I have the JK and my wife has the Patriot. Good little vehicle - have taken it mild offroading. Much smoother around town and good gas mileage. Still love my JK but Jeep got a lot of things right with the Patriot that they should apply to the JK.

 

Sorry. I don't agree with you guys here. Considering I've taken my 07' JK through shit that would have destroyed the average car and STILL functioned on a daily basis, I'd say the JK is damn near bulletproof. Any issues I've had were so minor I could fix them with the flick of a switch. My second JK is also flawless. I'm sorry if anyone else has had issues with their JK but my JK's have been a pleasure to own. You could not PAY me to drive, let alone own, a Compass or a Liberty or a Patriot or even a Commander. Comparing a Patriot to a Wrangler is like comparing a Yugo to a Hummer.

 

Agreed.

 

I beat the crap out of my Jk. Very happy with both that I have had.

 

I have now had 2 jk's and a 3rd on order, I have not had a single problem with either of them, but I don't think the patriot should wear a jeep badge, to me it is just a dodge car with a real badge.

 

This is some funny stuff .
My friend has one and he parks it and gets in the jk when the trail gets rough .

 

I say as long as it's a Jeep... SWEET!!!

I have not wheeled anything "hardcore" including my own JK. But I have had JK's, KK's, the newest Grand Cherokee's, and Patriot's on Hell's Revenge and Fins n Things in Moab. All of them in stock form are capable. Each has their own purpose. All aren't as "modable" as a JK, but still have Jeep Qualities built in. Ground clearance, breakover, approach and departure angles, water fording capabilities, all taken into consideration during the design of the vehicles to maintain the heritage.

I was a truck guy in the past, but am quickly becoming a diehard Jeep guy... I love them all!!!!

 

Here is one thing the Patriot had that the JK never had (in America) diesel.

 

Sorry I miss understood your original post. My fiance and I had an '08 Patriot, she used it as her commuter car. She traded it in at 85K miles and other than fuel, oil changes and one set of tires she never put anything into it otherwise.
As far as cars go it was definately an economical to own and operate. You are correct that it had much less go wrong with it.
The only thing is that because it was a car and run on the road only it does have many advantages over the JK. It is lighter in weight and smaller. The ability of the manufactuer to put as high of quality of parts on it and still keep a certain price point is there.
For the JK, it is heavier, bigger, and much more offroad capable. The parts that it uses come at a much higher price and I personally feel that the manufacturer will cut some corners and use inferior parts to maintain an certain price point. Case in point, plastic ball joint linings, plastic clips on transfer case shifter. Most of these are little things that we don't give a second thought to till they break or wear out prematurely. Also I believe the Caliber was out several model years before the Patriot emerged on that chassis. That also gives the manufacturer the ability to work kinks and defects out where as the JK emerged in '07...and most of the model years we see problems with were during the first few years and then after each model year upgrade.

 

My wife had a 07 Patriot.
We had a bunch of small problems like ignition failure and other minor electrical stuff.
The thing that killed me was that ball joints went at 37,000 miles WTF! That's right,,,1000 miles after warranty, and that thing never even saw a dirt road.

I had a TJ that was 10 years old and never had a single problem. I sold that and got a JKU.
So far so good........knock on wood.