2007 Jeep Patriot - Car and Driver
First was Dodge's chunky Caliber, mildly impressing us with its unique styling and clever interior packaging, but losing us completely with its ho-hum road manners and stunningly awful interior materials. Next came the miserable Jeep Compass, which took the worst of the Caliber's traits and wrapped them in styling to match. Now we have the Jeep Patriot, which, at a base price of just $14,985, will be even cheaper than the Compass by $1000. Needless to say, our expectations were low. Now, saying that the Patriot is better than Caliber and Compass certainly isn't saying much. For starters, the Patriot has brand-correct styling. Furthermore, the Patriot backs up its trail-rated looks with at least some measure of trail-ratability in the form of an optional all-wheel drive/CVT combo that bestows more off-road capability than can be mustered by any Caliber or Compass. But alas, in spite of its clever features, the Patriot does share every bit of the interior shoddiness of the Compass and Caliber. Also like the others, it's still more car than truck, which purists (and Jeep has nothing if not a purist following) correctly see as a dilution of the brand. But at least it looks like a Jeep. In contrast to the Compass, the Patriot isn't ugly. Source: www.caranddriver.com
