Jeep Patriot

[blee]

Remember when I said that I was okay with Jeep's brand dilution when they released the Compass and Patriot? I take it all back. I have the "pleasure" of driving a rental Patriot on a brief personal trip; it was a few bucks more than the Yaris-class, and I wish I'd just gotten the Yaris and bought another taco or two every day.

This particular one is a '16 Liberty Latitude. It looks nice enough, and the interior materials are reasonable at this car's price point. The engine and CVT, however, absolutely suck. This car walks away from stoplights slower than I walk. The transmission has a tap shift feature that is both a) weird, because it's a CVT and b) just really bad. Merging on the highway is so puckering that I'm doubling up on my fiber supplements. I want to close my eyes and pray every time I get onto a ramp; that's okay, though, because the mirrors and windows are so poorly placed that I'm probably better off just merging blind anyway. The steering is vague and rubbery, with nothing close to feedback that I could detect. I don't really know how it handles and I don't care.

I had a '96 Grand Cherokee years ago, and while it wasn't without its flaws, it was reliable, quick enough, and endearing. The old Cherokees were fun, too, and the Wranglers are animals unto themselves. My friend's late-model GC is a solid choice in the mid-size SUV market. The new Cherokee is also worth considering. But this? Fiat, or whoever runs the brand these days, plans to discontinue the model around 2018. I wish they'd just buried the damn thing years ago.

The Jeep Patriot -- the Cimarron of America's only true sports car brand.

[Alan]

So when are you getting one :D

[John V]

It could have been worse. You could have gotten a Yaris. Trust me on this one.

[JST]

Yeah, I rented one in florida. It was one of the few times I've been thankful that the roads in FL are flat and straight.

[kognito]

Blee, it isn't just the transmission. I looked at one a few weeks ago before I bought the focus, to drag behind our rv. The one i drove was a 5 speed manual. We drove a base model (only way to find a manual around here) and I thought the build quality was very poor. Handleing and and brakes sucked too.

After the test drive my wife said she doesn't want to drive it again. I said that towing a few hundred miles behind the RV won't fix that. We laughed and left

[Biggins]

We had a Compass for our rental car last Spring in Florida. It is the worst car I've ever driven. It was less comfortable and made more noise than our 18 year old CR-V that is basically falling apart. For my past few rentals, I've had a Nissan Note, the Audi A1 (Europe) and recently drove the Rogue and Jeep Cherokee which were not great, but the Compass was a really, really, really bad car. I'm afraid to select "small SUV" for my rental cars in the future for fear of getting a Compass.

[Jeff_DML]

I recently rented a Jeep Cherokee in Montana. It had a decent interior and drove OK but it was gutless. Every pass was butt puckering like yours. It has 190 or so horsepower and was in elevation(picked it up in elevation though ) but it seemed like it had 100hp. Scarily slow, small turbo would of been nice. The tiquan I drove in Hawaii with the turbo was night and day difference.

[Plaz]

I had a Patriot rental a few years ago. I really thought it might have been the worst handling thing I'd ever driven. Well, except maybe the '83 Aspen wagon with 6 inches of play in the steering that I had to pilot up the Taconic back in '87 or so.

[blee]

I've had the pleasure of renting a Yaris at least three times now. Yeah, it's awful, too. On two occasions, the rear fascia kept popping off of the body, but I discovered that it can just be popped back on when necessary. The rear hatch area will hold a single large suitcase if you can crush the corners a little bit; fitting two people's worth of luggage in the thing is a rather comical exercise.

But hey, at least it was the cheapest option and I knew what I was getting. This Jeep, OTOH, needs to be burned and shoved off of a cliff.

[ff]

Yeah, I rented one in florida. It was one of the few times I've been thankful that the roads in FL are flat and straight.

That still doesn't help for those times when there's a guy just standing in the middle of the highway (http://www.abcactionnews.com/news/local-news/fatal-pedestrian-accident-on-i-75-closes-all-southbound-lanes-early-friday).