Hello all. I wheel a '93 XJ and I'm from Southeastern Wisconsin, though I spend a good deal of time in Michigan's Upper Peninsula where my parents live. I spend the winters down here in WI for college. My XJ's relatively stock because fuel economy stays better when large tires and lifts don't factor in.. but if I get the chance to buy a Patriot as my DD and the XJ goes full blown off-roader :D

A concept sketch I found on Google Images for you all:
http://www.wkjeeps.com/concept/jeep_patriot_001.jpg

Here's hoping that the Patriot is everything we want it to be!

Matt,

Welcome!!

Just some food for thought about having a Patriot and XJ. I'm not sure how well off you are, but I'll give you my perspective from a recent college grad who was pretty much broke by graduation and recently started in the real world.

I have a 93 ZJ that is in great condition minus a bit of rust in some places. I was planning on trading it in for a new Jeep (probably the Patriot). I am a Jeep person, so getting anything other than a Jeep was out of the question. I was also very used to be able to lug everything around in the ZJ.

For daily driving though, I realized that I could save money getting a reliable and unfun daily driver (2003 Honda Civic) and putting some money into the ZJ. I got the Civic for 10k (I financed it) and plan to put about 2k into the ZJ.
So I spent about 12k to have two cars. Whereas I would have financed around 19-20k on the Patriot (plus however much I would pay for the down payment).

The cost of insuring the Civic and ZJ I'm sure will be counteracted by the gas savings by primarily driving the Civic (looking at insurance rates for SUVs comparable to the Patriot).

So now I have a car I can beat up off road and not worry about how I am going to get places if I break it, get good gas mileage, and still can lug things around when I need it.

Although, if I made a little bit more money, I would probably have gone the ZJ and Patriot route myself :p

Hey Matt! Welcome to the boards.

I've had a KJ and a ZJ as past Jeeps. Plan on getting another ZJ to build into a weekend offroader. I'm looking at the Patriot for a DD for the wife and who knows what else I can turn it into?