Darrell_in_Va

Wow. It's been a while since I visited - I thought I was the only one with brake problems and never thought to look here until my own recent experience. I took our Journey SXT to the dealer for its routine free oil change last October and was told it needed front brake pads. Not wishing to pay their exorbitant fee I took it to a local mechanic for a second opinion and was told indeed the pads were worn out. Then just last week I took it back to the same place to check the rear brakes and had to replace both pads and rotors. Our Journey just turned over 27000 miles. My wife drives the Journey 95 percent of the time, and the mechanic blamed her driving habits. But we had a Magnum for more than four years that she also drove every day, and I would swear in court that we never replaced the brakes while we owned it. I've concluded (duh) that Chrysler just cut corners on the brake parts.

So, how did it do? Also, for those of you who have the 7-passenger version I'd love to hear how that works - My wife and I have the 5-passenger SXT and we can't envision another row of seats in there.We live in Alexandria, Virginia, just across the river from Washington DC. B)

61 Falcon 67 VW Beetle 68 Fairlane 500 68 Fairlane Wagon 75 Pinto Wagon 80 Accord 83 Chevy Celebrity 90 Grand Voyager 00 Voyager 05 Magnum SXT (replaced by the Journey) 07 Caliber SXT (still have this one, till the end of this month when the lease expires)

We bought the Lifetime Maximum Care Plan for our Magnum SXT and saw no reason not to get it for the Journey as well. It's like life insurance, you hope you never need it but it's still worth the cost and $1750 over the life of a typical loan today isn't even noticeable on your monthly payment.

We've only taken one highway trip, that on the first weekend we owned the Journey, and I noticed that as we drove farther along on Sunday evening on our way home, the MPG as displayed on the trip computer improved to above 22. Last time I checked in all city driving it's around 17. But we're not really broken in yet either, still less than 1000 miles driven.

Heh - My sister-in-law had a bunch of problems with a 96 Caravan that she bought new. She ended up taking it back to the dealer and dropping the keys on the counter after about a year as I recall. I think that was just a bad year for Caravans <_< Our Journey SXT is now our fourth Chrysler vehicle going back to a 1990 Grand Voyager and we have not had a moment's issue with any of them.

We picked up our Journey on May 23 after watching since January for it to arrive at our dealer. It was a somewhat bittersweet day, as we (my wife especially) were quite fond of the Magnum SXT we traded for it ... But after driving it to visit family in West Virginia over the Memorial Day holiday we are now quite fond of our new Journey!