Okay...maybe I missed something somewhere in all of my investigating the past couple of weeks, but I haven't seen it mentioned anywhere that the Patriot will be available with an automatic transmission. I'm hoping I'm wrong, I think a manual only option would drastically effect the overall interest in this vehicle. I currently drive a '99 Cherokee Limited and I'm stoked about the Patriot, but I don't want to get my hopes up if it's not available as an automatic. I live in the Washington DC metro area and I refuse to sit in rush hour traffic with my foot on the clutch for hours at a time! Anyone know for sure? Thanks!

The "automatic" transmission of the Patriot is a CVT transmission with an "infinite" number of gears. So ideally it "shifts" optimally so you can accelerate faster without significantly reving up the RPMs.

Just imagine that you have a 100000 speed manual transmission with very minute changes with each shift, where you needed to shift once every millisecond for most efficient use of the engine. Turn this into a 100000 automatic transmission and I'm sure you get the idea.

CVTs typically uses chains or belts to accomplish this, as opposed to actual gears.

Here is an article on Edmunds on CVT transmissions:
http://www.edmunds.com/ownership/techcenter/articles/45104/article.html