2016 Jeep Patriot 4x4 Automatic Review

2016 Jeep Patriot 4x4 Automatic Review

As the minimum costly model in the Jeep lineup qualified to wear the Trail Rated identification, the Patriot has a difficult, but not impossible task ahead. Propelled as a 2007 model, this minimal SUV imparts its stage to the Jeep Compass and the disliked and withdrew Dodge Caliber, yet it completes a reasonable activity of concealing those family ties under customary squared-off Jeep styling signs. While the purpose of the Compass escapes huge numbers of us, the Patriot's main goal—offering purchasers an ease section to the Jeep look and way of life—is perfectly clear. 

Both the Patriot and the Compass are slated to be supplanted with a solitary, up 'til now anonymous model for 2018. The Patriot is as yet offering admirably even as it enters its eleventh model year (yes, there are 2017 Patriots, basically unaltered from the 2016 release tried here), demonstrating that the item organizers were on target when they chose to enter what later wound up one of the business' most blazing business sector portions. 

Similarly, as with our ongoing trial of a 2016 Jeep Compass, the Patriot is nothing if not a heap of logical inconsistencies. It incorporates journey control as standard, yet interfacing a telephone to the standard Bluetooth framework requires taking part in an extensive two-manner exchange with the Voice Command framework; the controlling wheel tilts yet does not telescope; the 60/40 split back seats have all the chiseling and supporting of a recreation center seat, yet, thanks to a limited extent to abundant froth cushioning, they offer sensible solace for travelers everything being equal. 

Jeep astutely fought the temptation to add some shoddy sizzle to the instrument board with a silly advanced setup and ran with essential white-on-dark round instruments, yet the highest point of the dash—and a significant part of the inside—is built of criminally modest looking plastic that likens to the cost-cutting needs set in the tolerantly brief time frame when Cerberus possessed Chrysler. To put it plainly, the Patriot group needed to settle on hard choices with a specific end goal to put up a rough terrain fit Jeep vehicle for sale to the public at a focused cost. The rectilinear styling conveys a genuinely open inside and a liberal load hold, reasonable items that remain a quality for the Patriot when contrasted and fresher hybrid SUVs in this value run. 

Nationalists presently are offered in only two trim levels: Sport and Latitude. Our four-wheel-drive Sports test auto was outfitted with the 75th Anniversary bundle (called the 2GK Quick Order bundle in merchant talk; it adds $1430 to the value), which brings a Recon Green and Bronze shading plan and a badging treatment like the one on our previously mentioned Compass test auto. Different amenities packaged with the bundle incorporate a power sunroof, a cowhide wrapped guiding wheel, remote begin, bronze 17-inch wheels, and the 178-hp 2.4-liter inline-four-barrel motor.

 The base motor is a 158-hp 2.0-liter four. Choosing the 75th Anniversary bundle, in any case, orders a couple of extra alternatives, in particular aerating and cooling ($1375) and the Power Value Group ($2045), which incorporates keyless passage, programmed headlamps, control warmed mirrors, lit up section, and programmed bolting. At last, our test auto likewise had a reinforcement camera ($995) and the six-speed programmed transmission ($1450) instead of the standard ceaselessly factor unit.

The as-tried value, at that point, was $7295 higher than the $20,690 base cost for a 4x4 Patriot, or about the same as an also prepared 75th Anniversary release of Jeep's fresher yet littler Renegade with four-wheel drive. (Front-wheel-drive Patriots begin at $18,990.) While we comprehend the showcasing estimation of a consideration getting sub-$20K MSRP ($19,695 before the $995 goal expense), a significant number of the highlights added to this Patriot as piecemeal "choices" are incorporated as the standard unit at the base cost of contender vehicles.

 Were we composing the check, we'd skirt the commemoration bundle and its oxymoronic "required choices" and rather spring for a 2.4-liter Sports SE with A/C and the six-speed programmed for $24,310; the distinction of more than $3000 is huge in this financial plan disapproved of value portion. Remember, however, that the Patriot isn't yearned for this world—the 2018 substitution is required to make its introduction at the Los Angeles car exhibition in November and touch base in dealerships in the main quarter of one year from now, after which the rest of the stock of 2017 Patriots will move to the day-old rack. Expect deals. 

Drive It Home? 

In the event that the cost bundling still look engaging on paper, it's harder to defend the Patriot's on-street conduct. It's outright old, and it has a feeling that it. Put your foot down, and the six-speed auto permits the inline-four to swing for the cheap seats, clutching gears until redline. The motor invested so much energy turning at high revs that no less than one staff member expected it had the base CVT instead of the discretionary planetary-adapt programmed.

 Four-wheel drive, in this case, dropped by a method for Jeep's Freedom Drive I dynamic electronic full-time framework that occupies torque to the back wheels when front slip is identified. A selectable "bolt" highlight parts the torque dissemination amongst front and back axles, yet no low range is incorporated. For that—and the Trail Rated identification—you'd have to settle on Freedom Drive II ($1250) with its rough terrain mode, yet that secures you to the CVT since the base five-speed manual and the six-speed programmed isn't offered with that framework. 

Our feeling of unassuming execution in rush hour gridlock was affirmed at the track, where the zero-to-60-mph run expended 9.7 seconds and the quarter-mile took 17.4 seconds with a trap speed of 81 mph. Those figures are almost indistinguishable to the numbers delivered by its Compass friendly twin and slower than those of the last Jeep Wrangler Unlimited we tried (8.4 and 16.6 seconds), a vehicle that influences the Patriot to give off an impression of being a case of front-line innovation. 

The Patriot outran the Subaru Crosstrek 2.0i, an also evaluated vehicle that pretty much fits into a similar sub-section, which required 10.3 and 17.9 seconds to finish the tests. Given the measure of time we went through with the gas pedal on the floor, we were somewhat awed with this current Patriot's 21-mpg watched mileage, only 1 mpg short of the EPA consolidated rating.

Once up to speed, the Patriot thumps down the miles acceptable. With an inside sound level of only 70 decibels at 70 mph and no confirmation of squeaks and rattles (not the situation in some prior model years), it's anything but difficult to keep up a discussion—until the point when the need to pass emerges and the groan of the 2.4 going after revs attacks the lodge. The 265/65-17 Goodyear Wrangler SR-A tires sing a little on coarse cement yet cruise quietly crosswise over black-top.

 In like manner, the suspension shows the Patriot's trademark "sufficient for a portion of the general population more often than not" properties. While most pothole impacts are quieted, if not by any means nullified, hitting a noteworthy street cavity straightforwardly reverberates through the traveler compartment as though the dampers had quite recently jabbed free of their upper mounts. 

Ceasing execution is normal for a class in which remarkable brakes are an irregularity. Venturing hard on the brake pedal at 70 mph uncovers firm introductory nibble however generally irresolute pedal feel while taking 194 feet to grind to a halt. The Subaru did it in just 186 feet; the chronologically erroneous Wrangler, then again, took all of 209 feet. Other powerful characteristics, for example, transient reaction, hold and controlling input, all advise us this is 10 years old model. With only 0.73 g of sidelong grasp, dubious directing, and diligent understeer, this isn't a mount that urges the driver to challenge expressway inclines. In obvious Jeep custom, it's more qualified to earth streets and trails. 

In a quickly extending ocean of current, flexible reduced and fair size hybrids, the Patriot emerges as a relic from another period. Not every person is in a hurry to grasp the most recent patterns, however; for them, this last Patriot may speak to a chance to snatch a Jeep for next to nothing.