I've been excited about the Patriot over since I first saw one at the St. Louis Auto Show in January. I've been looking for a new vehicle with more room ever since my son was born 8 months ago. I test drove a Limited 4X4 5 spd a couple of weeks ago and liked it enough to order a Limited in Jeep Green w/ CVT & loaded with Nav., sunroof, etc. Originally they said it was going to take 5 weeks, but with the seat side airbags option, it will take longer.

Now that I have all this extra time, I've been doing research on the Patriot's safety and reliability ratings. The intial safety tests look good at ntsha.gov, but I'm a little concerned about the reliablity. I'm coming from a Toyota Tundra that needs nothing more than gas and oil.

Also, since I test drove a 5 speed, I'm a little concerned about the quality and feel of the CVT. Any comments from those who have driven the CVT?

Can anyone comment on the quality and reliability of the Patriot, or the reliability of other Jeeps that they presently own?

Thanks.

The feel of the CVT takes a little getting used to. The relationship between engine RPMs, acceleration, and speed are different than what I'm accustomed to (in traditional automatic and manual trannies)

Considering that the Patriot has a 4cyl and CVT transmission, the acceleration is surprisingly good.

As for long-term quality... I hope that it will be as good as my old Scion xB and my wife's Toyota Matrix. But I haven't found a vehicle that has the quality of a Toyota product, so I can only hope.

i'm coming from a Honda, so i hear ya. One think i know for sure that it holds up fairly well in crashes lol

As for the CVT, I rented a Dodge Caliber for 3 days on vacation once and after the first few minutes of getting used to it, I thought the CVT was pretty nice, myself.

The CVT takes some getting used to, might want to rent one for a few days and see how it goes. Enterprise picked up a bunch of Compass and Calibers, so they should have them. So far at my dealership Ive done one O2 sensor, and another Tech had to replace an Evap cannister since we started selling the Caliber/Compass. The rest have just been in for oil changes, we started selling the Caliber towards the end of last summer and they have sold pretty well.

Well, the GEMA engine and the Jatco transmission are both fairly new products, so neither has a track record. At this point it looks like only time will tell if these products are long-term reliable.

However, it does sound like they did a lot of testing on the GEMA engine and I don't think Hyundai would be using it unless they were very confident in it. I'm more worried about that CVT.

i'm coming from a Honda, so i hear ya. One think i know for sure that it holds up fairly well in crashes lol
im coming form a Volkswagen, so almost anything will seem reliable.

I hear you, deltaboy! My wife's car is a VW Jetta, talk about a POS! I'm just trying to avoid making that same mistake again.... Thanks!

I hear you, deltaboy! My wife's car is a VW Jetta, talk about a POS! I'm just trying to avoid making that same mistake again.... Thanks!
well... its a rock in the summer and it drives like a go-kart, but has failed to make it past the last 2 winters.

The quality of this CVT transmission should be good.Daimler Chrysler is using the CVT on the B line of Mercedes series [on the other hand AUDI I have read will be leaving the CVT technology behind ]but I just felt that 4x4 should be manual plus standart transmission has very many advantages over automatic.No wonder sports cars and true car enthusiasts drive a stick.You get much better control of the vehicle with standart specialy in a rough terrain.It's definitely more reliable,it's lighter,maintanance is very easy and simple.And you get much better performance from your car plus it's really much more fun to drive.After a very short time of driving a standtart transmission car you don't even realize that you are shifting the gears it becomes as natuaral as opening your mouth when eating.Trust me on that.

[QUOTE=Belveder;5359]No wonder sports cars and true car enthusiasts drive a stick.You get much better control of the vehicle with standart specialy in a rough terrain.It's definitely more reliable,it's lighter,maintanance is very easy and simple.QUOTE]

Just take a look at used car ads, when you start getting north of 150K miles you find allmost nothing but manual transmission's even though they are a much smaller percentage of new car's sold.

Keep in mind. This is the CVTII. Calbers and Compasses have CVTI I'm sure this newer version of the transmission has been improved upon.

Keep in mind. This is the CVTII. Calbers and Compasses have CVTI I'm sure this newer version of the transmission has been improved upon.

I don't know about the Caliber, but the Compass has the CVT2....just not the CVT2L.

Just take a look at used car ads, when you start getting north of 150K miles you find allmost nothing but manual transmission's even though they are a much smaller percentage of new car's sold.

I think there are a lot of people who never plan to keep their vehicle that long.

After a very short time of driving a standtart transmission car you don't even realize that you are shifting the gears it becomes as natuaral as opening your mouth when eating

I think there are different levels of enthusiasts. Maybe a standard gives slightly better control....maybe it has better gas mileage. Maybe it is better for off-road. However, I think a lot of people rate convenience above all of those things, and not having to shift constantly is very convenient. Especially when you can purchase an automatic vehicle that will perform nearly as well in all the above situations.

How much difference is there in gas mileage? In most cases 1 or maybe even two miles per gallon.

Can a standard Rubicon, Liberty, etc really go places an automatic can't? It might take a little longer, or more concentration, but I doubt it.

The quality of this CVT transmission should be good.Daimler Chrysler is using the CVT on the B line of Mercedes series...

The Mercedes B line does have an available CVT, but it is not the same tranny that they're putting in the Caliber/Compass/Patriot. The CVT in the Patriot is a Jatco JF011E, while the Mercedes B line has the WFC280 Autotronic CVT.

You get much better control of the vehicle with standart...

You may have more control over the vehicle, but that doesn't mean you're going to control it better than the computer-contolled CVT. Generally, a human is no match for a computer (unless you've got the skills of Dale Earnhardt, Jr.).

The "fun to drive" aspect is very subjective. When I'm driving through Seattle rush-hour traffic while trying to enjoy my morning coffee & donut, I'm more than happy to let the automatic tranny do the shifting for me.