SA Road Tests

Welcome

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.

*To read one of our archived road tests, just select from the alphabetical menu of manufacturers' names on the left. Hover your cursor over the manufacturer's name, then choose from the drop-down menu that appears.

*Please remember too, that prices quoted were those ruling on the days I wrote the reports.


We drive what could be the last Jeep Patriot

A nicer machine

Published in Witness Wheels on Thursday January 15, 2014

Six: an aeronautical number as in “Cover my six,” military flying person language for “Watch my back,” but we’ll return to that later. There’s also deep six; what Chrysler thankfully did to the unloved CVT fitted to the awd Patriot we drove a while back. Then we have six speeds in the Hyundai 6F24 electronically controlled automatic transmission that replaced it and turned the 2014 Jeep Patriot Limited we had on test recently, into a much nicer machine. While looking eastward, the 2.4-litre GEMA engine fitted to our test vehicle started out as a Hyundai product too, before it became a Hyundai/Chrysler/Mitsubishi joint venture that Chrysler eventually bought out completely in 2009.

This engine and gearbox combination will power certain Patriots until the 2015 model year when the new Alfa Romeo crossover with nine-speed autobox is expected. The rumour mill reckons a traditionally Jeep-bodied version of it will be built in Italy to replace either the entry-level Compass or the more off-road capable Patriot, with the other model falling away.  Naturally, diehard Jeepheads swear they will never plunk down hard earned dollars for any Italian wannabe unless it’s built back home in Belvidere, Illinois where it should be.

This is the third Patriot we have driven, so there’s not much to add. It’s a medium sized SUV, just over 4,4 metres long, trimmed in leather with heated front seats, respectably equipped with powered windows and mirrors, single channel automatically regulated air conditioning, 17-inch alloy wheels with fully sized steel spare, and a radio and six-DVD music centre that’s WMA-capable with auxiliary, but does not have USB or Bluetooth. A more sophisticated unit with satnav and hard drive is available optionally. The driver’s chair adjusts electrically for height, reach and tilt, and manually for recline and lumbar support.

It is fitted with four airbags and the usual electronic safety aids, and is decently roomy, being one of very few vehicles to score a full house of “tens” from the SA Standard Tall Passenger. Its load volume isn’t the biggest, expanding from 328 litres under the pull-out cover to 1269 loaded to the roof and with the 60:40 seatbacks folded, and as much as 1719 litres with the front passenger chair’s backrest laid down. 

South African versions are fitted with Freedom Drive l, a conventional Torsen awd system that favours front-wheel drive until things get slippery. Torque then gets distributed between axles as needed. A 4WDLock control in the centre console enforces a 50:50 power split between front and rear, for when things get tricky. Out on our tenderfoot trail we found thick and slushy mud following recent rains and, a little further on, a stretch of dry and treacherous loose shale. The Patriot treated both hazards as non-events, although we felt the suspension was rather firm and better suited to smooth blacktop than boonie-bashing.

We introduced the 6F24 gearbox to you in late 2009 on announcing the launch of the then-new Kia Sorento. At the time we noted it was “lighter and more frugal than the old (five-speed) and is a ‘flat’ torque converter automatic featuring three planetary gear sets and four pinion differentials.  A redesign of the hydraulic pressure control unit allows the transmission’s eight solenoid valves to be individually calibrated at the vehicle assembly plant to ensure fast, smooth and precise gearshifts throughout the engine speed range. It feels almost as if you are driving one of the new twin clutch jobs – practically unnoticeable gearshifts with no noisy flare or slippage.”

We have nothing to add. It’s still a fine transmission although, with the cynicism of advancing years and increased expectations, we could note that it prefers to be driven decisively rather than desultorily. If you can’t decide what you want, it can’t either. A further observation is that despite the Patriot’s boxy build and big, square windows, it's awkward to see what’s happening behind the car. It has no reverse monitoring beepers, so minding your own ‘six’ can be difficult. That’s no real problem though, because they’re available quite reasonably from most local electronics fitment centres and your dealer would probably be happy to arrange it for you.

Test car from Chrysler-Jeep SA press fleet

The numbers
Price: R328 900
Engine: 2360 cc, 16-valve, dual VVT, inline four
Power: 125 kW at 6000 rpm
Torque: 220 Nm at 4500 rpm
Zero to 100 km/h: About 10,0 seconds
Maximum speed: 175 km/h (estimated)
Real life fuel economy: About 12,0 l/100 km
Tank: 51 litres
Ground clearance: 205 mm
Approach/departure/breakover angles: 20/28/20 degrees
Fording: 279 mm
Maximum towing capability (braked): 1500 kg
Warranty and maintenance: 3 years/100 000 km



What We Do

This is a one-man show, which means that every car reviewed is given my personal evaluation and receives my own seat of the pants judgement - no second hand input here.
Every test car goes through real world driving; on city streets littered with potholes, speed bumps and rumble strips, on freeways and if its profile demands, dirt roads as well.

I do my best to include relevant information like real life fuel economy or a close mathematical calculation, boot size or luggage space, whether the space is both usable and accessible, whether life-sized people can use the back seat (where that applies), basic specs of the vehicle and performance figures if they are published. In the case of clearly identified launch reports, fuel figures are of necessity the laboratory numbers provided with the release material. If I ever place an article that doesn't cover most things, it's probably because I have dealt with that vehicle at least once already, so you will be able to find what you want in another report under the same manufacturer's heading in the menu on the left.

My reviews and launch reports appear on Thursdays in the Wheels supplement to The Witness, South Africa's oldest continuously running newspaper, and occasionally on Saturdays in Weekend Witness as well. I drive eight to ten vehicles each month, most months of the year (except over the festive season) 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 they can see I do actually exist.



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