You really want to dislike the Jeep Compass.

It's a car trying to be a Jeep. It's ugly, at least toward the rear. The interior plastics have a Third World appearance, although they fit together well.

It's built at a Dodge factory in Illinois, not the Ohio plant that is Jeep's home. It has Chrysler Group's so-called World Engine under the hood, a four-banger that's been anything but world class in previous test vehicles. And if you need a final reason for anti-Compass prejudice, it's those awful bobble-head TV commercials, the most grating pitch since Mazda hired a kid to stage-whisper "zoom zoom."

Ah, but that's the thing with prejudice — by definition, judgment in advance. After some examination, it turns out Compass is swell. It's remarkably well equipped for its price (high teens to mid-20s). The test vehicle was a $23,380 Limited with four-wheel drive and manual transmission. With the possible exception of the optional automatic transmission, what it didn't have, you don't need.

The leather seats were unusually comfortable, shaming the chairs in some much-higher-price machines.