2009 Jeep Patriot

The Jeep Patriot, like the Compass, brings Jeep styling to the Caliber platform — but, unlike the Compass, it also brings Jeep capabilities. With styling similar to the 2008 Liberty, the Jeep Patriot is close in specs (save for the approach angle) but has far better gas mileage and a lower price. Testers have been surprised by its rock-climbing, trail-traversing, and stream-crossing abilities. The body is sized very closely to the Jeep Cherokee.

Numerous changes have been made to the Patriot’s interior, with new chrome accents, a carpeted load floor, illuminated cupholders, new MyGIG radios, soft-touch armrests, a new instrument panel, new door trim, and a new center console; the 2.4 PZEV engine is now on all front wheel drive models with the customer-preferred option packages. This addresses the major shortfalls of the Patriot and should make it much more popular if the word goes out. We only released these images because 2009 Jeep Patriots started showing up on dealer lots and other outlets have already released images. We may have more detail and photos after September 1.

Numerous package changes were also made, mainly taking free-standing options and putting them into groups to dramatically cut the number of possible unique combinations. This should lower costs and raise quality as building Patriots becomes somewhat simpler. The only shortfall as a result is a group of features being moved from standard equipment on the Limited to a convenience group — the computer display, garage door opener, and auto-dimming rear-view mirror. This should affect a fairly small number of people, because most buyers went with the Sport, and very few got the Limited without the options package.