Dodge journey6/18/2023 The stop from 70 mph consumed a respectable 177 feet, and the 225/55R-19 Kumho Solus KH16 tires held on long enough to post 0.76 g of grip on our 300-foot skidpad. LOWS: Fussy transmission, tight second- and third-row seating, drinks gas like a larger rig. Slow to respond whether shifted manually or left to its own devices, the gearbox in our test car repeatedly exhibited a clumsy two-three upshift that probably added a few tenths to the acceleration times. With 283 horsepower and 260 lb-ft of torque, the corporate V-6 pulls competitively, but the engine feels like it doesn’t really wake up until about 3500 rpm, and the six-speed automatic is lackadaisical. Equipped with the optional 3.6-liter Pentastar V-6 and all-wheel drive, our test car required 7.8 seconds to reach 60 mph and 16.1 to complete the quarter-mile, clocking within several tenths of the numbers posted by the 2013 Dodge Journey V-6 we tested earlier. But the Journey will work among those for whom the weight of day-to-day life has long supplanted any need to contemplate the subtle intricacies of chassis refinement or rock-crawling capabilities.ĭespite its indifferent controls, the Journey is at least in the hunt when it comes to quantifying its ability to go, stop, and turn. And vehicles such as the Toyota 4Runner and the Jeep Grand Cherokee offer the kind of off-road capability that would leave the Journey spinning its wheels. The steering, brakes, and other controls are vague and feel disconnected, even compared with uninvolving three-row competitors such as the Toyota Highlander. Frankly, most of the Journey’s competitors offer better second- and third-row accommodations.ĭynamically speaking, driving the Journey is akin to piloting a rolling sensory-deprivation chamber. It’s worth mentioning that although the front seats offer Barcalounger levels of comfort, the second row is tight for grain-fed adults. Luckily, the children in our test group took glee in simply flinging themselves over the second-row seatbacks to get to the third row. Despite being equipped with the necessary articulation to allow the second row to-in theory-move out of the way, it’s still a painfully tight squeeze through the gap into the third row. Encouraged by the easy use and functionality of the aforementioned second-row booster seats, we figured the time was right to let the kiddies populate the third row, and that’s where things hit a snag. So it’s no wonder Dodge advertises the Journey as the “most affordable three-row V-6 AWD crossover.” It is not, however, the roomiest. And the pricing is very competitive among three-row crossovers our nearly loaded $34,660 Journey is thousands cheaper than, say, a no-options Chevrolet Traverse LT AWD, which goes for $36,900. Our test example also included the $1250 Popular Equipment group (heated front seats and steering wheel, remote start, alarm) the $1295 Navigation and Backup group (navigation, backup camera, park assist, and the usual collection of SiriusXM travel and traffic services) and finally, $225 built-in rear child booster seats that make lugging around those grime-grabbing portable plastic boosters a thing of the past. HIGHS: Competitive V-6, lots of feature content, reasonable price.
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