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Compkar v. Patriot

7K views 32 replies 12 participants last post by  John Smeton 
#1 ·
As I reported back in the spring I sold my beloved 2008 Patriot as it neared the 300,000 mile mark. :crying: My employment changed and now I have several reasons to be traveling in much more severe winter weather. Considering the advanced age of my Patriot it was time for a new vehicle and AWD made sense. Had my Patriot been under 200,000 miles I would have stayed with it since I was overall confident of its performance in on-road snow.

I bought a new 2nd generation Compass (2018, AWD, 2.4, 9-spd a/t) for the same reason as I bought both of our Patriots -- we needed something that was comfortable, had a reasonable cargo capacity, and was capable of handling snow in any on-road situation we were likely to encounter. As reflected in the title of this thread, I think my Compass is more car-like than I would expect a Jeep to be, but its car-like features are why I bought it. IMO they should have marketed it as a Dodge. It gives me good cargo capacity and excellent fuel economy.

Likes:
  • Even with AWD my Compass gets slightly better fuel economy than my 2008 Patriot (FWD, 2.4, CVT) and comparable to our 2014 (FWD, 2.0, 5-spd). My overall average since owning it is 31.0MPG, though down from 31.5 since I installed studded snow tires and the weather has turned colder.
  • Cargo capacity is about equal, although rear access is higher/better than our Patriot.
  • As expected, the Compass rides and handles “better” meaning I feel less of the road. IMHO, the auto industry long ago lost interest in making cars that really had a smooth ride like the cars of the 1960s. They read too many magazine reviews written by desk-jockeys who don’t spend time on the road like outside sales reps do. When they get behind the wheel they want it to drive a sports car. I don't race NASCAR and I don’t want to ‘feel' the road -- I want to feel like I'm sitting in my living room.

Dislikes:
  • For all they market the drivetrain as advanced, it sounds primitive. It made a consistent grinding sound between 30-45MPH, 'remedied' by a software update moved the grinding sound up to 45+ where it is largely covered by road noise. It makes a huge clunk :surprise: when decelerating like when I’ve been moving along at highway speeds and slow down to make a turn to maybe 25MPH. BANG! It is comparable to a backfire or when putting our Wrangler into 4wd low. This is apparently “normal.” :icon_rolleyes:
  • Oil consumption. For the first 20,000 miles I’ve averaged <2000 miles/quart. My Patriot did better with 250,000+ on the odometer! Oil consumption seems to be moderating. I got 3000 miles from my last oil change to today, but it’s time for another quart. Maybe this is just an incredibly long break-in period. :confused: Some on the Compass owners' site have reported much worse oil consumption than mine; others don't seem to have a problem.

I've had it in several snowstorms this fall. In one situation the highway was blocked by a stuck semi and I had some trouble backing down a hill covered with hard-packed snow (white ice) so the DOT truck could get through. The Compass wanted to slide diagonally. That was in October and I still had my 'all-season' (three season) tires on. I got out of the mess by feeding it a little gas to counter the engine-heavy front end, and intentionally getting onto the shoulder where the snow was deeper and softer and I found better traction.
The other was a few weeks ago just driving along on a typical snow-covered highway. By then I had dedicated snow tires and I think my Patriot had better lateral stability than my Compass, maybe because the Compass has a boxier wheelbase.

So in short I'm satisfied but not impressed. I'm a bit worried about the oil consumption and the drive-train noises. More thorough testing and better engineering should have caught and corrected these problems before they put it on the market. I still don't understand why they were in such a rush to get the Patriot off the market.
 
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#2 ·
The Patriot/Compass/"MK" platform had to go. It was based of an old Dodge design that no longer fit into the product line up. The New Compass is (like the Renegade) based on the Fiat 500X. It uses the Tiger Shark engine instead of the old GEMA design, and Chrysler's new transmissions. The Patriot was left as the odd kid that required old engines/transmissions/ and didn't make sense long term to continue. It was only a matter of time before It got redesigned into the Fiat fold with Chrysler's newer engines and transmissions. When that happened they dropped the "boxy" Patriot body design. I'm sure their market research told them that the Compass body design was more appealing to a wider base of customers.
I too would be worried about the drive train noises and the oil consumption. Neither of those things seem "normal" to me. My Patriot uses less than a quart of oil between changes and I change the oil every 5K (light on or not). I can only imagine how bad the drivetrain noise must be if a person used to the GEMA engine/CVT combo finds it alarming or noisy....
I hope it serves you well.
 
#4 ·
The party line is that the engine consumes oil because . . .

1) The required oil is 0-20 so its virtually as thin as water. Explanation is that the oil is sprayed not squirted on the engine components. Not hard to figure how oil that thin might find places to escape, and
2) The looser tolerances make for less internal friction so better fuel economy.

I just wonder if 0-20 really offers the same long-term protection against normal engine wear as a thicker oil.
 
#5 ·
Today is my 79th birthday and 4 years ago yesterday is the date that I traded our 2008 Patriot with the 5 speed stick for our present 2015 Patriot with the 6 speed automatic. This is now the 5th winter for the studded Hercules Avalanche X-Treme tires. These are the noisiest tires I have ever owned but they still work better than the Michelin X-Ice I2 winter tires we had on our 2008 Patriot. The 2015 Patriot runs great with 124 k km on it and it has never ever used a drop of oil. I use synthetic oil and change every 8k km or 5 k miles. On the highways I liked the 5 speed stick a little better than the 6 speed automatic but it was not fun shifting all the time in heavy city traffic. We are a one car family now and I have no plans at all to trade the Patriot yet. If and when I do trade I don't know what to get. I was always concerned about the 9 speed ZX transmission with the bad reviews and the low ground clearance on the new Compass made in Mexico and the Renegade made in Italy by Fiat do not appeal to me. The Cherokee still made in the U.S. might be Ok or maybe a Subaru Forester if they fixed the oil consumption problem. I just don't know ?
 
#7 ·
Hi Ignatz, sorry to hear about the issues your having with the new Compkar, and having to have sold your ‘08 ( how much did you get for a ‘08 w 300k ). With your oil consumption, do you put many mile on a week, and is it short distances, or a lot of highway travel. I’m going to guess highway, if we compare mpg. Seems like way too much oil used. I remember some of our members switching to 0-20 in the early years, saying that for their area it would be better. But I can’t remember any of them complaining about excessive oil consumption after they switched. Then again, not everyone keeps reporting back issues they have. I guess I’m saying I’d be concerned; thinner viscosity or looser tolerances.
 
#9 ·
I sold my 2008 Patriot for $500 to a friend. Right after that my Sister's car died. I would have given it to Her.

I travel just about all of NH with occasional jogs into Mass, VT, or Maine. Most of my miles are highway miles -- maybe 1/2 expressway, the other 1/2 on state roads, and of course they put small towns along the state roads that make me change speed, or likely I'm stopping there anyway. I do some city driving, but I've been traveling the state since the mid-1980s so I've learned my way around the snarls and I avoid rush hour. Maybe 1% of my miles are in stop & go situations.
 
#11 ·
I will only get start/stop if I can disable. I don't see much difference gas mileage wise, and in the two cars that I recently drove, I could feel the engagement when starting out. The most recent one was less than a month ago with a new Chevy Malibu. The engagement when starting like at lights, stop signs, etc. is disconcerting. To me, it felt like a quick flatspot that makes me believe something is wrong, as a result you are hesitant on the gas until your brain catches up that you have start/stop. I'm sure everyone has their own opinion on this device ? I also question what the long term wear and tear on the mechanicals will be?
 
#14 ·
My Patriot doesn't have an oil level indicator, but before I got better hose clamps on my aftermarket oil cooler, an oil light would come on at those times when the clamps came loose. How low it had to get for that light to come on, I don't know because it kinda lost all 5 quarts all at once. In my '03 Impala, not long after I got it some minor engine part failed(relatively cheap fix even at the local FCA/Buick dealer where I bought the Patriot) and it started using a quart or two of oil every hundred miles or so. Took about that much oil loss to turn the light on in that one.
 
#15 ·
In my '03 Impala, not long after I got it some minor engine part failed(relatively cheap fix even at the local FCA/Buick dealer where I bought the Patriot) and it started using a quart or two of oil every hundred miles or so. Took about that much oil loss to turn the light on in that one.
Yipes! You must have been leaving a smoke screen.

Back in college I made a trip to Pennsylvania to visit a GF and the fuel pump gasket let go somewhere in western Connecticut and started spraying oil on the exhaust manifold. I burnt up a case of oil between there and Pittsburgh. It was a memorable (stinky) trip.

GF didn't last much longer than that case of oil. :(
 
#16 ·
Wasn't leaving a smoke screen, just seeping a little from something on the top of the engine. Really only did so when it was running, too.
 
#17 ·
The oil doesnt sound too good. Either does the clunking banging sounds. I like the fact is still a suv/suv , maybe not as masculine as the patriot but good enough. Its still lower cost, good look, roomy.

how would you compare price of the compass verses prie of the patriot?

would you say its as good as the patriot off road with all season tires?

I dont mind the dodge caliber platform on the patriot. what matters to be is will it hold up and have basically everything I want out of am suv/suv.

Im interested in learning more about the 2nd Gen Jeep compass.
 
#18 · (Edited)
The oil doesnt sound too good. Either does the clunking banging sounds.
The oil consumption seems to be improving at last check, but its taken 20,000 miles. That's a heck of a long break-in period and I'm not sure I'm out of the woods yet.

I'm really hoping that the clunking sound is as they say, normal. As I said above, our Wrangler makes a clunking sound when it goes into 4wd low, but usually I'm stopped when I do that, not moving along at even 25MPH. I don't doubt the integrity of the Wrangler's design, but that's because it has decades of reliability behind it, while the Compass is a newbie to the AWD field.

I like the fact is still a suv/suv , maybe not as masculine as the patriot but good enough. Its still lower cost, good look, roomy.
In my case I was considering going back to a car, and the Compass feels more like a car. Although the mechanicals are virtually identical, the Renegade looks tougher than the Compass.

how would you compare price of the compass verses prie of the patriot?
Nothing comes close to the Patriot for affordability. Granted the Compass has a more refined interior, but not everyone is looking for that. I had no problem cramming stuff into the back of my Patriot; the Compass just seems to nice to make a trip to the dump or the lumberyard. Just this week I picked up some wood at the lumberyard and the yardhand declined to put my wood into my Compass. They always loaded it into my Patriot. "I don't want to mess up your interior," he said.

would you say its as good as the patriot off road with all season tires?
Right now I've got my studded snow tires on, so for traction it is what it should be. Yesterday I had my Compass on a very rough road /virtual off-road situation with ice and deep puddles. I had to crawl slowly through it and I still managed to touch bottom at one point. I think my FWD Patriot could have done it since it was level ground, and I doubt it would have touched bottom. I'm not sure how the ground clearance compares, but my guess is that the Patriot has more, especially the later years.

I dont mind the dodge caliber platform on the patriot. what matters to be is will it hold up and have basically everything I want out of am suv/suv.

Im interested in learning more about the 2nd Gen Jeep compass.
Being a new drivetrain, the mechanicals are a crap shoot; I've got my fingers crossed. Jeep has a good reputation, and I trust my dealer to take care of me should I have any weird problems or premature failures. But for all the history I have with Jeep (going back to my '74 Cherokee) the words of my high school band director are still true: "You're only as good as your last performance."
 
#19 ·
https://www.caranddriver.com/reviews/2019-jeep-cherokee-v-6-awd-test-review

https://www.caranddriver.com/jeep/compass

"Buyers with serious off-roading on the docket will only be satisfied by the purpose-built Trailhawk, but it's at the high end of the Compass's price bracket. For those who want most of the performance, the Latitude model is a good choice. We'd spec ours with all-wheel drive, a no-cost option in this trim. We'd also choose the standard six-speed manual, as it can hardly be worse than the optional nine-speed automatic we've tested; for those disinclined to shift for themselves, the automatic adds $1500."

After reading the above reviews from Car and Driver, I could consider a down the road replacement for our 2015 Patriot as the Compass with the 6 speed stick transmission since I am the only driver in our family.
 
#21 ·
https://www.caranddriver.com/jeep/compass

" . . . We'd also choose the standard six-speed manual, as it can hardly be worse than the optional nine-speed automatic we've tested . . ."
So far mine has not failed, but it is the weirdest transmission I've ever had. Strangest part is the gap between 5 and 4 when downshifting. There is a significant lag, as in a few seconds. That's a long time.

It may just be too complex to be practical or durable. Time will tell.
 
#23 ·
All the stuff I have read about the 9 speed ZF transmission on the Cherokee forum and others probably has caused me to shy away from it more than any other reason. I recently found out that a manual transmission is no longer available on the 2019 Jeep Renegade. I hope our Patriot lives for a long long time.
 
#24 ·
People like to complain about the 9 speed, but they actually don't understand how it works.

I have it in my 2014 Cherokee Zero issues, I also have it in my 2016 Cherokee, zero issues.

https://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/2...-transmission-puts-dog-clutches-on-the-leash/

It's a good read and explains how it works. The shifts are imperceptible in regular driving you don't hear/feel anything other than see the rpms drop. Under full throttle it shifts crisp and fast.

I get that people will read something online and shy away from it, but do yourself a favor and actually go drive a vehicle with a 9 speed and you might be pleasantly surprised
 
#30 ·
Maybe it was that FWD got the old FD1 height, or Ignatz fell victim to the spring sag and that's the difference you saw. But 2011-2017 FD1 are definitely a single inch taller than 2007-2010 FD1 models.
 
#31 ·
I must have confused the nine inch Freedom drive with the one inch difference that started with the 2011 models.


I remember doing research on the patriot and a user mentioned the inch difference makes a difference.
 
#32 ·
Yes, 2010 was the last year that FD2 sat an inch higher than FD1. Starting 2011 all 4wd models had the standard 9-inch height, which had previously been exclusive to FD2. That's probably where you got the 9 inches. FWD still sat lower than any 4x4 model. And yes, every inch makes a difference off-road, but as long as you're not ripping pieces off, traction and torque are a bit more important. That's why so many complain about "lack of power", when it has power but just doesn't always put it to the ground like many are accustomed to.
 
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