All you used to need to know about the Jeep Patriot is that it looks Jeepy; drives super-solidly (even when making forays above 80 mph); and comes with a nasty interior that will shred your knuckles on that excess flash all over every piece (Ed. note: flash is what's left over from injection molding where the two halves of the mold come together). Take that painful and bloody criticism, print it out on heavy paper, and then savor the sound as you crumple it up; our bloviating has been rendered irrelevant by Chrysler delivering on its promise to fix the Patriot's insides.
Our final judgement will come down after we get a chance to sample one of the new interiors in person, but these pics of the new interior we picked up on last week are inside vehicles that have already made their way to some Jeep dealers' lots. There's a new, smoother dashboard; SRT-reminiscent seats; and door panels that look more well thought out (nevermind that manual window crank). It's nice to see that Chrysler's owner-pooch has put its money where its three mouths are and delivered a more attractive interior that appears higher quality. Click the gallery below to see more angles of the Patriot's new flash-less interior.
In an effort to expose the underreported truth behind the government's corporate average fuel economy ratings (CAFE) and to define more accurate fuel economy estimates, the team over at Cars.com has created their own True Mileage Index. The consumer website points out the flaw behind CAFE is that the adjusted calculations misrepresent the numbers posted on new car windows, and the actual fuel economy consumers will realize on the road (e.g., although Honda earned a 2007 CAFE rating of 33.5 mpg, no Honda has a combined mileage of better than 31 mpg). Like the CAFE calculation, the True Mileage Index analyzes a number of factors. However, Cars.com places more weight on actual sales volume, and less on alternative fuels (like E85). Their math places Honda's True Mileage Index at a more realistic 24.9 mpg. In a nutshell, don't get overly excited when you hear that the 2020 CAFE number is going to be 35 mpg -- it's likely to only increase your future vehicle's actual fuel economy by a few mpg.
Cars.com has updated its American Made Index, and the list has flip-flopped some models right off, while others have hopped onto the top ten. Cars.com uses the parts origin information from the window sticker, along with the location the vehicle is manufacture at and sales numbers to determine which vehicles have the most US-based content. Ford's F150 and Explorer are the chocolate wafer to the rest of the list's cream filling, sandwiching everyone else between their respective #1 and #10 rankings. General Motors has the most vehicles in the top ten list, with the quartet of Cobalt, Malibu, G6, and Silverado 1500. Not surprisingly, Toyota's Tundra, built in Indiana and Texas, makes the grade at #5. Chrysler's Sebring is that company's only placing on the list, though even the same generation of a particular model can place high one year and fall off the next as automakers juggle OEMs and running changes. If sales of light trucks continue their precipitous fall, the AMI may look radically different the next time around. Four of the ten are body-on-frame trucks, and there's also a pair of minivans, all set to suffer in sales as buyers start to move en masse to more efficient vehicles.
