This Jeep Compass Believing It’s a Fiat is a Contemporary Automotive Issue.

      GTSTr331 via Reddit

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      When the announcement of Fiat and Chrysler’s intended merger emerged in the early part of the last decade, the jokes practically wrote themselves. While each brand had its moments of brilliance, neither has historically been celebrated for build quality or reliability. With this background, I share this post from the abundant source of entertaining automotive content on r/justrolledintotheshop, featuring what appears to be a Jeep Compass experiencing an identity crisis.

      According to the original poster, a customer brought in this Compass, complaining that the "radio display is incorrect." While that’s a somewhat vague description of the issue, it wouldn't take long for a technician to decipher what the owner meant. The infotainment screen immediately shows Fiat’s logo upon startup, instead of Jeep’s.

      On one hand, it’s not hard to see how something like this could happen. Jeep and Fiat are both part of Fiat Chrysler, now known as Stellantis, and they utilize the group’s Uconnect infotainment system. (Setting aside the fact that the Compass, Renegade, and 500X were once produced on the same assembly line.) If you compare the software of vehicles from different Stellantis brands manufactured during the same period, it’s quite probable they’ll look nearly identical, aside from minor tweaks to colors and fonts. You know, just a light theming to fit the brand in question.

      However, I’ve never entered my mother's Hyundai Elantra and seen it display the Kia logo, despite it having about 120,000 miles on it. This isn't something that happens often, even among automaker groups that share software as extensively as Stellantis brands do. I attempted to find examples of other owners experiencing similar issues, and I did find one: a Jeep Cherokee that believed it was an SRT Cherokee. Honestly, I’d have let that one be.

      Most other instances appear to involve modifications, like a 2017 Cherokee owner who upgraded to a newer, improved Uconnect system from a 2019 vehicle and ended up with their SUV displaying the Alfa Romeo badge. Those of you with experience in dealer service departments have likely witnessed your fair share of, shall we say, questionable decisions regarding vehicle modifications. Perhaps you’ve already drawn your own conclusions about the situation here, and you might be correct.

      Stellantis

      Although I had a Dart a decade ago, I’m not involved in the Uconnect jailbreaking community. Still, from what I understand, a misstep in the AlfaOBD diagnostic software can cause one Stellantis brand's vehicle to show the logo of another.

      Perhaps this Compass owner took on more than they could handle, or maybe it was merely a glitch. Regardless, the technician working on the Jeep mentioned that a quick relearn procedure fixed everything. Now, what I would really love to see is a new Charger that thinks it’s an Opel.

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