SA Road Tests

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This is the home of automobile road tests in South Africa. We drive South African cars, SUVs and LCVs under South African conditions. It also just happens that most of the vehicles we drive are world cars as well, so what you read here probably applies to the models you can get at home.
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We fly the flag in the 2012 Jeep Patriot

Pics by author

Solid hometown value

Published in Weekend Witness Motoring on Saturday May 5, 2012

Today’s trivia: Belvidere, Illinois, is a fairly typical small town (population 25,585) in Boone County about 120 km Northwest of Chicago. Among its famous children is Judith Anne Ford, winner of the national beauty pageant in 1969 and the first Miss America to tour Vietnam as part of a United Services Organisation (USO) entertainment group. Chrysler has a showpiece assembly plant there, manufacturing Jeep Patriot, Compass and Dodge Caliber. Has anyone else picked up the fact that, in some countries, major manufacturers are not afraid to provide employment in smaller communities?

Although a basic front-wheel driver is available in its home country, the one sold here is fitted with Jeep’s Freedom Drive l, an electronically controlled full time awd system. The centre differential can be locked for use in more challenging conditions. Basic transmission is a five-speed manual unit although a CVT ‘box is available too. The 2,4-litre Global Engine Manufacturing Alliance (GEMA) motor, product of an earlier deal between Chrysler, Mitsubishi and Hyundai, provides power. Chrysler bought the shares back from its partners in 2009.

The Patriot is a traditional four-door Jeep wagon, similar to the Cherokee in appearance. With seating for five, equipment includes combination leather and cloth upholstery with electrically controlled reach and height adjustments for the driver’s seat. Both front chairs can be warmed, are pleasantly supportive and wide enough for average fully grown people. Rear seat backs recline slightly, are split one-third, two-thirds and fold flat onto their squabs to provide a level cargo area. The front passenger’s chair back also flips down to make loading of long items easier.

Safety and handling kit includes four airbags, that’s two regular for those in front and a pair of side curtains, ABS with EBD, traction control, ESC with electronic roll mitigation, hill start assistance and power door locks. Windows are all electrically powered, as are the heated outside mirrors that fold as well. Keeping things simple is a single channel air conditioner operated by push buttons and three rotating dials.

Rear seat passengers have plenty of room for heads, knees and feet. Three belts and head restraints are fitted. The rear hatch door opens manually but easily, although load height is just below waist level for this tester. The floor is flat, so packing and removing luggage should not be difficult. A pair of side nooks for smaller items, and four lashing rings makes securing of loads simpler. The spare is a fully sized steel item.

Interior storage for those in the back is restricted to a duo of cup holders and narrow door bins. Those in front are better off, with a split level box that sort of gets in the way of the handbrake, a small centre slot, a pair of medium sized cubbies, one of which is open, and slightly bigger door bins. Although dash layout is simple, functional and reasonably attractive, the reach to the rear view mirror is way too far. Mind you, it wouldn’t be easy to accidentally upset it, either.

So what’s it like to drive? Solid and comfortable are good words. It goes well, but doesn’t breathe fire. The engine is smooth and revs easily past its 6000 rpm redline, gear changes are positive and reassuring, if not lightning-fast and it’s geared toward fuel economy rather than pavement-shredding acceleration. It turns over at about 2800 rpm at 120 in top, with roll-on progression best described as gentle – peak torque does kick in somewhat farther up the scale, after all. In its natural habitat, the Jeep is solid and comfortable on our regular provincial dirt roads and totally at home on this rocky forestry track we know. Ground clearance is ample for this kind of work and the on-demand awd provides confident handling.

Summary: solid, comfortable, competent within its design parameters, well equipped, economical for its engine size and decently assembled. Look at the price lists – you won’t find much, apart from a couple of untried newcomers, offering all this at R300 000.  It’s actually a great buy at the price and a very viable alternative to the other weekend warriors out there.

The numbers
Price: R299 990
Engine: 2359 cc, DOHC, 16-valve, four-cylinder with VVT
Power: 125 kW at 6000 rpm
Torque: 220 Nm at 4500 rpm
Zero to 100 km/h: 11,03 seconds
Maximum speed: 186 km/h
Car fuel index: 10,4 l/100 km
Tank: 51 litres
Ground clearance: 205 mm
Approach/Departure/Breakover angles: 20/28/20 degrees
Fording depth: 279 mm
Towing capacity (Braked): 1500 kg
Warranty: 3 years/100 000 km
Maintenance plan: 3 years/100 000 km

PS: I love this cautionary note on the specification sheet. Doting parents might do well to bring it to the attention of testosterone-laden young sons presented with their first wickedly expensive little German rocket cars: “No system, no matter how sophisticated, can repeal the laws of physics or overcome careless driving actions. Performance is limited by available traction, which snow, ice, water and other conditions can affect. When the ESC warning lamp flashes, the driver needs to use less throttle and adapt speed and driving behaviour to prevailing road conditions. Always drive carefully, consistent with conditions.”

What We Do

This is a one-man show, which means that road test cars entrusted to me are driven only by me. Some reviewers hand test cars over to their partners to use as day-to-day transport and barely experience them for themselves.

What this means to you is that every car reviewed is given my own personal evaluation and receives my own seat of the pants judgement - no second hand input here.
Every car goes through real world testing; on city streets littered with potholes, speed bumps and rumble strips, on freeways and if its profile demands, dirt roads as well.

My articles appear every Wednesday in the motoring pages of The Witness, South Africa's oldest continuously running newspaper, and occasionally on Saturdays in Weekend Witness as well. I drive eight to ten vehicles most months of the year (press cars are withdrawn over the festive season - wonder why?) so not everything gets published in the paper. Those that are, get a tagline but the rest is virgin, unpublished and unedited by the political-correctness police. Hope you like what you see, because there are no commercial interests at work here. As quite a few readers have found, I answer every serious enquiry from my home email address, with my phone numbers attached, so I do actually exist.

I am based in Pietermaritzburg, KZN, South Africa. This is the central hub of the KZN Midlands farming community; the place farmers go to buy their supplies and equipment, truck their goods to market, send their kids to school and go to kick back and relax.
So occasionally a cow, a goat or a horse may add a little local colour by finding its way into the story or one of the pictures. It's all part of the ambience!

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