Vehicle on test
Jeep Patriot
Good:
Rugged good looks, economy, price.
Not so Good:
Poor sound deadening, limited ground clearance, low-rent dashboard
Overall:
It’s not often that a roadtest causes quite so much head-scratching, but barely six weeks after driving the Jeep Compass, I tested the Patriot. One I seriously disliked, the other I quite enjoyed. The trouble is, they’re effectively the same car…..
If you’ve read the Compass test, or watched the video, you’ll know that the car’s aimed squarely at women and so that (hopefully) is the reason I didn’t like it. Questionable design touches coupled with a noisy diesel engine meant it got off to a bad start and so poor sound deadening and a low-rent dashboard just meant things got worse. In the Patriot, however, better looks and a livelier performance from the same diesel engine meant that the same cheap-looking dashboard plastics and noisy engine didn’t cause my teeth to grind in the same way.
First things first; the Patriot is a much better-looking car than the Compass, despite having the same signature seven-slot grille and the same low ground clearance. There aren’t the fussy lines down its flanks for starters and the whole package looks a lot more like Jeeps should. The Patriot’s actually aimed at buyers who’ve never considered buying a Jeep before so perhaps traditional styling wasn’t so important, but the whole “rough, tough” Jeep image isn’t just marketing hype; we’re talking decades of serious off-roading through America’s wildest bits, for heaven’s sake.
The same choice of two engines is on offer – a 168bhp 2.4 litre petrol and a VW-sourced 138bhp 2.0 litre turbodiesel – with our test car combining the diesel engine with a five-speed manual gearbox. In all, there are five models in the Patriot range, with prices starting at £15,995 for the 2.4 petrol manual Sport, rising to £18,795 for both the 2.0 diesel Limited manual and the 2.4 petrol Limited with a CVT gearbox. Our test car was the range-topping diesel, which gets leather seats, cruise control and fog lamps, amongst other extras. Air conditioning, 17 inch alloy wheels, ABS, ESP and an alarm are all standard, by the way.
On-road, the Patriot felt a lot more lively than the Compass, despite the fact that performance figures are virtually identical. The diesel engine was still a little too vocal, but it didn’t feel as unpleasant as the one in the Compass had been, while even the hard plastics and shiny chrome-effect of the dashboard didn’t spoil my enjoyment of a few hours spent on the A and B roads of North Wales and Cheshire. Just as in the Compass, the “Freedom Drive” transmission system operates in front-wheel-drive mode most of the time, with drive to the rear wheels only kicking in when the electronics decide that it would be a good thing. There’s also a switch next to the gearstick to lock the 4WD system in the “on” position for when things get really slippery.
After Jeep seemed to gloss over the Compass’ off-road abilities, it was a pleasant surprise to head away from the beaten track in the Patriot. Okay, the limited ground clearance meant we were never going to cross the Andes, but you’ll see from the video that the car was perfectly happy wading through some quite deep water and picking its way across some pretty rough terrain. As ever, though, we probably subjected the car to far worse in a couple of hours than it’ll ever come across in a lifetime of school runs and shopping expeditions.
All in all, I enjoyed the Patriot (but could it be because I still felt a little guilty about slating the Compass so much?) As a family car, it offers a very attractive package for the money, while adding the security of all-wheel-drive should the need ever arise (Sheffield floods, anyone?) Above all, the fact that the diesel is capable of over 42mpg on the combined cycle should ensure a Jeep appears on a lot of potential buyers’ lists for the first time.
Report by Mark James.
