An article, which appeared in the USA TODAY's on-line edition, appears to offer some misleading information to its readers regarding the Jeep Patriot. The article: "Crossover vehicles pass up SUVs on road to growing sales" was written by Sharon Silke Carthy on May 3, 2006. It states in part: "Jeep . . . is coming out with Patriot, a road only SUV." It fails to mention that the Patriot does offer Jeep's Trail Rated version, and is capable of off road performance.

I did send an email to the paper, requesting they look into the accuracy of their report on the Patriot. I suggested that the author visit Jeep.com to gain accurate information on the Patriot's capabilities.

I find it funny that amid all of the talk about gas prices and fuel efficient cars that Jeep is getting reamed for the Compass and Patriot. Jeep was never known for their fuel efficiency, so they just seem to be addressing something they were lacking.
Granted, I saw the EPA estimates for the Caliber (23/26, if I recall correctly), which really isn't anything to write home about compared to the its competitors, but it's an improvement.

They also think that Jeep releasing the Compass and Patriot is "risky", because one will hurt the sales of the other. But does it really matter since they are coming off of the same production line? If one is selling better than the other, they just change the production line to accomodate the demand. Since many of the parts are shared between the two, this shouldn't be a huge financial problem for Chrysler.

I don't see the sales of one hurting the other, though. The exteriors of the Patriot and Compass are so different that I doubt there will be many people debating whether they want a boxy or sleek look.

I'm just sick of reading articles that say Jeep is making a mistake with the Patriot and (moreso) the Compass. Jeep is just changing with the times -- which every other car company is doing.