I am thinking of getting a Patriot and I just wanted to get an idea of what the 5 speeds are like. I don't think I am going to get a chance to test drive a manual transmission in my area. All the 2010s leftover are automatics...
I don't like the things I've read about the CVT Transmissions - which is fine with me, since I was planning on getting a 5 speed anyway...
I've got a 5-spd Sport, no bells, nor whistles.
The manual tranny is generally good, i haven't had a lot of problem with it. It's loud by most people's standards... my rationalle is that this is a cheap vehicle, don't expect to feel pampered. However noisy, the ride is smooth, and the shifter is notchy - some like that, some don't, i personally prefer it.
1st gear tends to be a little difficult to engage without feathering the clutch, and it runs out of breath pretty fast, but 2nd gear pulls hard, as well as 3rd and 4th - you can really appreciate the torque of the 2.4L in these gears. There's enough torque that I think 1st gear is purposely handicapped to prevent you from smoking the tires at a green light. Also, there's an appreciable amount of torque steer. At first it drove me nuts, now i don't even notice it; just takes some getting-used-to.
The clutch is firm, and pretty unforgiving. From a dead stop it's prone to stalling, if you don't keep the revs up above at least 2k RPM. Run it out to 3k, and you'll take off like a bat outta hell, whether you intended to or not. I've found that the smoothest takeoff from a dead stop requires you to be very steady on the gas, and very sparing with the clutch. Once you hit 2nd, though, you can just dump the clutch with no worries.
Don't try and hurry the tranny along, it does NOT like to shift fast - i occasionally find myself grinding 2nd if i expect to shift too quickly. Also, sometimes when i put it in Reverse, it creeps FORWARD when i let off the clutch; I just shift back to 1st, 2nd, THEN to Reverse, and it's fine after that.
And Reverse is NOT syncronized, so make sure you're at a COMPLETE stop before you shift to Reverse, or you WILL grind it.
I've heard that in some models the materials used in the 1st & 2nd gear synchros was poor quality, and there was a TSB on that... just keep it in mind. I've also heard some people claim that switching over to a higher-quality tranny fluid helps shifting IMMENSELY. I've not yet tried it, but i've only got 18k on the clock, and can't fathom changing the gearbox fluid yet.
All in all, it's no sports car, it no luxe model, and it's not a pickup from the 50's... it's somewhere between all these.
Most of my manual tranny experience was originally in a 94 Isuzu Rodeo. That thing was gutless, and looking back, the shifts were vague, the clutch was very forgiving (aka, slips like crazy), and there wasn't really a good gear to be in for power. But you'd get where you wanted to go... eventually.
