This^^^

You have that backwards tj rides way better than yj, I've owned both

Or an XJ. They're probably slightly better in an accident than a TJ, and most of the mechanical parts are identical. A little more room too.
Think of them as a hardtop Wrangler, except they're unibody, which actually is just fine.

I have a 99 XJ limited with a 4.5" lift.
The XJ cost me $7000 with 112,000 miles on it, owned by a little old lady who only drove it to church on Sunday.

I'd get the quotes messed up so I won't try...

The gearing - I had no idea they were that far out of wack. Good to watch for.
3.8 = bad vs 3.6 = good - YES! I've read that so many times my eyes are bleeding.
4 cylinder - I can live with.
Four doors are for families - don't need it.
Manual trans. - I wouldn't own a "Jeep" w/o it.

Compass - don't want
Cherokee - don't want
Renegade - it's a FIAT!

That leaves the Patriot. The Capt. owns one and likes it. (+1)
I started reading up on it, actually reading a lot on it.
Seems to be underrated. Many compare it to the RAV4 BUT for a hellofa lot less $$$$.
Choice of 5sp or auto. (Capt. says the auto is capable of manual slap shifting... Hmmm )

The biggest differences between the RAV4 and the Patriot are:
MPG: 22 vs 24 (combined)
Cargo Cap.: 36.4 vs 23.0 cu. ft.
Curb wt: 3677 vs 3251
Maximum cargo cap.: 73.0 vs 54.2 cu. ft.
Transmission: Auto vs auto or 5sp
Power windows: yes vs yes or no

The lack of cargo space in the Jeep vs the RAV4 is made up for a little larger seating area. (more room for people)
Both aren't worth a crap for carrying anything as compared to a Tahoe or such.

Gotta go do some more research...

Patriots don't have a great reputation amongst the Jeep peeps I know.

If you get a TJ/LJ or XJ, the parts are dirt cheap and available everywhere.
The 4.0 is a great engine, they last 200,000-300,000 miles easy.

Yes but are you talking with the hard core CJ type people, only?
Kinda like talking with Harley owners.

Patriot ? I thought you wanted a jeep not a station wagon ?

I think my practical side is overpowering my inner kid again.

I thought you wanted a wrangler. I'd steer away from any of jeep/fiat's other suv's, Asia kills them in quality

See?
This is why I am asking questions about Jeep.
What I thought might be good or acceptable can be proven one way or the other from input here.
Also, I might of let my mind wander back to the CJ5 days of absolutely no creature comforts at all. Well, it did have a good heater.
I really need to go have a hard look at the TJ and YJ. I'm thinking the Cherokees might be on the old side now.

Look at a tj, the yj is over 20 years old and has leafs all around.

Get a 4 liter tj as new and stock as you can get. Or buy a slightly older one for 7k and use the 3k for a lift and bigger tires. Stock height jeeps look funny as hell. The 96-01 Cherokee classics are cheaper and still have the 4.0. If you get one of those you can really hook it up and still be well under 10k

I just rented a 2016 Jeep Patriot and drove it to Sisters Or for a camping trip. Even with stock street tires the road noise is horrendous. And I have 33x12.5 MT Baja Claws on my 4x4! I loaded that thing floor to ceiling front to back and ran out of room so had to leaving camping gear behind. In hind sight...I should have taken the Ram truck I was offered. Good luck.

I've never noticed bad road noise from my 2014 Patriot.

I'll agree that the biggest complaint I have about it is lack of storage space. I'm looking at getting a roof container of some kind to put more gear in. I was spoiled by the amount of space my Explorers had.

Just from a quick look on Craigslist this one seems like one to check out https://seattle.craigslist.org/sno/cto/ ... 56282.html

That's purdy.
I might of skipped over it by concentrating on something with a hardtop.
Now I gotta go back through all the ads again.