My question to anyone....
Does the patriot seem too short to be an SUV? I'm stuck in Japan (military) and my wife is visiting home (TX). She recently went and viewed the Patriots and said she thinks they are too short to be an SUV. I know that they are on a car chassis, but does this take away from the manly appearance of the so sweet boxy style jeep? I've already ordered a Limited freedom drive II (green), and want it regardless...I'm just wondering if it seems short~!~ From reading the jeep website the patriot sits at 65inches high, about my height. Any thoughts or replies would be greatly appreciated~!~

-Embry

I parked a subaru forester next to a standard height Patriot. Patriot was a couple inches taller and looked a lot more rugged and substaintial. Forester looked like a car, jeep looked like a jeep. more in this thread:

http://www.jeeppatriot.com/forum/showthread.php?t=134

After watching some of the videos of it off roading, I thought they looked good. I think the extra inch of the FDII makes a big differance. Unfortunatly most of the Patriots out right now are FDI.

I definitely agree that they are a little short (in terms of ground clearance) and somehow that makes them look short overall (though I am not sure how, the Pat is actually taller than some stock cherokees) Once mine comes in, the first thing I am doing to it is checking out the suspension and figuring out a way to lift it somewhere around 2 inches. I will let you know how that goes!

Me being 6'6", it's funny standing beside my Patriot, compared to my Durango, and seeing how much shorter it is. At the same time, when I sit down inside of it, I feel small (which in itself is funny seeing how tall I am). It's definately roomier than the Durango, and 5x better than the Ford Focus I traded it in for!

Thanks for your thoughts guys~!~ any more would be great too~!~ I'm definitely going to invest in a suspension life (2"-3") when i get mine to give it that "truck" visual when going down the road.

this is what my wife said when she first saw it in person...
"It looks like someone stepped on it."
I have to agree. Part of that I think is due to the height of the window sills.

Thanks for your thoughts guys~!~ any more would be great too~!~ I'm definitely going to invest in a suspension life (2"-3") when i get mine to give it that "truck" visual when going down the road.

The problem isn't finding the money to invest in it, the problem is finding someone who will do it, or if you are doing it yourself, finding the right components. Its built on a car platform so no one has really made a lift for it yet...

I think the real differance between this and many others with the same ground clearance is that alot of vehicles like trucks in particular have a higher lift but with the same ground clearance because they dont do a very good job of protecting stuff under the car. The patriot on the other hand, tucked most of the under stuff above the bottom of the frame so that its protected which allows the vehicle to be lower yet still have the same (or close) ground clearance as many other off road vehicle. This lowers the center of gravity making it drive better on road while still quite capable off.

I agree with superdave, the Patriot sits a little lower than its competitors. I feel it appears to be built more solidly. The Escape and CRV look like they are boxes sitting on top of wheels.

I agree w/ SD as well. The Patriots undercarriage is almost flat from bumper to bumper. The guts of the thing don't hang down and have very little chance at catching a bush or rock, plus it's CG is lower due to the great weight distribution of the low overall height and the tucked undercarriage. I'm 6' 4" and I love the feeling of the interior, not too small, not too big, just right.

I don't think it is as short as you may think it is....just look at the specs....

overall length Pat=173.6" new 08 Liberty=176.9"

(I believe the older Liberty was only about 174.6 or so)...

overall width Pat=69.1" 08 Liberty=72.4"
overall height Pat=64.4 08 LIberty=70.1

Here's a pic of my Pat sitting next to my dad's G.C. (sorry I don't have a pic of the length comparison but as you can see above in the specs, there's not a huge difference in length between the new Liberty and the Pat...

Thanks guys! this has helped alot! The photo of the Pat and the G.C. was a great comparison!

if your still not satisfied you can lift it 2'' with the Rocky Road Lift of RR lift as you might see it posted arround here

I agree with superdave, the Patriot sits a little lower than its competitors. I feel it appears to be built more solidly. The Escape and CRV look like they are boxes sitting on top of wheels.

I think you have touched on the "problem". We are used to seeing SUVs look like the old Cherokee where you can really see lots of space between the rockers and the ground. Visually the Patriot looks very low. But it seems to be plenty capable any way. It seems they designed the whole car to give more interior space by dropping the floor down to the lowest point of the suspension components. On the old Cherokee the axles were far below the floor of the passenger compartment.

I've had some issues getting used to the low slung look of the Patriot.

My question to anyone....
Does the patriot seem too short to be an SUV? I'm stuck in Japan (military) and my wife is visiting home (TX). She recently went and viewed the Patriots and said she thinks they are too short to be an SUV. I know that they are on a car chassis, but does this take away from the manly appearance of the so sweet boxy style jeep? I've already ordered a Limited freedom drive II (green), and want it regardless...I'm just wondering if it seems short~!~ From reading the jeep website the patriot sits at 65inches high, about my height. Any thoughts or replies would be greatly appreciated~!~

-Embry

I agree with Superdave, for some reason when I see my FDII, it looks alot taller than the FDI, don't ask me why. That inch makes a lot of visual difference. Likewise, when I see FDI's driving around, I say to myself boy they are low. Even though there isn't much difference.

In addition, you will have a height adjustable seat in your FDII, so when you raise it up you feel really high driving for something on a car chasis.

Green is a nice color choice. You will be really happy with your limited FDII.

I encourage you to go to the galleries on this site. There are many picks there of difference pats. My pics are my FDII, but there are other FDII's as well to give you an idea. Probably even a green FDII is you dig through them long enough.

My 2005 dodge dakota that I traded for my patriot had a listed ground clearance of 7.9 inches. The FDI is listed as 8 inches. When I first saw a patriot in person I was kind of suprised at how low it looked. After my first little offroad trip I believe even the FDI patriots can handle most offroad situations.