Bought 2007 Patriot Limited 4x4 brand new. Now has 184k miles. Overall the vehicle was good for commuting purposes. Performance (i.e. the CVT transmission) was OK as long as you did not need good acceleration for ramps/merging and passing on two lane roads and if you wanted off road, well that was a no-go from day one (and I knew it too so I can't complain there). If you over-rev the transmission even once (e.g. to pass a car quickly on a two lane road or to just accelerate quickly) you are flirting with damage to the CVT transmission (it just can't handle that stress). Fortunately I suspected that all along (plus it just wasn't safe to do much hard accelerations with a car like this one) so I avoided any of that at all times (99% of the time even though I was often tempted).

Well the poor thing finally went south. Now, it won't come out of first gear (over revs). Sometimes when you let off the accelerator, it drops to the next gear and seems fine but it's not safe to drive anymore. Spoke w/Jeep service today (01/18/2015) about my Patriot and they told me CVT transmissions last about 60k miles BEFORE they start going south so getting 184k on mine was really outstanding. I asked if it could be fixed but he said they installed them on just the first 3-4 years of their cars (07-10 or so) and the CVT's are normally intended to be replaced if broken. Even an overhaul was unlikely due to parts availability and getting a used one from a junk yard was just a roll of the dice, plus who's going to do that type of work these days anyway?

I've seen some postings that say to get the CVT serviced and install a transmission cooler but that's a maybe but at 184k it's a cheap alternative & long-shot, but if it works I might be able to drive in for a trade in and get $2k-$3k trade in value(?). If not then I'll do like the Bill Mauldin cartoon and look away while I put this old Jeep out of it's misery.