There are a few things Stellantis does better than selling vehicles it no longer builds. Over the years, we’ve covered this dead car phenomenon at length. Most of the time, buyers end up getting cool stuff like leftover Dodge Vipers and Challengers. However, some folks aren’t that lucky. They end up at the bottom of Stellantis’ proverbial barrel, buying things like previous-model-year Darts and Journeys. I thought that was as bleak as it gets, but it turns out I was wrong.
I was just perusing Stellantis’ second quarter sales report when I noticed a small “1” in the Jeep category. Upon closer inspection, I saw that the “1” represented a Godforsaken Jeep Patriot. Yes, that Jeep Patriot — the tiny crossover that shared underpinnings with the Chrysler Sebring. Do you know when the Patriot was discontinued? 20-freaking-17. How the hell has this car been sitting on a lot for at least the last eight years without a buyer, and who was the poor bastard who was finally tricked into taking it home?
I’ve got to assume it was a screaming deal. I mean, the Patriot was never expensive to begin with. Back in 2017, prices started in the high teens and ended in the mid-20s. Today, well, the buyer hopefully paid under 10 grand for the privilege of taking this chariot home.
It’s hard to say exactly when the last Patriot was sold before this one. I mean, Jeep didn’t sell any in 2024 according to its own sales charts. According to Good Car Bad Car, Jeep sold 15 Patriots in 2021. As for 2022 and 2023, it’s a mystery. There’s no data, but if I had to guess, none were sold. In its final model year, Jeep was able to swindle 40,735 buyers into Patriots, which is a huge drop off from the 125,397 Patriots it sold in 2016. This is also an all-time record for the car that was on sale starting in 2007.
The Dead Among Us
I mentioned earlier that Stellantis has a knack for selling dead cars, and the first half of 2025 has been no different. So far this year, Jeep has sold 257 Cherokees and 590 Renegades to go along with the one Patriot. Ram has sold a single ProMaster City van. Chrysler has managed to sell a further 488 300s. Dodge has sold a single Caravan, four Journeys, 1,501 Challengers and 1,630 Chargers. Finally, Fiat has sold 127 500Xs and a single Spinder to one very cool buyer.
If we add these numbers up, we can see that Stellantis has sold over 4,500 dead cars in just the first half of the year. That’s a pace that few others can keep up with, but I have faith that Stellantis will find a way to one-up itself in the latter half of 2025.
