Welcome back! Today we’re checking out a couple of smallish boxes on wheels, just the thing if you need plenty of seating or stuff-hauling capability, but have a small parking space. And just to keep things interesting, they’re both stickshifts.
We had to settle for automatics with yesterday’s choices, but sometimes you do what you have to do in order to get that sweet V8 rumble. This was one of those days when I had no idea what the outcome would be: On one hand, we had a Jaguar-designed Ford product with a somewhat sketchy reputation, and on the other, we had a mechanically-solid but somewhat childish Dodge. I couldn’t have guessed which way you were going to go.
In the end, the Lincoln won out, and I don’t know if it’s due to the lower mileage, the recent maintenance, or just the animosity towards Chrysler products that seems so prevalent. Me, I’d take the Magnum – if I didn’t already have a Hemi-powered car with a much nicer interior.
So far this week, we’ve determined that you all like Mazdas, and dislike Mopars. That might seem to make today a foregone conclusion, but as always, the devil is in the details. Let’s go over these with a fine-toothed comb and see which one really is the better deal.
2012 Mazda 5 – $3,700
Engine/drivetrain: 2.5-liter dual overhead cam inline 4, six-speed manual, FWD
Location: Richfield, WI
Odometer reading: 210,000 miles
Operational status: Runs and drives great
Vehicle taxonomy gets a little muddy sometimes: What makes a vehicle a van, for example, instead of a tall wagon? Is it just the presence of sliding doors? Mazda seems to think so; it calls this car, known as the Mazda Premacy in Japan and the Mazda 5 here, a van, yet when Nissan built a similar tall wagon with sliding doors on both sides, it was marketed as the Stanza Wagon. Po-tay-to, po-tah-to, I guess.
Here in the US, the 5 is powered by our old friend the MZR four-cylinder, here displacing 2.5 liters. It powers the front wheels through a six-speed manual, pretty racy stuff for a family hauler, but Mazda rarely does boring. It has 210,000 miles on it, but it has had a ton of work, and the seller has all the records dating back to 2015 when they purchased it. It runs great, and comes with an extra set of wheels with snow tires – a nice touch for the Great Lakes region.
It’s in good condition inside, which isn’t always the case with a used minivan. Vehicles like this tend to lead hard lives, and for this one to be this clean north of 200,000 miles, someone must have cared for it. The seller says, and I quote, “Everything works exactly as it should,” including the all-important air conditioning.
It looks good outside too, but it’s a Mazda, for sale in Wisconsin. Better take a good hard look underneath, to make sure the floors and rocker panels aren’t pulling a disappearing act.
2014 Jeep Patriot Latitude – $4,000
Engine/drivetrain: 2.4-liter dual overhead cam inline 4, five-speed manual, FWD
Location: St. Charles, IL
Odometer reading: 130,000 miles
Operational status: Runs and drives great
Brand names get muddled and diluted too, even when they probably shouldn’t. One weak product, one thing that doesn’t measure up to the standards that the brand has always set, can do a lot of damage. If they say Hanes before Inspector 12 says they say Hanes, then the Hanes name means a little less. And when a so-called Jeep is nothing more than a Dodge Caliber in cosplay, it dilutes the entire Jeep brand. Even when it’s a sensible, popular little vehicle like the Patriot.
Jeeps are four-wheel-drive; everybody knows that. Except when they’re not. The Patriot was available with two different 4WD systems, but this one has neither. Its 2.4 liter “World” four-cylinder drives only the front wheels. But unlike most Patriots, which have an automatic transmission – or worse, a CVT – this one has a proper five-speed manual. It has a new clutch, and runs and drives well, but that’s all we know about its mechanical condition. The ad is one line long.
It looks used, but not abused; the interior has some wear and scuffs, but it’s intact and undamaged. This is the fancier Latitude model, so it has power windows and locks and stuff, which makes it even stranger that it’s 2WD with a stickshift.
I have to confess I always kind of liked the Patriot’s looks; it’s chunky and purposeful, and I tend to like boxier vehicles anyway. Unfortunately, I also know what northern Illinois winters can do to cars, having grown up there, and this little Jeep is already showing signs of rust. There’s a pretty good bubble on the right rear wheel arch, and you know there’s always more than what you can see.
I’ve been through a lot of used cars in my life. I mean, not as many as some, but I’ve had my fair share. Every time I go looking for a car, vehicles like these – practical all-rounders with manual transmissions – are exactly what I probably ought to shop for, but rarely do. They make sense, unlike most of the cars I end up with. But at least I get to shop vicariously for cars every day, and show you what I find. Which one of these makes more sense to you?
(Image credits: sellers)
This isn’t even close…Patriot is GARBAGE in every way. I’d rather have a REAL Fiat before I bought this thing. Mazda Vanagon for the win by default.
Unless that Mazda is literally cursed, there’s no way I’d take the Jeep in this situation. The Patriot/Compass/Caliber are some of the absolute worst cars I’ve ever had the displeasure of driving.
Having survived a rental Patriot for a few days back in 2014-15 or so, I’d take one of David’s most clapped-out, rusty Jeeps as a daily over even a brand-new Patriot. It’s an automotive penalty box.
Given that we are comparing ‘Chrysler Shitbox’ miles to ‘Mazda Family Car’ miles, the Mazda is by far the better buy, especially for less money.
The 2.4 World engine paired with the 5 spd manual or the Hyundai sourced 6 spd auto is a solid powertrain.
But the rest of the vehicle isn’t that durable with its cheap, scratchy, squeaky interior and potentially glitchy electronics. The price isn’t worth it either as it’s 2WD. The 4×4 ones are kind of fun, though.
That Mazda5 looks clean and solid as long as there isn’t significant rot underneath. I like it!
My MIL got a Patriot of this vintage and the interior started falling apart and lightbulbs burning out when it was only a few months old. She had it for a few years, got tired of the crappy build quality, replaced it with a RAV4 and never looked back. Van with a manual FTW.
Relatable. My MIL has a 2017 Compass with the 2.4 / 6spd auto. It’s also FWD but it’s been solid other than interior squeaks, one electrical gremlin and a crank sensor that would shut off the vehicle randomly. And a blend actuator door
It’s been more reliable than the 1 owner 2011 Outback that needed 2 HG jobs in 5 years but it was no match for the 1st gen Xterra she owned before it. That thing is still running at 20 yrs old and +200K
Mazda5 with the stick is kind of a mini holy grail, so yeah I was going to vote for it regardless.
Saw the pics and condition, happily voted for it.
The mileage is high for the money, but it’s in excellent shape… so the Mazda gets my vote. Though I would offer the seller $3000.
I was just talking about the Mazda5 with a friend, as we were lamenting the lack of smaller vans in the market. She’s got one kid and wants to have another, which means getting something bigger than her Corolla and her husband’s Prius. They also have a dog. She doesn’t like driving SUVs, but a regular minivan is bigger than she wants or needs. She will probably end up with a van and get used to the size, but it’s a bummer there’s nothing smaller than our current crop of vans. I think she’d go for the Mazda, but only if she could find a low mileage example.
Anyway, Mazda all the way for me on this one. I’ve never really liked the Patriot.
A 3 yr old Transit Connect could be a good candidate. Those later vans came with the 2.0 Duratec GDI engine without turbo and a current 8 spd auto.
Why are the passenger versions of the Ford Transit Connect and Ram Promaster City never mentioned in lists of what minivans are available? Are they that unknown or are they different enough to not be considered a “true” minivan like a Sienna or Odyssey?
Honestly they might be a bit crude by today’s minivan standards as they don’t have as many creature comforts like power sliding doors or rear entertainment systems nor stow n’ go seats. But they have very good fuel economy, are cheap in the used market (Ford stopped selling them in North America last year), are easy to park, drive and handle better, have a lower loading floor and are roomy enough for 5-6 passengers. I rode in a bunch of these over the last decade and they are very comparable to the SWB Caravan from the mid 2000s both in space and comfort.
Sad to hear the Connect has been discontinued. I suppose they would rather steer people to Explorers instead but that doesn’t help the commercial buyers who were looking at the non-passenger versions.
Chiming in to say the 2.5L option in the TC is also a good choice.
1000% the Mazda
I don’t hate the Patriot, but this example isn’t worth it. The Mazda has been maintained and looks like it’ll drive plenty more miles.
I think it was Car & Driver that called the Patriot “a box of automotive sadness” in their review years ago and the intervening years have not done anything to improve this opinion. No style, no quality, no engineering. Total garbage when it was new, nevermind a decade and 114k later. My daughter’s boyfriend had one of these for a few months. At 90k (admittedly a CVT) it left them stranded twice in a month with 2 separate electrical gremlins and it refused to start occasionally for some reason that no one could determine. He couldn’t get rid of it fast enough.
If the Mazda had been set on fire, dumped in the in the bottom of a lake for a month and then filled with dead herring I would still pick it over the Patriot.
I had a rental Patriot in 2016. There was one specific feature that I thought was clever – the driver seat adjustment rails were mounted at an angle relative to horizontal. Moving the seat backwards also lowered the seat, forwards raised it. Short legs generally come with short torsos, and vice versa.
That said, Mazda, all day every day. Patriots were designed for car shoppers who care about the bottom line more than they care about what they actually get for their money.
My elderly parents owned versions of both of these cars.
The Mazda 5 was terrific and drove just like a sedan, rather than like a minivan. My dad drove his Jeep (which my mom nicknamed “Patrick the Patriot”) all around the forest service roads near Flagstaff, AZ. My dad’s Patriot had the 4WD and the “Trail rated” emblem on the left front fender, so it was a different beast than the car in this article. I understand the comments below (“Caliber in cosplay” is a great point), but I give the Jeep engineers credit for making my Dad’s car surprisingly decent on all the dirt and gravel paths in Northern Arizona that my dad attempt. The Jeep engineers couldn’t help the horrible Jatco CVT in his 2010 Jeep which was starting to go at 80,000 miles when he passed away (age 90) in 2021.
But the Mazda 5 is a no-brainer.
The Mazda would have to be absolutely SHIT HAMMERED for me to chose a Jeep Patriot over a manual Mazda. This is a lead-pipe-cinch.
2 days in a row with a manual Mazda5 on the site. I love it!
Mazda, though the Patriot with a stick isn’t terrible, basic transport. I’ve had a bunch of Patriot/Compass rental cars over the years, and while I would never buy one, I didn’t hate them (though I was told I should due to owned Wrangler Rubicons at the time). Conversely, I did almost buy a Mazda5, but while my wife was a Mazda die-hard, it had one too few seats to get her blessing.
Same. With three kids we need the three across on the middle row to allow enough storage behind when we go camping and such, so the lack of a middle seat meant that I’ve never been able to seriously consider one of them.
Mazda5 because “Dodge Caliber in cosplay.”
You can weld in new metal to repair rust, but you can’t weld it in to replace shit.
This wasn’t even close. This wasn’t even bringing a knife to a gunfight. It was bringing a balloon to a gunfight. The Mazda obviously. It’s in good shape, has had a bunch of work done which is detailed and they have receipts. Easy.
The Jeep isn’t 4WD, has no details and has rust. It just sucks. That’s the nicest thing I could say about it.
WI > Il.
New Glarus > Goose Island
The Patriot is gonna get slaughtered in this one.
We just purchased a 2012 Mazda5 for my wife to transport our newborn baby and it’s a fantastic vehicle! Small but spacious, relatively efficient, easy to load with the sliding doors and so much clever storage!
We found one with only 82000 km (51000 miles), one owner, no accidents and complete service records for $8200 CAD ($5900 USD).
We contemplated buying a manual since I only buy manuals for myself and my wife can drive stick, but I’ve heard the early second gen Mazda5s can have bad clutches that wear out quickly.
Our van still has a ton of life in it, but I’m dreading having to replace it years because I don’t think I’ll find another vehicle that offers this kind of space, efficiency, reliability and usefulness.
The branded title on the Mazda made me hesitate … but only for a moment. Even if I don’t use it for minivan things, the 5’s H-point will make it considerably more comfortable for me, A Person Of A Certain Age, to get in and out.
The best thing about the Patriot in today’s comparison is that the interior is from the FCA era, which is a noticeable step up from its Cerberus origins. Otherwise, meh.
We’ll take the Mazda.
I checked and the Mazda was not actively on fire, so that made it the only logical choice.
ROFL!
Also, yes.
this was my take as well, the mazda will cream this little patriot!
I voted for the 5. It’s a much better quality car as long as you don’t let it rust 😛
Lets see, one is worn out and the other has a lot of life left in it, the Mazda by a mile.