I had a 2006 Jeep Liberty. At about 10,000 miles, the rear brake locked up. Seals around the doors were starting to deterioriate. It felt like driving a tin can. It was basically junk. Since then I have had two Nissa Xterras that have been wonderful vehicles. If you are only looking at US made, I'd do the Ford just based on my terrible experience with the Jeep.

 

Get a Cherokee and do some minor upgrades, won't have a better vehicle for the bush. They rule the roost in the offroading community up here.

 

Between the two vehicles mentioned, go with the Ford Escape, Jeep Patriot drivetrain reliability is not the best.

 

Escape it is! Thanks!

 

If you already own an Escape, it would be wise to get a second identical one. So in case one breaks down and there are no spare parts available, you should be able to keep one running using parts from the other.

 

Kia Sportage. lots less money. available with a manual transmission. similar in size to both the ford and patriot. my 2009 gets 32mpg on the highway. it has the 2.0L engine, front wheel drive til you push the awd button. on/off ESC button that helps with winter driving. it's been through 5 northern minnesota winters and has always provided a secure feel for the road through ice, snow, and rain. with no fewer than 7 road trips from 1600 miles to over 3000 miles each, never had any mechanical or electrical problem. just routine maintenance is all.
a key element for winter traction is the right tire. i've had the same set of Peerless Widetrack Baja tires on it from 3 months after buying the kia new. 4 years, 50k miles on them and they still have half their tread left. excellent traction in all conditions, from -30F ice covered roads, to 105F desert highways and everything in between.
just my $.02.

 

I have a 2008 Sportage myself (bought new in January `09) and owned the 2001 model before that. The `01 had issues with the 4WD system that were always fixed under warranty, but it was otherwise dependable and very capable in Minnesota winter weather. The `08 has been a real trooper so far, coming up on 80K miles and well-behaved all along. It is the V6 4WD automatic, while the `01 was a 4-cyl 4WD manual. The V6 unfortunately doesn't get stellar mileage - low 20s at best - but I bought it at a time when they were offering all kinds of discounts because gas prices were high and the economy was in the toilet.

I'll have to check out those Peerless tires.

 

We have an escape and love it. 250,000 miles and going strong

 

i have a 12 escape and wife has a 14 subaru forester, id go out and find a used awd subaru . Her suv feels much more solid than mine and i dont like that i cant select when awd is on in the escape which is a stupid feature i didnt think much about when i bought it. Further, the wifes ride has more power and gets better gas mileage.

 

Bought the wife a new Jeep Liberty in 2005, car now has over 90,000 mi. I've changed brakes, oxygen sensor and do regular oil changes every 3,000 mi. No problems out of the norm for any car.

Wife loves the car, especially for winter driving. Good solid, vehicle. Only drawback, the gas mileage isn't very good, averages about 16 mpg, mostly rural driving, auto transmission.

Personally, I think of it as her Barbie car. :

 

If you don't have a bias against Japanese cars, get a Forester. Those darned things go anywhere, go forever, take more abuse and beating than a worthless lazy coonhound, and are surprisingly easy to work on. Plus the full time 4wd makes it a handling machine - snow, mud, ice - I got spikes spiders for traction, but hardly ever use them. I got mine in late '11, and run it like there's no tomorrow...

 

Get a Toyota Prado - full time 'real' 4WD with hi/low range
Get the turbo diesel - economy and a heap of torque
It's so reliable and well put together you'd think it was German.

Everyone has a Jeep and a Ford story, more Jeep than Ford I expect - often involving being broken down, stuck or on fire.

If you are all looking for a more compact and just AWD SUV, the Subaru's are great so another +1 for them

In Australia Ford made a bigger than the Escape crossover AWD SUV called the Territory - amazing car to drive - it's what we had before we got our Land Cruiser Prado, it was one of the smoothest rides for the 1200km trip (each way) we do several times a year and it was quite at home on dirt/gravel tracks and very sticky on wet roads. The engine was one of those 4 litre inline 6's that Ford does so well. Sadly they were made by Australian trade union workers and the build quality was really lacking - guaranteed electrical problems and things like door and hatch locks were going to fail and cost you a lot to replace.
We had it less than 2 years and ditched it before it cost too much

 

I don't have a suggestion based on your (2) choices, but, given the site where you are posting, and assuming that this vehicle may be your BOV, is there some reason you are focusing on front wheel drive vehicles?

 

Given the choice, I would go with the escape, even though I had one that went lemon law back ~10 years ago due to stalling issues. Everyone else I know that had the same vehicle loved it - with no other problems to speak of.

Everyone I know that owns (or owned) a liberty had some sort of issues with them - minor things like the windows going off the track to major drive train problems.

A good place for information about vehicle reliability before buying is the NHTSA website where you can check into the vehicle's history - including complaints, recalls, TSBs, etc...
http://www-odi.nhtsa.dot.gov/owners/SearchSafetyIssues

 

I wouldn't buy either, the Escape gets the same mileage as my Diesel Excursion unless you get the hybrid model which will cost you significantly more.

And when both the jeep and the escape are DOA I'll still have another 300+ thousand miles to go in mine.

There is this illusion that small SUV's get great gas mileage, they don't.

Plus I have 10x the hauling or towing capacity.

.

 

Your excursion gets 30 mpg?

 

No it gets 15/21 and neither does the Escape unless you get the Hybrid.
My wife owned an Escape which I bought because she wanted better gas mileage than the Expedition she had.

I tested it and found out the Escape only got an actual 16/22 MPG which was only 2 mpg better than her Expedition, which got 14/20.

I just thought it was a waste to give up so much cargo and towing capacity for 2 mpg, but she had the illusion she was getting better mpg because it only cost her $40 to fill up her tank which was half the size.

I see too many people making false assumptions that all smaller vehicles get great gas mileage. And like many things false assumptions get perpetuated enough they become "truths" to most people.

.

 

i have a regular 4 cylinder escape - non hybrid and I usually get 28/mpg during the summer and 23 mpg in the winter, so thats about double what I would get in an excursion?

 

My wifes was a 6 cylinder model IIRC,
But I have seen all kinds of claims of gas mileage yet 99% of people never actually test their vehicle to see if they really do get the dealer listings.
Which I don't recall one ever being able to do in real world driving conditions.

So if you have actually tested yours and get that, good for you.
I haven't ever witnessed that kind of mileage out of a small SUV.

YMMV

.

 

Jeep Patriot =

 

Jeep and ford = bad...Tundra V-8 = good!

 

I've been admiring the neighbors Forester~~nice hear some endorsements.

 

I had a 2008 Jeep Patriot.

By the time I traded it for my current Honda CRV it had cost me like 8k in repairs. I could have bought a much nicer vehicle for all the repairs I had to put in on it. I traded it at 24,000 miles, the problems started at around 13,000 miles. Worse was a cracked cylinder head like one month after the warrenty was up. Over 4k in parts alone to fix.

Patriots and Liberties are ****ty Dodge cars with jeep covers over them. Don't be fooled. If you want a Jeep, get a wrangler, otherwise get the ford.

As a note my CRV is awesome.

 

With the ford and jeep you just keep paying and paying for parts and service!

 

Just

Empty

Every

Pocket

-------------------

Fix

Or

Repair

Daily

 

If you are going to get a jeep, get the liberty, it's actually capable of going off road, the patriot sucks.

The escape sucks off road as well, it's FWD based, although if it's an ecoboost then the low end torque will help compensate.

If you are buying used, get a used forester or outback. They have softer shocks and more ground clearance for doing light off roading. The inline AWD design inherently helps to transfer torque more evenly as well. People in countries which don't sell a low cost off road SUV will generally gravitate towards a subaru for it's superior AWD in the price range.

 

But at least with a Jeep - you get --

Joint

Emergency

Evacuation

Plan

-----------------

Jumps

Everything

Ever

Parked

----------------

Junk

Everyone

Eyes for

Parts

----------------

Jumps

Excitedly in

Every

Pothole

---------------

Just

Eats

Every

Penny

: