strive to hold their share in a market shorn of impetus by increasingly negative mindsets about EVs, then it would appear to me we have an open-and-shut case against the petrol.

But that is a two-edged sword, as you’ll see in a minute.

The Avenger is last year’s European Car of the Year winner, an achievement that took more than a few by surprise.

But I think it is showing it has at least some award-winning merits because I’ve driven both the electric and now the petrol and found them to be much better than I anticipated.

Award winner? All those judges can’t be wrong, can they? I suspect the fact there was an EV and a petrol combined in contention won it marks.

On both occasions I’ve had the EV and petrol on test I was surprised at how compact the body was (wheelbase 2,557mm, length 4,084mm, width 1,797mm, height 1,534mm).

It’s only marginally longer than a Ford Fiesta or Volkswagen Polo, and counts among its rivals the likes of the small crossovers Opel Mokka and Peugeot e-2008, which are also made on the Stellantis Group’s eCMP platform.

So it is a busy car segment from which to extract customers for the little Avenger petrol.

It is not a head-turner by any means. In the car park, I passed it twice in quick succession before recognising it – even with the famous modified Jeep grille.

But they have worked well with what they have got on the inside with a bit of a screen-fest of displays on the dash.

Front room was good on my car but, understandably, rear-seat passengers above 5ft 10in wouldn’t be stretching out their legs.

The boot in my petrol test car was better than the EV, and if you don’t need the back seats, folding them gets you a lot of luggage space. They’ve been clever with little stowage slots too.

I remember being fond of the EV version for its about-town handiness. This petrol one appealed more in town and country. I can only put that down to the interaction between the chassis/suspension, and 1.2-litre petrol powertrain.

I had it on longer runs and I grew to like it a lot, especially the quiet power of the 100bhp engine. The thing about 100bhp in a car of this size gives it a chance to breathe rather than struggle.

I usually put down a note at the end of my test-drive under “single abiding memory”, and in this case it was the way they have geared the car.

In other words, how the six-speed manual doled out the power in a nicely balanced fashion so I wasn’t changing gears willy-nilly.

Without a doubt a good small petrol engine brought something to the drive. But then so does the presence of an “electric engine” in an EV.

So what should you do, EV or ICE (internal combustion engine)?

The case against a petrol buy I’ve already mentioned, and outlined how EV prices, new and second-hand, are falling, thereby creating a wait-and-see mentality.

In some cases, customers are being offered witheringly low quotes for second-hand EVs as trade-ins against new electric vehicles.

I’m not saying the Avenger will go down that road but the general backdrop in which it operates has to be factored in when you are buying either new petrol or electric.

The gap between petrol and the EV in terms of life-time costs may favour the petrol more, thereby making the petrol a more attractive proposition.

We just don’t know. EV values could rise and rise if and when that negativity towards them dissipates.

And there’s no guarantee petrol cars won’t be hammered by budget measures.

All I can say is the petrol looks more attractive to me than it would have six months ago. You need to do serious maths on this if you are thinking of buying one or the other. It’s not a straightforward call any longer.

JEEP AVENGER 1.2 PETROL

​Small crossover, 1.2-litre petrol, 100bhp, 6spd, manual transmission, front-wheel drive, 5.6-litres/100km

From €31,495 (Longitude spec), Altitude €33,995. Longitude has 16ins alloys; 10.5in infotainment and 7ins TFT display; Altitude has 17in alloys and two 10.5in screens

Substantial base of safety and driver assists on both trims. These include parking sensors and aids

Entry-level has All Terrain driving mode, cruise control. Altitude has adaptive cruise control. Both have AppleCarplay/Android Auto as standard too