2009 Dodge Journey R/T Review

Insert Ironic Reference to 80’s rock band here: ___________

By: Nathan Adlen

I’m conflicted about this Dodge Journey R/T. I always call them as I see them with an eye on real people who drive in the real world – and folks who flog the living daylights out of their vehicles (like your humble writer).

It’s easy to see what the Dodge designers had in mind with the Dodge Journey – a cheaper, family friendly alternative to crossovers and truck-based SUVs. They basically wanted an easy to drive, tall wagon that combined the benefits of their minivans (which are not bad), SUVs (which are okay), build it on a Caliber platform (which is not so great) and fit it with all-wheel-drive (AWD).

Mission accomplished.

Prices start in the high $20,000’s and peak in the low $30,000’s range. For what you get, in terms of features, this is a reasonable price. The Dodge Journey has a 21 gallon gas tank and in the V6 AWD R/T I had averaged a mediocre 18 mpg. All in all, you might be able to coax a 400 mile range if you drive easy on the highway.

There is a smaller 2.4 liter 4 cylinder, front drive model (with only 2 rows of seats) that bases at $21,000 and change, but I will hold off on that vehicle as I intend to drive one in a few months. From what I gather, it is said to be a longer, larger counterpart to the Dodge Caliber. We’ll see. Although there are many shortcomings, this is a very sensible machine that is far easier to live with than many SUVs and a few crossovers. I challenge ANY vehicle built to match the innumerable storage spaces the Dodge Journey supplies. Useable storage for families with children – messy children – children who require more than one change of clothes in a day; indeed, this is a messy child’s parent’s dream.

Cubbies under the rear passenger’s feet are generous; there is enough space for nasty gym shoes, soiled clothing and a sod-filled baseball mitt – easily. The front passenger’s seat-bottom opens up with slightly less space, but it is very useable and accessible nonetheless. More spaces are beneath the rear loading area and the lower glove box. These two are cooled – perfect for sippy-cups and juice boxes. Also, there are several useable cup holders throughout the Dodge Journey, well within the (high American) expectancy. For you parents who need simple booster seats, you get 2 of them! They are integrated into the rear seats and pop up for use. They can easily go away when larger behinds need a perch. Nice when you have kids of a certain size.

Even the slightly elevated ride height is  ideal for loading baby seats. If there are older children who need their “space,” a simple flip and fold of the middle row seat gives them easy access to the third row. With some creative seat sliding, even fairly tall pre-teens can fit behind younger siblings in child seats. Yup, this is a great kid’s car.

A “driver’s” car it ain’t….

You would think that a 235 horsepower, 3.5 liter V6 with a 6-speed auto-stick and AWD would move smartly. Nope, I tried everything I could short of downhill, rolling starts to beat 9 seconds to 60 mph – I never got close. The Dodge Journey weighs nearly 4,300 lbs. That’s a lot of chunk for only 232 lbs feet of torque.

Dodge usually uses an “R/T” badge to suggest Road and Track (or some such nonsense), hence the badge indicates performance. (Base price, $27,285 - price as tested, for the R/T) The aggressive looking 225/55R 19 inch touring tires and wheels certainly look the business. Dodge’s menacing looking grill and obvious fender flairs impart a raucous demeanor. The 2 tone, leather interior looks like it would grip and coddle you when you are burning up the blacktop.

Alas, this Dodge Journey is a sheep in wolf’s clothing.

Though the interior is ultra utilitarian, it is not a place for those who like their sense of touch to be rewarded. Every plastic component is woefully hard, cheap and inexpensive looking. The leather seats were completely uncomfortable on my back. I kept playing with the lumbar support to no avail; it was hard as a park bench. The seat bottoms had no flex either and were so flat that I slid around during mediocre performance cornering.

I hear that the cloth seats are actually more comfortable, though I have yet to test the lower model. My wife and a friend both sat in the Dodge Journey and after a few minutes, without me saying a WORD, they both agreed that the seats were terrible.

The stereo sounded decent, but the buttons and knobs blend into each other. The display is impossibly low and hard to read. I liked some of the square designs on the dashboard, but the square, truck like horn was a distraction – especially when cornering.

I thought that having a multi-link rear suspension would help with cornering verses old-school twisting beam rear suspensions used in some cars and minivans. Rolling down the highway and back roads, the Dodge Journey was comfortable and fairly well composed. I would compare it to the Dodge Grand Caravan (big surprise).

Cornering was not what the aggressive looking tire/wheel package had in mind. It wallows and over steers uncomfortably when pushed hard. The AWD and traction control mitigate a loss of control, but you never feel that you have a real grip on scary moment moves. The brakes work well, although I felt they were mushy. The steering is less than communicative as well.

The 6-speed automatic did very well on the streets and was fine on level highway and commuting. Going up and down hills, the predetermined algorithm of the transmission gets hazy when pushed. The gimmicky “Autostick” can hold gears, but it’s of little help and becomes irritating when constantly dropping the shifter into the Autostick gate rather than drive (it happened to me several times).

Still, as a grocery-getter, this is a smooth, easy to pilot vehicle. The 50/50 fold down, third row seats fold easily for cargo and there is very useable space. I would say that it is the equivalent, useable cargo space of a Subaru Tribeca. The loading height is ideal for shorter people and the rear hatch is fairly easy to raise and lower.

You know, in some ways I wanted to like this car more than I did. I think that some people will easily over look the cheap-o interior and be okay with hard seats (which were my main interior gripes). The dynamics, while not very exciting, were fine for regular commuters. I would surmise that even the price and mpg were acceptable given the Dodge Journey’s job description.

It’s not a terrible car and there IS the comfort of the lifetime powertrain warranty. I recommend that if you are in the market for a vehicle like this; drive it either first or very last among the other vehicles you are considering.

There is one positive I can throw at you right now. Incentives are all over the place and there are huge discounts. I’ve even seen return leases of Dodge Journeys leaving the lot for nearly ½ the price with big-fat pre-owned warranties.

Do me a favor; test drive more than one and for more than a 5 minute test. You will either love it or hate it – I doubt you’ll be undecided.

Good luck! Great layout - hard seats