Liberty is more like driving a truck. If you are looking for most economical. Patriot. Will you be hauling trailers with heavier loads? I mean if we are talking awesome suv grocery getter- deff the patriot.


Jeep Patriot 2011 4x4, sound system, towing package, tinted windows...

 

Crash tests:

I do not believe the Patriot we're looking at has side curtain airbags. But really the easy solution is don't fiddle fart around in intersections.

 

Man in those crash test videos, that Liberty got thrashed. In the side impact, most of the interior came apart and became a projectile. In the front offset impact, it hit with such force that it was launched in the air and turned almost 90 degrees. The Patriot absorbed most of it, then did a little hop and stayed in almost the same spot

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Liberty: V6, more towing capacity, bigger truck like, MPG...ya know, I've heard nothing but problems with sky sliding roof, Sport package.

Patriot: 4cyl, 2000 lbs towing capacity (once properly equipped), adequate space, car like feel, great Freedom Drive system, great resale value (for now at least), you know what to expect (weak front end), available in CVT or 5MT, Limited package features (heated seats, etc).

But at the end it all comes down to what you're really going to use it for. You have answer those questions. Do you need more room than Patriot can offer? Are you going to tow anything more than 2000lbs? Are you going to use it as a daily driver? MPG question follows it. $700+ in gas per year = at least $3500 in savings during the first 5 years.

The only thing is I probably wouldn't spend almost $20k on 2008 model where you can find 2010 or even a new one for the same price. Good luck to you and let us know if you need any other advice.

 

They want more for the 08 Patriot than I paid for mine in 08.

I looked at Liberty before the Patriot, MPG was the factor for me, and I like the look of the Pat a bit better.

I would worry about the sunroof though.

 

I have several vehicles almost 50 years old which have never been involved in a crash. You can't live for what might go wrong.

So if you don't care about mileage, I'd go Liberty. The only reason I can think of is that the back window opens by itself. A vexing annoyance on the Patriot!

I guess get the one which has the options you like best. Liberty will give you better (taller) cargo space. They are both good reliable cars.

If you care about resale, the Patriots seem to retain their value quite well. I paid 16k for mine in 08 and it is still worth almost 10k!

 

Okay I'm just getting back from test driving both. I was going to wait until Saturday, but we had really strong winds today so what better time to test the Liberty for wind noise on the sky slider?

Let's start with the Patriot, since I drove it first. It is the limited trim, sun and sound package, leather and FDI. It has 15,000 miles and looks good. The roof rack though has the black paint peeling off of it. Strange. I also noticed that the seals around the front windshield, seemed flimsy I guess for lack of a better term. It seemed like it sat an 8th inch off the windshield and bent easily. These seals extended half an inch or so above the door and sort of stuck up in the air some. Seemed odd to me, maybe a leak source? I checked closely for water stains and dampness, couldn't find any, although it looks like they very carefully shampoo'd the carpets. The carpets had plastic wrap on the floors which said "must be removed by dealer at sale" or something like that. There were the all weather rubber floor mats in the rear. One thing I noticed, the rear gate on the FDI opens to a height exactly where I can nail my forehead on it. Sandstone's FDII doesn't have this problem for me. 1 inch is a big deal I guess. When I first fired the Patriot up, idling though the lot making a sharp right turn through a drainage area I heard what I thought may have been a ball joint, sort of a pop. I didn't feel it in the wheel. I couldn't recreate it either. That scared me. Other then that, man I had forgotten how quiet and smooth the Patriot is. Jumping straight from the TJ to that, it felt really great. I like the CVT. There I said it. One thing Jenn noted, at full throttle it sounds like you're playing "Pole Position".

The 08 Liberty Sport. It's a stripper, sky slider is the only option worth mentioning. Man it looks great in black with the side steps they have on it. Okay first thing we did was open the sky slider. Of course it's awesome. Closed it before we left the lot. To get something in the back of the Liberty you have to lift it pretty high, I guess that's one of the downsides to a live rear axle. The Liberty has a much more powerful feeling seating position. I feel I can see out of the Liberty better then the Patriot. The Patriot is nice, but everywhere you touch in the Liberty feels higher quality. It rides more rough then a Patriot, but smoother then my TJ and I think smoother then the Charger. The motor sounds like it wants to be powerful. It took off from the dealer's lot at a quicker pace. Then..... roar, roar, roar.... Matching road speed. Dove into a lot. did some tight turns at slow speeds, nothing noticeable. I find the jack and get the front end in the air. CV joint on the front left is shot. Not sure if this is a common problem or what. Drop it back down and continue my test drive. The Sky slider has some wind noise. I don't feel it's any worse then my TJ though, so I can live with it. If you have anything else though, I can see where people would complain about it. I view it as a trade off I can live with. The Liberty felt faster, but going into a very strong head wind at 55 the transmission hunted a couple of times. Get on the interstate with the wind at my back, floored it and thought it was clearly faster then the Patriot. However at the bottom of the ramp I was at 75 - 80, with the Patriot I was right around that same speed. Not scientific at all, but I'm convinced the "slow" Patriot is primarily the CVT being deceiving. I'm not saying the CVT is fast, but it is acceptable.

So here's where we're at. Jenn and I both prefer the Liberty. Concerns are of course it's broke. It's at a Jeep dealer though so I expect it to be fixed correctly. I need to research this. If it's just going to break in another 40,000 miles I'm not interested. The gas milage, yeah it's not good but it has never been my top priority. This is a Jeep dealer, what do you think the salesman was pushing us toward? You'd be wrong. He really thought we should buy a Suzuki SX4 they had. Sure the price is nice, but it is considerably smaller then the Patriot and I don't know if I'm prepared for that yet. Didn't test drive it.

 

The 2009+ (especially the 2010+) have higher quality materials on the interior if that's another selling point on a Patriot for you.

Sounds like you had a decent couple of test drives. Are you thinking one of these two vehicles could be the one? Or are you just glad you got to compare, but will wait until you find a different Pat or Liberty?

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I liked the Sky Slider but as mentioned people have had problems with them.

If you go out to edmonds.com to the forums there's a thread you can check out. I tried to post a link to it but it didn't work. All kinds of storys not just about noise and leaks but having it come open by itself going down the freeway.

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