2009 Jeep Patriot
This year drew an ordinary 275 complaints for a Jeep Patriot — the model's median is 325. What they were about is the unusual part: 17.5% of them mention rusted, against 4.2% across the model's other years.
NHTSA opened a defect investigation into this model year.
| Complaints filed | 275 |
|---|---|
| Median for this model | 325 |
| Involving a crash | 5 |
| Involving a fire | 1 |
| Recalls | 1 |
| EPA combined | 24 mpg |
What the complaints were about
- rusted — 17.5% of this year's complaints, against 4.2% across the model's other years (4.1×). Owners wrote it as: rusted, rust, rusted out, cradle.
- ball — 16.4% of this year's complaints, against 4.7% across the model's other years (3.5×). Owners wrote it as: ball, joints, arms, ball joints.
- through — 16.7% of this year's complaints, against 6.1% across the model's other years (2.8×). Owners wrote it as: through, crossmember, extended, front crossmember.
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
JEEP DEALER INDICATES THAT CONTROL ARMS NEED REPLACING DUE TO WORN BALL JOINTS. THE VEHICLE HAS APPROXIMATELY 40000 MILES. THIS IS PREMATURE WEAR. ALL FOUR TIRES, PERHAPS RELATEDLY, ALSO WORE [VIN]. (IN FACT, THE BALL JOINT ISSUE WAS DISCOVERED WHEN THE VEHICL…
THE FRONT END WAS EXHIBITING AN ABNORMAL SQUEAKING NOISE WHEN DRIVING VARIOUS SPEEDS. THE VEHICLE WAS TAKEN TO A MECHANIC WHERE AN INSPECTION WAS PERFORMED. THE CONTACT WAS ADVISED THAT THE FRONT BALL JOINT HAD WORN [VIN] DUE TO DEFECTIVE MATERIAL. THE [VIN] W…
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.
Recalls for this year
- 08V528000 POWER TRAIN Fixed free of charge.
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 2009 Jeep Patriot? What happened to yours?
Loading comments…