Not Impressed

by Vance M.

I work for a large car rental company and drive many different types of cars but when I went down to Florida to visit family this past winter, I rented a Jeep Patriot 4x4 myself and was not overly impressed. The Patriot reminded me of a Jeep Cherokee with a higher roof, or a larger version of a Jeep Liberty. The Jeep Patriot cannot compare to the Nissan Pathfinder or the Ford Explorer or even the Chevy Trailblazer because the pickup wasn't as good as any of those suvs and the interior had a cheap, plastic feel... The car also didn't really handle the bumps on the road as well as some other suvs do. I felt every bump we hit. Another inconvenience that I haven't experienced with the other suvs I've driven was the fact that the dashboard is so small, it couldn't accomodate my beanbag mounted GPS stand. I had to place that on the armrest which made for an uncomfortable journey. While we didn't have the opportunity to take the Jeep Patriot offroading, with the way it handled the bumps on a regular sidestreet, I cant imagine that I would have been too impressed with it's offroading.