Jeep Patriot Reviews

The Jeep Patriot has one thing its rivals lack - rugged looks. It is just as well. This entry level to the Jeep world needs a tough skin if it is to improve on the minor dent it has made so far against the more polished compact SUV class leaders. Rivals are led by the Subaru Forester, Toyota RAV4 and Nissan X-Trail.VALUEPrices start at $28,000 for the Sport manual (CVT auto $30,000). Then comes the Limited at $32,500 and the Anniversary at $37,500.

DESIGN
The vehicle is well named, for you need to be patriotically American to put it above all others.
There is no doubting its heritage. The boxy square-rigged exterior, trademark seven-bar grille, upright windscreen, flat roof and angular rear-end spell American and Jeep.The latest model gets a revised grille, bumpers, side cladding and tailights. Inside, the layout is angular and high-waisted, with hard plastic trim but clear and easy-to-use controls and good vision to the rear and sides.

EQUIPMENTWhat you get is full-time all-wheel drive, a lockable centre differential, hill-descent control, off-road stability control and a ground clearance almost equal to the best in class.
But while off-road capability is a plus, the Patriot is not over-endowed with interior space, refinement or driving appeal.TECHNOLOGYOn paper, the 2.4-litre petrol engine puts out a respectable 125kW and 220Nm, but with a relatively tall geared five-speed gearbox and a body weighing 1.5 tonnes, throttle response is dull and it needs plenty of coaxing to keep pace.DRIVING
On the open road it cruises calmly at 2350rpm at 100km/h but requires liberal use of the gearbox in hilly terrain. Fuel use is a claimed 8.4l/100km on the combined cycle and on test averaged 9.2l/100km. However, the fuel tank is just 51 litres.
Cabin space is confined, although the headroom and rear seat legroom are generous.
The front and rear seats are firm and relatively flat, the doors open wide for easy entry and exit and the split-fold rear seats have rake adjustment on the backrest. Load space is only average and confined by the high floor covering a full-size spare wheel. There are plenty of storage spaces but many of them are small and limited.Jeep PatriotPrice: From $28,000Warranty: Three years/100,000kmEngine: 2.4-litre, 4 cylinder; 125kW/220NmTransmision: Five-speed manualEconomy: 8.5 litres/100km 196g/km CO2 Body: 4-door wagon, 5 seatsDimensions: 44424mm (l), 1808mm (w), 1712mm (h)Wheelbase: 2635mm, tracks front/rear 1520mm/1520mmWeight: 1645kgTyres: 17x6.5. 215/60 R17, alloy.Spare: Full-size steel.

Whatever else may be said about Jeep the manufacturers of the iconic American rock-hoppers could never be accused of taking a soft option nor trailing behind the opposition.Jeep has, for more than half a century, built what it believes is the best for getting through whatever nature may care to throw in its path. It may not have been the most attractive car, it may not have been the most comfortable car, but it certainly did its job.That dogged determination to do things its own way made it all the more surprising when the company announced it was going to launch not one but two soft-roaders, the first models to wear the Jeep name and seven-slot grille without having to pass the Rubicon Trail test.Having launched the Compass earlier this year, Jeep is about to put its second soft-roader, the Patriot into the same burgeoning compact SUV market without embarrassment that the two are almost identical.“From inside you would be hard-pressed to pick which of the two cars you are in,” Jeep Australia's general manager for sales, Brad Fitzsimmons concedes. “In equipment, platform and interior styling they are very similar... but, we believe the two (exterior) stylings appeal to different people. The Compass is a softer-looking car promoted with city ideals while all the Patriot images will feature an outdoor theme.”Even the pricing is similar with Compass carrying a $2500 premium for equivalent models. The Patriot Sport will set a new entry-level price for Jeep vehicles with a sticker price of $29,990 for the 2.4-litre petrol coupled to the five-speed manual. The CVT automatic will add $2000 while the 2.0-litre turbo diesel, in six-speed manual only, will be $33,990.The Limited model range with the same engine/gearbox combinations will cost $4000 more than the equivalent Sport models.Standard issue for both includes twin front airbags, side-curtain airbags, switchable traction control, electronic stability control, including rollover mitigation and dual calibration ABS with off-road and on-road calibration and electronic rear differential lock. The Limited will offer a $600 package of side airbags.Comfort features in the Sport include airconditioning, cabin air filtering, a removable and washable cargo floor, power locking, remote keyless entry, cloth seats, 17-inch alloys with full-size steel spare, security alarm, tilt-adjustable steering wheel and four-speaker stereo with CD.The Limited adds cruise control, body-colour side mouldings, fog lamps, leather interior, including trimmed steering wheel, heated front seats, six-disc CD changer and deep tinted sunscreen glass.The interior of the Patriot draws its inspiration from a granite block — square, grey and very purposeful. Strangely, the hard plastics and sizeable flat surfaces are not offensive but neither are they inspiring.Interior space is good and there are some nice touches such as the flexibility of the seating, which allows all but the driver's seat to fold flat, and the placing of the gear-shift lever raised part-way up the centre console where it falls easily to hand.On the highway the Patriot is a good all-rounder. Ride quality is better than average for an SUV. Balance and stability of the MacPherson front-end and five-link independent rear suspension is good, the steering particularly so. The Patriot is happy to take on tarmac — within the capabilities of its 2.4-litre petrol (125kW and 220Nm) or VW-sourced 2.0-litre turbo diesel (103kW and 310Nm). Where the Patriot really surprises is off the beaten track, well off the beaten track.“The car was always planned to be a 4X4 product,” Jeep's senior manager for international markets Kevin Tourneur says. “Things such as the 178mm suspension travel, the alternator set high on the engine to give a fording ability, the fuel and brake lines bundled out of harms way to protect them from rock damage, electronic diff lock ... they all go towards improved off-road ability.”The Patriot's Freedom-Drive 1 all-wheel-drive system is an active system with a heavy front-wheel-drive bias but complemented by torque split software that doesn't need to detect wheel slip before feeding additional torque to the rear wheels.There is no argument that the diesel with its easily controlled low-down torque is the better engine for anyone contemplating using their Patriot for regular off-road excursions, but the petrol did, with a little more encouragement and patience, keep its oil-burning sibling honest over a New Zealand experience that featured mud, snow, rocks, washed-out tracks and steep inclines far beyond what 99.9 per cent of SUV buyers would ever contemplate for the vehicles.

Jeep was a bit slow on the uptake in the small SUV stakes, but it has made up ground quickly with an assault on this constantly-growing segment.Earlier this year Jeep introduced its first soft-roader, the Compass, to the local market. Now comes its second small SUV, creating a virtual “his and hers” set.While the Compass is aimed at women, the Patriot is packaged and priced for the blokes wanting an entry-level Jeep.A challenging northwest US launch route for this latest creation, carrying the trademark Jeep signatures — a seven-slot grille, round headlights, clamshell bonnet and upright windshield — showed the maker can confidently class it as a vehicle that goes beyond the typical soft-roader.Starting about $1000 below the Compass base price of $32,490, the Patriot is classic Jeep. Its rugged looks are expected to turn the heads of those looking to downsize but wanting to retain the style.Jeep already has the most fuel-efficient SUV in the world, in the Compass, at 6.5 litres of diesel per 100km combined consumption for the 2.0 TDI model. The squarer, more traditional-looking Jeep Patriot, is only marginally behind that, at 6.7 litres.Both share the same Dodge Caliber platform, a near-identical features list and the Freedom Drive I system — a full-time, active four-wheel-drive system with lock mode.Safety measures include standard side-curtain air bags, brake traction control, driver-controlled three-mode electronic stability program, brake assist, electronic roll mitigation and anti-lock braking system.The mirror-image theme continues within, with removable flashlight and central armrest designed to hold an MP3 player or mobile phone and a flip-down speaker system in the tailgate.Patriot features a standard 2.4-litre world engine, with dual variable valve timing providing 125kW of power and 220Nm of torque.The engine is mated to a standard five-speed manual transmission or an available, continuously-variable transaxle, which has been calibrated by Chrysler Group engineers and delivers a fuel economy improvement of six to eight per cent, compared with a traditional four-speed automatic transmission.As with the Compass, the state-of-the-art Volkswagen direct-injection, two-litre turbo diesel is also an option in the Patriot. Producing 103kW/310Nm and matched to a six-speed manual transmission, this is a model hard to look past.The Patriot will come to Australia in August in two guises, Sport and Limited.Sport includes as standard the 2.4-litre petrol engine and five-speed manual. It takes side-curtain airbags, ESP, brake traction control, ERM and ABS as standard and comes with cloth seats and 17-inch alloy wheels, among a long list of “features” new cars are expected now to have. Diesel adds about $4000 to the petrol manual-version price, with the CVT model sitting snugly between the two.The Limited adds speed control, a roof rack with cross-bars, body-coloured fascias, bodyside mouldings, fog lamps, leather-trimmed bucket seats and leather-wrapped steering wheel with audio controls.Also in the Limited models are heated front seats and a power express sunroof. Limited models will be about $4000 extra across the range. All Australian-destined Patriots have a full-sized spare wheel as an available option.Jumping behind the wheel of the new entry-level Jeep on the imposing US northwest coast — where rugged forest-capped mountains run to rolling sand dunes and a furious coast — it was clear the off-roading specialists wanted to break the perception that compact SUVs could not be capable beyond the bitumen.Nimble, with a comfortable ride on the sweeping-cornered blacktop surface, the Patriot's first off-road test was going to be its toughest.That test came in the form of a sprawling range of sand dunes, littered with quad bikes and looking much the home of the toughest off-roaders.Jeep heads, wary of the embarrassment that would be a Patriot buried in the soft sand, joined drivers for a tour of the dunes, navigating the way of the Patriots, which were fitted only with three-season road tyres. They had little to worry about, given the failed attempts of the Australian contingent to bog the cars.Logging tracks over those imposing mountains were the next test. Unfortunately for Jeep, the American authorities take a great deal of care with even their most isolated roads and Lthe tracks were hardly a test. The winding tracks did, however, raise some quibbles and concerns.Most in question is the durability of the Patriot, which rides relatively low for an off-roader. With 200mm of ground clearance, it is not going to make a rock-hopper.And, depending on your driving ability, the ESP's eagerness to kick in, even when you've technically turned it off, can be either annoying or reassuring.While they'd never make it over Big Red and you would not risk a solo outback adventure in the Patriot, it would make a quite worthy and bush-ready weekender.