Picked up my 2011 R/T AWD about 2 weeks ago and have put about 2500 km on it. Mostly commuting but one trip of about 1000 kms.
In general I'm quite happy with my Journey so far. I haven't owned a North American vehicle in about 15 years and this is my first Dodge although my parents have bought Chrysler products for as long as I can remember. Purchased it to replace a 12 year old Honda Odyssey that owed me nothing and rarely caused me any grief. I looked at quite a few different vehicle options including Hyundai Veracruz, Honda CRV and Pilot, Mazda CX5 and CX7, Toyota Highlander and 4Runner and Ford Explorer. Ultimately I was tired of driving a minivan but we needed occasional access to a 3rd row seat. The Journey ended up winning on value. It had the most features for the money.
I mentioned I'm quite happy with the Journey so far but there's also a few annoyances and a couple what were they thinking issues.
The good:
- leather interior, look and feel is quite nice, fairly comfortable and pretty quiet
- Ride is pretty good and although the suspension is quite stiff I prefer that to the wallowing pig feel that the Ford Explorer had
- the 8.4 uconnect with bluetooth works well with my blackberry and I like the SDHC slot for my MP3s (It needs a light over the slot so you can find it at night though)
- the Alpine sound system is good enough for me and sounds pretty good as far as I'm concerned
- the extra power outlets are great for people with kids who have ipods, DS's, laptops etc... although the USB port doesn't seem to power my blackberry properly
- the GPS works well enough for me and I've never had one before so I can't really comment on how well it compares
- I like the remote start and the auto heated seats and the range is great
The not so good (its always easier to point these out):
- got the tow prep package. A ripoff in my opinion and why couldn't they make the wiring harness 6 inched longer so it would be generally useful.
- the engine has some decent kick but the transmission doesn't want to downshift with out effort making it hard to maintain highway speeds unless you live in the prairies.
- this is the first car I've owned in 15 years that doesn't have a remote locking gas cover, Given all the other cool items like heated seats and remote start this is a pretty stupid oversight
- the back doors auto lock and then the rear passengers can't get out unless a front passenger unlocks the doors. This has to be a safety issue.
- the voice response works well for the phone and basic radio but doesn't work at all for MP3 navigation.
- who builds a car that only has a single supplier of a single tire for its 19" rims?
- the vehicle speed being stuck in MPH on the EVIC is getting really annoying and the placement of the EVIC pushes the real speedo to the side making it harder to view
- fuel economy is not really economical. So far averaging 13.5 liters per 100km or 18 MPG(US) which is long long way from the 24 MPG City on the Dodge site. The only time it dropped below 13 L/100 km was while driving 1000 km of highway. My city driving is about 50% highway so I'm pretty disappointed so far. I owned a BMW X5 with a 4.4 liter V8 that consumed a similar amount of fuel. This has got to improve.
- I've had a couple of instances where the voice response system seems to have hung and stopped working. If I turn the car off and let it sit for 5 minutes or so and restart the system seems to reboot and start working again.
- the homelink garage opener has no range. In fact if I back into my driveway the signal can't get through the length of the car unless I'm within a couple of feet of the garage.
I'll be going in for my fist service soon and I'll have to see what the dealer has to say about my issues.
