Today was the day i had a chance to drive the Patriot for my first time. I´ve already seen it on the Dealers Showroom and a few times on streets but that was it.
First i have to tell you that i wanted to test it last week but someone else who drove it filled in gas instead of Diesel and damaged parts of the engine so they needed a week to repair the testmodel wich is the only one they have for testdrives.
Ok here we go. I went with my family, my wife and my 2 kids to the dealer.
It´s a Patriot Sport CRD with 6 gear manual transmition. It has ESP,ABS,power windows, AC, YES seats,17" alloys and such things that are standart on german Sport models.
It also comes with black color the color we prefer.
After checking the exterior my wife mentioned that she didn´t like the front grill all black. I told here that there are 3rd party chrome grill inserts out there i will show her later. So she was fine with that.
Inside. We fit very well into the Patriot. there is more legroom for the rearseats than in the Opel Zafira Minivan we own yet. But my wife was concerend about the rear cargo space so we had to check it out later at home.
The fit and finish of the interior was ok.I saw a few small things that didn´t fit that exactly but no sharp edges were found. My wife mentioned that she like this 2008 model interior after i told here that it will change in the 2009 series.
The pat comes with standart Radio wich support RDS so it can show Radio station names and artists and music title. I found that the sound comes more from the rear speaker than front ones but i guess that can be adjusted.
Yes seats are pretty comfortable and all found it nice that the back seats could be adjusted.
Once we checked the interior we drove around the town for half an hour. In the meantime my wife tried out the rear middle seat fastener until she noticed that she wasn´t able to unlock the small fastener. So i stopped and i and my kids tried it also with no succsess. I had to read the manual to find it out,lol.
Next we drove outside into country but not offroad. My wife was impressed about the acceleration of the CRD engine. It realy has a punch at about 2000-2500 rpms. I noticed that the Pat rolls in curves somewhat more than the Opel Zafira but it didn´t feel unsafe.
Next i drove on the Autobahn. Well it was somewhat crowded so i hadn´t a chance to move faster than 160 km/h. But the Pat still feeled save at this speed and engine sound was present but not so loud that it started to nerve.
At the end the Pat showed 8,6L/100 km wich was impressive because i pressed the pedal often enough. I wouldn´ drive that way normaly but i did it for the test.
Next we drove back home to check out the rear cargo space and i made a few pictures of the Pat.
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We filled the cargo room with some bags and such stuff we used last time on holidays:
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We needed also to make sure that the room fits with our dog too:
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This time with the bicycle trailer wich fits exactly:
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And finaly i parked it in our Carport next to my wife:
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We were sad to bring it back after 3 hours but my wife told the dealer that we will come back
Overall it fit our needs and the Pat drives like expected. Now we will wait to check out the 2009 model. In the meantime we can decide what we want, the Patriot Sport or Limited,the 2008 or 2009 model, the CRD or the Patriot Eco+ with LPG,lol
First i have to tell you that i wanted to test it last week but someone else who drove it filled in gas instead of Diesel and damaged parts of the engine so they needed a week to repair the testmodel wich is the only one they have for testdrives.
Ok here we go. I went with my family, my wife and my 2 kids to the dealer.
It´s a Patriot Sport CRD with 6 gear manual transmition. It has ESP,ABS,power windows, AC, YES seats,17" alloys and such things that are standart on german Sport models.
It also comes with black color the color we prefer.
After checking the exterior my wife mentioned that she didn´t like the front grill all black. I told here that there are 3rd party chrome grill inserts out there i will show her later. So she was fine with that.
Inside. We fit very well into the Patriot. there is more legroom for the rearseats than in the Opel Zafira Minivan we own yet. But my wife was concerend about the rear cargo space so we had to check it out later at home.
The fit and finish of the interior was ok.I saw a few small things that didn´t fit that exactly but no sharp edges were found. My wife mentioned that she like this 2008 model interior after i told here that it will change in the 2009 series.
The pat comes with standart Radio wich support RDS so it can show Radio station names and artists and music title. I found that the sound comes more from the rear speaker than front ones but i guess that can be adjusted.
Yes seats are pretty comfortable and all found it nice that the back seats could be adjusted.
Once we checked the interior we drove around the town for half an hour. In the meantime my wife tried out the rear middle seat fastener until she noticed that she wasn´t able to unlock the small fastener. So i stopped and i and my kids tried it also with no succsess. I had to read the manual to find it out,lol.
Next we drove outside into country but not offroad. My wife was impressed about the acceleration of the CRD engine. It realy has a punch at about 2000-2500 rpms. I noticed that the Pat rolls in curves somewhat more than the Opel Zafira but it didn´t feel unsafe.
Next i drove on the Autobahn. Well it was somewhat crowded so i hadn´t a chance to move faster than 160 km/h. But the Pat still feeled save at this speed and engine sound was present but not so loud that it started to nerve.
At the end the Pat showed 8,6L/100 km wich was impressive because i pressed the pedal often enough. I wouldn´ drive that way normaly but i did it for the test.
Next we drove back home to check out the rear cargo space and i made a few pictures of the Pat.
We filled the cargo room with some bags and such stuff we used last time on holidays:
We needed also to make sure that the room fits with our dog too:
This time with the bicycle trailer wich fits exactly:
And finaly i parked it in our Carport next to my wife:
We were sad to bring it back after 3 hours but my wife told the dealer that we will come back
Overall it fit our needs and the Pat drives like expected. Now we will wait to check out the 2009 model. In the meantime we can decide what we want, the Patriot Sport or Limited,the 2008 or 2009 model, the CRD or the Patriot Eco+ with LPG,lol
