drb227

Welcome and congrats! You will love the Journey!

Welcome! I have a white 2011 Crew that I picked up on March 1st. Loving it! 1. No - the USB port is now inside the centre console storage bin. Much better place for it! I leave my USB cable plugged in and routed outside the front of the centre console cover so that I can quickly plug my iPhone in at any time. 2. Sadly, no heated/cooled cup holders. 3. Backup camera is not standard on any model in Canada. How you get it depends on which trim level you choose and which option package you chose within that trim level. On the R/T, you need to add the Driver Convenience Group to get the camera. 4. Yes, you can play DVDs on the 8.4" touchscreen but only while parked. One other bit of info - if you want to have Bluetooth in the R/T for your cell phone, you need to also add the $300 Uconnect Voice Command w/Bluetooth option. Bluetooth does not come standard on any model in Canada. Hope this helps!

If there is a power light on the drive, does it light up when you plug it in? Could be that the USB port doesn't have enough power to power a hard drive.

For some unknown reason, the Uconnect manual does not have the voice commands available, it is actually in the Owner's manual that you will find the Uconnect voice commands. It says "These commands can be spoken when playing music from your SD card, USB device, CD or iPod, after pushing the Uconnect voice command button". This is from page 163 of the Owner's manual. They devote an entire page in the manual to this particular feature and it simply does not work. Very frustrating, especially after having gotten used to using voice commands to control my iPhone music playback in my wife's Ford Fusion with Sync! They better come out with an update to fix this real soon!

Welcome! I have had my white Crew for a little over 2 weeks now. I've been having issues with the Uconnect voice command not working for controlling music playback on iPhone/USB/SD Card. If you are able to test it out after you get your Journey, I'd love to know whether or not the voice command works for you when trying to control music.

I really wish I had gotten this new front fascia! I read in one review (can't remember which one) that the new fascia was going to be put into production sometime in late Feb or early March.

Page 163 in the manual shows the voice commands for controlling music playback. NONE of those commands work for me, regardless of type of music media - iPhone via USB, USB memory stick, CD or SD Card. Would really like to know if anybody has any luck getting these commands to work.

Welcome! I assume you have the Uconnect voice command w/Bluetooth option? I am having no luck getting my voice command to change songs, artists, albums, etc, when using either my iPod connected via USB or an SD Card. Any chance you could try it out and let us know if it works for you? Haven't found anybody yet for whom this works. Thanks!

Haven't yet had any brake issues with my 9 day old 2011 Crew with 500kms on it. Please do keep us posted.

I've had my 2011 Crew for just over a week now. I found the ride to be a bit rough on the way home from the dealership but thought that it may be something like overinflated tires or just the fact that the vehicle is brand new and a little stiff. This is with the 19" tires and rims (not the chrome rims). I had 16" winter tires on steel rims (OEM Dodge rims) put on the next day. I still find the ride to be not nearly as smooth as I thought it would be. Mostly it feels like the shaking when you have a wheel that is not properly balanced. I am going to have the tire shop check all 4 wheels for proper balance and to make sure there isn't anything wrong with any of the 4 steel rims. Could be any number of issues. I realize it will not be as smooth ridiing as a car but, to me, something is definitely not quite right. Anybody else with a Journey with the 19" wheels experience the same thing?

My 2011 Crew with the Pentastar V6 will take a few minutes to shift into 6th when I first leave in the morning when the temperature is below zero. Normally something like 3 or 4 minutes, once the tranny has warmed up enough. I think this is normal. My wife's Ford Fusion does the same thing.

I'm not surprised that nobody at the dealership knows anything about this. These vehicles are still too new. Please keep us updated if they do "flash" anything. I'd be surprised if there is a fix for this already. I'm more looking for a fix for the uconnect voice command problems.

Yeah, the pictures don't do justice to how truly nice the cloth interior is. Seats are also very comfortable. Can't wait for spring weather so I can give it a good cleaning!

I've been reading on other forums and owners of the 2011 Charger are having the same issues that we are with the voice commands not working at all for controlling music and the browse button sometimes being greyed out on the display. This is clearly an issue with the uconnect touch 8.4 system. Let's hope that an updated firmware comes out in the near future to fix these issues!

I don't think the owner's manual was properly updated for the 2011 Journey now that many of the settings are handled via the touch screen and not the EVIC. The manual also makes mention of a "units" setting in the EVIC. There is no such menu item in the EVIC of a 2011 Journey.

Yes, I have Bluetooth. You can see the two buttons for voice command on the left side of the steering wheel, above the EVIC buttons. It seems that many of the early build 2011 Journeys in Canada did not come with the Uconnect Voice Command w/Bluetooth option. Here in Canada, it is optional even on the top R/T AWD model. It is a separate $300 option on that model. On my Crew, I have the Navigation and Sound Group I ($2000 cost), which includes the Bluetooth option. It is also available as a stand alone option for $300 on the Crew and SXT models. I think it costs more on the CVP and SE Plus models. Having Bluetooth was one of the key requirements for me. No way was I going to get a Journey without it! I got my Journey from Paul Willison Chrysler in Scarborough. I actually found my Journey by checking almost all of the dealerships in Ontario via the inventory listings at dodge.ca. I found it in Peterborough and I had my sales guy grab it for me. I just checked the dodge.ca website and Mike Doyle Dodge in Sudbury does have a 2011 SE Plus model with the bluetooth option and also satellite radio. This model has the 4 cylinder engine but if you are OK with that, it appears to be the only model at both Sudbury Chrysler dealerships to have Bluetooth. It is marked as In Transit, so that at least means it is on its way to the dealership. This model will also have the 4.3S uconnect touch radio, not the larger 8.4" model that I have. If you can wait 2 or 3 months for one, your best option would be to go to the dealership and order exactly what you want.

Here's a link to view some interior photos of my 2011 Crew. If anybody wants to see anything in particular, just let me know! 2011 Dodge Journey Crew Interior Photos

My 2011 Crew does the same thing. I tried changing the units setting on the 8.4 menu between metric and US but it always defaults to MPH either way.

Yes, the system in the Grand Cherokee is different from the new Uconnect Touch 8.4 in the Journey, Charger and 300. I've found another issue with the Uconnect touch 8.4 system in my Journey. Using the SD card, it is playing the same song when switching from one song to the next. For example, I have an album that has 5 songs on it. It will play the first song fine but when it comes time to play the second song, it looks like it is going to play it but then it starts playing the first song again and it shows the first song's info on the screen. It repeatedly did this for the first 4 of 5 songs on this particular album, always playing the 1st song instead of the 2nd, 3rd and 4th songs. It played the 5th song OK. I put the SD card in my laptop to check out the songs and they all play fine on the laptop. I am quickly losing confidence in this Uconnect touch 8.4 system when it comes to music playing! It does not exhibit this behaviour when using my iPhone connected via USB. I would appreciate it if someone else could test SD Card music playback in their Journey and let us know if you experience the same issues.

I mentioned similar issues with my 2011 Crew in the My Journey is In section. I am experiencing essentially the exact same issues that you had. I have an iPhone 4 with the latest 4.2.1 firmware. The bluetooth phone part works perfectly, voice dialing included. Bluetooth streaming audio works as it is supposed to - It will only display the name of the iPhone on the screen and no album art. I am able to change tracks up and down either using the left toggle on the back of the steering wheel or the next and previous track buttons on the touch screen. This is exactly how it also works in my wife's Ford Fusion with Sync. I am having the same issues when my iPhone is connected via USB. Playlists do not show up at all. The browse button was greyed out once or twice the day I got the Journey but it always works now. Maybe it has to build an index like the Sync system does and that takes a while? As you experienced, iPod/iPhone voice commands simply do not work to control music. I should also note that I put all of my songs on an SD card and the voice commands for controlling music via SD card also do not work. Another thing that doesn't work right is displaying album art. It is only showing album art for maybe half of the 1700 songs on my iPhone. I tried editing the music tags on the SD card with Media Monkey and that did fix it so that more of the songs show the album art but I cannot figure out what it is that is causing some to work and some not. When I use the same SD card in my laptop, the album art shows up for every song. At first I thought it was maybe an issue with iTunes purchased songs, since they are .m4a and not .mp3 format but that is not it. Many of the iTunes purchased songs do show the album art and many do not. It also appears that the UConnect system is not using the ID3 tags to display the song tile, it is using the filename! I confirmed this by ensuring that I had the correct song name in the ID3 tag. I then changed the actual filename of the song. Each time, the system would show the filename of the song (without the extension) as the song name. This is clearly not the right way to handle this! While it is certainly very disappointing, I don't consider it a deal breaker and it certainly wouldn't be enough to stop me from buying the Journey. I would like to think that this will get fixed with a firmware update eventually. What we need now is a way to bring these issues to light at Chrysler. Really surprised they let the system be shipped with a lot of the functionality missing.

I'm 42, married with 2 kids aged 9 and 11. I am self-employed as an I.T. consultant. My wife drives a 2008 Ford Fusion. Great car!

Have had my white 2011 Crew for almost 2 days now. It has the Nav and Sound Group I and the Flexible Seating group. Previous to this I had a well equipped 2007 Caliber SXT . The seats are very comfortable and the front seats heat up very fast, much faster than the Caliber. The adjustable power lumbar allowed me to find the perfect spot for comfortable support. There is a decent amount of adjustability (fore/aft and recline) to the second row seats. Very easy to get the second row seats to flip forward for access to the third row. The third row seats are fine for kids if the second row seats are moved up a bit. I personally wouldn't want to sit back there for any length of time but I knew that before I bought the Journey. I got the third row for the occasional times when we need the space for 6 or 7 people. Most of the time, the third row seats will be folded down. When the third row seats are up, there is still enough cargo space for me to put fit my laptop bag and other items. I was concerned that it may not be deep enough. When the third row is folded, cargo space is plenty for my needs. The dash and instrument cluster are really sharp. The glove box is tiny but that is somewhat made up for with the under seat front passenger storage, storage bin under the radio, two little cubbies on either side of the storage bin and the deep front console. The cup holders hold a large double double very well! Everything is well lit at night. There are tiny lights below the front door armrests to illuminate where the bottle holder spot is and there are puddle lamps at the bottom of the front doors. Even the USB and auxiliary ports in the centre console are illuminated. There is plenty of interior overhead lighting when entering the vehicle in the dark. The 8.4" touchscreen is really nice. Very responsive and quick. Very easy to read. Does tend to get washed out in bright sunlight. I do find that the navigation voice is not very loud and it doesn't turn the volume down low enough on the audio currently playing so that you can clearly hear the navigation instructions. The voice command options are somewhat limited as well. Surprised that there are no voice commands for the nav. Also, I have not been successful at all trying to change songs while my iPhone is connected via USB or when I'm using an SD card with my music on it. Every time I try a command like "play the artist ..." or "play the song ...", it never works. It does work to change the source, so that if I'm listening to FM radio and I want to switch to satellite or ipod, I can speak the command and it has worked every time. Hopefully future firmware updates will address some of the issues and maybe add new commands. You can control MUCH more by voice with the MyFordTouch system. Have only put about 200 kms on the Journey so far and the gas mileage is around 15 L/100km. Not too surprising given that the engine is green and most of my driving is not on the highway and the temperature is below zero right now. No doubt it will improve as the engine gets broken in. The transmission sure does like to upshift quickly, no doubt for the sake of improved fuel economy. By the time I'm at 40 km/h, it is already in 4th gear. It is also reluctant to downshift unless you really put your foot into it, also no doubt in an effort to help the gas mileage. You need to push the pedal about half way down to really get the transmission to downshift. Just something to be aware of when you need to accelerate quickly! While driving, the interior is fairly quiet. Very easy to get up to illegal highway speeds if you are not paying attention. The Journey is deceptively quick at accelerating! Overall, I am extremely happy with my Journey, even though it has only been 2 days. Will post pictures in the next few days.

Picked up my white 2011 Crew on March 1st. Will post more info in the My Journey is In forum later when I have time. First impression - really well done interior!

Having the Voice Command with Bluetooth was one of the key options that I wanted. I have the Nav and Sound Group I on my 2011 Crew and that came as part of the package.

Just got word today that my Journey has arrived! I pick it up Tuesday. CAN'T WAIT!! I am getting a 2011 Crew, white exterior, black cloth interior. It has only the Flexible Seating group and the Navigation and Sound Group I as options, which is exactly what I wanted. Not super keen on the white but I can live with it. Didn't want to have to wait 2-3 months for an order, since my Caliber lease is done in March. Some of the key features that I wanted were heated seats, Bluetooth and the upgraded sound system. You have to get the Crew or the R/T to get heated seats, so the Crew it was! The Nav and Sound group really has a lot of features - Uconnect Touch 8.4N, Nav, Sirius, upgraded sound system, rear parking sensors, rear camera, Uconnect voice command. The Journey was originally destined for another dealership not too far away and I found it by looking at the online inventories on the Dodge.ca website. That is a truly crappy and slow website too! Anyway, told my sales rep what I wanted and where it was and he took care of the rest. I am getting winter tires on steelies put on the day after I pick it up. Got a great deal on the tires since it's the end of the winter tire season. Will post pics after I have picked it up.