2008 Jeep Patriot
This year drew an ordinary 445 complaints for a Jeep Patriot — the model's median is 313. What they were about is the unusual part: 12.6% of them mention arms, against 1.4% across the model's other years.
NHTSA opened a defect investigation into this model year.
| Complaints filed | 445 |
|---|---|
| Median for this model | 313 |
| Involving a crash | 7 |
| Involving a fire | 4 |
| Recalls | 0 |
| EPA combined | 23.5 mpg |
What the complaints were about
- arms — 12.6% of this year's complaints, against 1.4% across the model's other years (9.2×). Owners wrote it as: arms, control arms, lower control, outer tie.
- rusted — 15.1% of this year's complaints, against 3.8% across the model's other years (3.9×). Owners wrote it as: rusted, rust, crossmember, sub.
- subframe — 9.9% of this year's complaints, against 1.9% across the model's other years (5.1×). Owners wrote it as: subframe, corroded, mechanic where.
Words owners used for the same problem are counted together, so a fault written four different ways is measured once. Grouped by which complaints they appear in, not by a list anyone wrote in advance.
What owners wrote
REAR CROSSMEMBER/SUBFRAME ASSEMBLY RUSTED THROUGH IN MULTIPLE LOCATIONS RESULTING IN LARGE HOLES AND THE REAR DIFFERENTIAL MOUNTS TO DETACH FROM THE FRAME AND ROTATE WHILE SHIFTING CAUSING EXCESSIVE NOISE AND DAMAGE.
VEHICLE BEGAN JERKING ON ACCELERATION WITH LOUD NOISE IN REAR. TOOK TO MECHANIC AND WAS TOLD THAT THE VEHICLE WAS NOT SAFE TO DRIVE DUE TO THE FACT THAT THE SUB FRAME WAS RUSTED OUT. THE MECHANIC THAT THERE WAS SEVERE CROSSMEMBER CORROSION AND TO STOP DRIVING…
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.
How this was worked out
Every year of the Jeep Patriot was compared against its own history rather than against other cars, which removes popularity and age from the answer — a common car draws more complaints at equal reliability, and an older one has had longer to accumulate them. A year is flagged when it drew at least 2.5× this model's median and at least 50 complaints.
This is a fault record, not a review. Nobody files a federal complaint to say the car was fine, so it shows what tends to go wrong — not whether owners liked it, and not whether it is a good car.
Source: NHTSA complaints, recalls and investigations, retrieved . Look this vehicle up directly on NHTSA's site to check anything here.
Own a 2008 Jeep Patriot? What happened to yours?
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