CCCacher

I was re reading your post and I notice that you really like the back up camera. Me too, but still look both ways before backing.

Yes, normally when I am backing up I check around and use the mirrors in addition to the camera. What was cool from the weekend was when I was backing up down some single lane road allowances for a bit of a distance was that I was able to drive with the camera, I wasn't too concerned with anything being around me. It is a nice feature, my friends thought it was pretty cool.

Yes, one last expense, snow tires and rims. When I was looking at the Journey in February, I actually went around to different Tire Dealerships. They were all suggesting 17" rims, but now with the newer larger brakes, I'm not sure if 17" rims will fit. Snow tire/rim shopping could be interesting.

DoubleO7

Yes, I was thinking the same thing. With all due respect to the previous model year owners, the brakes and disks on my '12 look huge. I was hoping to drop down to 17s for the winter but I don't know if they would fit. I do have 17s from my Impala that I am going to sell but I might "try one on" first to see if it clears the caliper, unfortunately they are no where near the tire size I need. One would assume that they would fit since most of the Journeys sold are probably equiped with 17s and the CVP's (AVP's) have 16s. Let me know what you end up getting.

I was thinking of the Pearl Red or Black originally but once I saw the dark grey I really liked it. White and silver were not on my list and while that copper colour looked interesting in the book but it was way to orange once I saw it on the vehicle. Storm Grey has been pretty good for looking clean as well, hides a bit of the dirt before looking like it needs a wash.

I wasn't planning on getting the third row but it was hard to find one with out it and for the times when the kids want to bring a few friends along we figured it would be worth it. It has worked out pretty good the few times that I've used them so far. No complaints about the space (not that I would want to put adults back there). They did a good job on the easy access to them, probably all of that minivan experience showing through. Leg room hasn't been a problem at all, it is way better than the Uplander that we used to have.

Sounds like we have similar vehicles and for about the same amount of time.

I have an: 2012 R/T Rallye (decromed R/T basically)

Colour: Storm Grey

Options: Trailer tow prep,Navigation,Sunroof, 3rd row, DVD entertainment system (free upgrade from the dealer), black roof rails (have to add these back on, Rallye package deletes them)

Current Odometer reading: ~4200km's over two months

My impression so far is has been very good. I like the styling, I've had the front windows tinted to match the back and I just installed an AVS bug deflector; I found some of the new CUV's getting a little too "swoopie" if you know what I mean. I like the more boxy look of the Journey better.

We recently completed a road trip from Ottawa to Wonderland in Toronto and got the gas milage to under 10l/100km which was pretty good considering I was holding about 130km/h (if you are doing less than 120 in Toronto on the 401 you are a hazzard). The driving experience at that speed was great, didn't feel loose and wasn't noisy at all in the cabin. The kids like the DVD system, makes for a quieter and less stressful travelling experience for everyone. Interestingly enough, they are using the entertainment system more to listen to music that watching movies. I like the fact that each set of head phones can be set to listen to a different output from the radio. Usually the younger one is listing to Radio Disney (Sat radio) and the other listens to the local POP FM station. This leave us with the songs on the SD card over the speakers. It would be cool if you could listen to different stations at the same time but I understand that each device only has one tuner. Considering I got this upgrade for "free" it has been a bonus for sure. I've had no problems with radio, great sound, lots of bass, easy to switch songs and sources. No Gremlins for me.

Last weekend I finally got a chance to take the Journey off-roading, this being one of the reasons I switched from a car to an CUV. And when I say off roading, I wasn't rock crawling over the mountains but the old hydro road/trail I went down and the unmaintained road allowances were no problem at all. There was no way I would have taken a car down them but the Journey easily followed the Outback that I was out with as our local Geocaching club made it way around some back roads in the area. Certainly saved us some long walks. The club members were impressed with the vehicle and I had loaded some geocache locations in to the nav system as POI's so it made navigating around the unfamiliar roads easy. The backup camera certainly made it easy to back up for long distances as there were times there was no room to turn around. I've become quite good at driving backwards just using the camera.

I will agree that the air conditioning works great, the back seat passengers appreciate the ceiling vents and I find the system starts to cool immediately. My Impala A/C was known for being underpowered and took a while to even start to get cool and had a hard time keeping up during the hottest days. The Journey's A/C along with the climate control is far above what I was used to.

I like the LED lights both inside and out, having lights under the door when you open it and the exterior corner lights is a nice touch. What I was disappointed with (note to DodgeCACares) is that the interior tail gate light appears to be regular bulbs (I stand to be corrected). The light they give off is certainly a different hue than the other LED lights and I find it quite annoying (I don't know why). I am certainly going to look in to replacing them with LED bulbs.

My only disappointment so far the 'lazy' transmission. While I appreciate that is trying to keep the gas milage down it is certainly reluctant to downshift under anything but heavy coaxing. Even just driving down the 401 I had to pedal down a few times when going up some moderate hills just to keep the speed up. I could easily bleed off 10-20km/h going up a hill even with adding moderate gas peddle, I'd have to push down 'excessively' to get it to drop down a gear or two in order to keep my speed up. Even with the cruse control it would bleed off a fair bit of speed before forcing a downshift. Hopefully the transmission software upgrade that has been mentioned for the 2012's will address this. I'm still getting used to the autostick. I've had a few WOT fails recently where I've been in too high of a gear when slowing down for red light about to turn green. I've tried dropped it in to manual mode so I could punch the gas and then realized that I was in way too high of a gear to have anything but an embarrasing show happen. I will say that either the transmission is getting used to my style of driving or I am getting used to transmission, probably a little of both, as it seems a little more responsive than when I first got it. I can't say I've noticed the drone at 60-70 but I'll listen for it.

Generally I've been very happy with my purchase so far (even though my experience with the dealship was far from ideal, I think my negative customer survey resulted in my issues being the subject of their weekly sales team meeting). I'm looking forward to seeing how it handles in the winter, I'll have to invest in some snow tires this fall.

Just curious, no one seems to have asked the obvious question, why didn't you just get vehicles with those options already included?

Thanks for the quick reply. I usually hit the time limit before the milage limit anyways. It would be nice to know though especially if you were going on a road trip and had to make a stop along the way just to change the oil.

I'm waiting for the opposite to happen. I'm getting used to putting the keys in a different pocket than normal so I figure one day I'll leave them in there and wash them. I think there is a different thread about this happening, where some people were wondering how you could wash your keys but if you get used to not having to take them out then I can easily see leaving them in the house or in your pants. I guess women might have the advantage here since most have purses and usually have there keys in there. I've managed to wash my wallet a couple of times but I don't think my wife has ever accidently washed her purse.

Is there some where that shows how much oil life is left? On my Chev I could see the % left and it warned at 5% I believe.

I find it interesting the differences between the Canadian and American packages.

Your Journey looks exactly like mine which is a Canadian 2012 R/T Rallye. I paid an extra $500 to have the Rallye package which removes the chrome and roof rack from the standard R/T and adds the VR function and a carbon rim colour plus it cost an extra $200 to have the black roof rack added back on (the Rallye package removes it).

Where as the american R/T looks like it comes decromed and you have to pay to add it on. I guess we should have gotten togeather and I could have traded you all my chrome pieces for your body colour pieces and we both could have saved a few $$$.

Or in summary, I, the Canadian, should have bought and American R/T and you, the American, should have bought a Canadian R/T!

I feel qualified to give my opinion on this. I traded a 2006 Impala SS for a 2012 Journey R/T Rallye.

You can't really compare the performance, the journey is not a performance SUV. My Impala was fast off the line and cornered pretty good, the journey off the line isn't overly impressive but has pretty good pull at speed to pass. I guess the low end torque isn't that good but improves when the RPM's are around 3-4K, the transmission is also a little lazy but that is a common complaint. The steering ratio isn't as good either, I find I have to turn the wheel more to get the same turning circle (I go through a tight traffic circle every morning and it requires more steering in the journey). I'm not finding I'm saving much in gas either but I've only gone through a few tanks of gas so far and I'm pushing the journey a little more.

That said, I'm really enjoying the journey. It has way more technology that my Impala, much better air conditioning and fits the family better. I like the looks and the 19" rims are great. It still has pretty good performance all things considered. I find the ride nicer, don't need to worry about bumps as much. The extra space inside is great, really roomy. A car was not meeting the needs of my hobbies, I needed something with some ground clearance and more room so the journey was a good choice.

If you are looking for a SUV with performance power, you are probably not going to find it domestically. Given an unlimited budget I would have looked at a BMW X3 or X5 but for the price point I am happy so far.

I've noticed the same thing except that if I scroll down to the bottom of the page the picture is there but heavily grey'd out and hard to see.

My impala SS ran better with premium but I used regular most of the time. I find the price of premium in the city crazy, I could usually find it cheaper in the country. In the states I'd always fill up with 93 and have a fun week or two. Costco usually has a good price for premium if you didn't mind the lines.

I'll try some premium in the Journey sometime once it is broken in and see if I can feel the difference.

Anyway, liking the journey so far. I'm still playing with the auto-stick to see if I can "manually" kick up the performance when I feel like it.

I just picked up my 2012 Journey R/T Rallye this week and I'm really enjoying it so far. I liked the Rallye package as I'm not a big fan of all of the chrome. I needed something that would let me do some geocaching down the back roads and old trails while still being a good daily driver. The nav package is great, I like that is from Garmin and the Alpine stereo give great sound with lots of bass. I'm taking a driving performance hit from my 2006 Impala SS but I'm finding that with a little persuasion that I can get the journey to give me it's own version of performance driving.

Thanks for putting up this forum.

I have an R/T Rallye on order, apparently it is sitting on a train in Montreal waiting to go to a local dealer then get swapped over to my dealer. (They forgot to mention the "train" part when they said there was one in Montreal).

I'll assume that the R/T is missing from the seats, any ideas how I should handle this? I was thinking of getting them to remove the cost of the roof rack from my bill. Or should I hold out for a seat swap if the R/T seats are available in the future.

Well, I take delivery tomorrow and it looks like they've included the rear DVD player for "free", guess I can't really complain then about the seats. Pretty good trade off though. Kids will be happy.

_{I've been waiting for my RT Rallye for a few weeks now and I stopped in last night and they finally had it on the lot (I'll pick it up tomorrow). Anyways, I noticed that it had the DVD system and I hadn't ordered that. I looked around some other journeys and noticed that the interior roof line was different so I was concerned about them presumably removing it before I took delivery. I asked them about it when they called today and they said they were going to surprise me with it.}

_{So, I guess I'm getting it for "free" but I've probably already paid for it somewhere in the price. The kids will be happy anyways.}

_{I guess I can't really complain about the missing "RT" embrodery now but that is OK.}

I bought one June 8th(R/T Rallye with nav). I was told it would take a day to get the financing approved and then they could do the locate on what I had ordered. They said that there was one in Montreal but they didn't mention until a few days later that is was still on a train waiting to get delivered to the local dealer so of course they can't get it yet. They did say hopefully next week but I'll go in on Monday and get an update.

I'm really looking forward to getting it and the wait is killing me but seeing how long other people are waiting is making me think that two weeks might not be so bad (but next time I'll try to find one on the lot before making the deal).

I'll go bug them Monday to see when I can take delivery but I'll hold off on mentioning the missing 'R/T' until I take delivery and am about to sign the final papers.

I have an R/T Rallye on order, apparently it is sitting on a train in Montreal waiting to go to a local dealer then get swapped over to my dealer. (They forgot to mention the "train" part when they said there was one in Montreal).

I'll assume that the R/T is missing from the seats, any ideas how I should handle this? I was thinking of getting them to remove the cost of the roof rack from my bill. Or should I hold out for a seat swap if the R/T seats are available in the future.