Like hair extensions, brand extensions make us wince. We like authenticity. But no matter how deeply ingrained a brand’s identity, that identity still belongs to a company, not a church, and a company’s first priority is not adhering to a belief system, it’s making money. Given that, the allure of selling out is easy to see. (Hint: It’s the “selling” part.)

Whether or not Jeep’s new Fiat-based Renegade is a sellout, it will likely sell. The Wrangler and the Grand Cherokee, Jeep’s purest-blood offspring, each sold around 175,000 units last year. The Patriot and the Compass, Jeep’s Dodge Caliber–based rental-fleet bastards, combined for about 150,000. The Renegade’s big brother Cherokee didn’t even exist two years ago, but it sold as well in 2014 as Jeep’s decades-old core products. Few industry executives would veto any decision that is likely to increase their sales by 25 percent so quickly.

THE NEW NORMAL: NO NORMAL

The Renegade certainly doesn’t look like a sellout, although it does look weird. Then again, its segment includes so many outlandish shapes—Kia Soul, Nissan Juke, Mini Countryman—that it’s not so much a class of vehicles as it is a clown college. And it’s about to get weirder with the Chevy Trax, Honda HR-V, Mazda CX-3, and the Renegade’s sibling rival, the shapely Fiat 500X. Odd it may be, but the Renegade doesn’t look bad, and it certainly isn’t as cheap as the Patriot or as dorky as the Compass. It’s cheekily, confidently butch without being overdone, its upright stance, trademark grille, and taillights that protrude from the bodywork immediately identifying it as a relative of the Wrangler.