Jeep all-new Compass compact SUV has lost its sibling

The Jeep Compass has lost its sibling - the Patriot.

A decade ago Jeep launched its Compass and Patriot, closely related small SUV crossover models sharing the same platforms and powertrains and differentiated by their styling and marketing.

Neither was a resounding success in Australia where buyers ran and hid in a very competitive market. While Compass was better received than the Patriot, a check of the Compass sales in Australia hardly overworks the calculator. Since 2007, just 15,418 have been sold. Unwanted exclusivity.

Now, in 2017, there's finally a new Compass - better in so many ways. It'll be here in the fourth quarter of this year.

The Jeep Patriot has been discontinued.

In the US, the elderly outgoing model has miraculously managed to chalk up its best-year sales year, thanks mainly to a spirited send-off marketing campaign and, yes sir, some red-hot pricing.

The Compass has also done what its sibling failed to do. Survive.

Jeep has killed the poor-performing Patriot, opting instead to retain the Compass nomenclature for the significant role of the brand's new global compact SUV.

So why has the Patriot been binned while the Compass nameplate fights another day?

"It's simple," said Jeep's Jim Lyijynen, the main engineering man responsible for the second-generation Compass. "The Compass is a better fit as a name for a global car. There was also the feeling that Jeep should do one compact SUV and do it well."