B4ZINGA

I would replace the matte vinyl with gloss black. I'm not impressed by the matte black vinyl on our red blacktop. One good thing about my black R/T (Pitch Black, not even Brilliant Black) is the lack of vinyl... since there isn't a need for it. But then the stupid thing can't stay clean to save its life...

Comes down to personal taste. I test drove a used 2013 Crew before I got my R/T and it was comfortable, but I couldn't get over all the ridiculous chrome trim plastered over the car. Personally, I can't stand chrome. Satin in limited quantities (window trim, wheels) I'm okay with, but things like door handles and grilles I can't stand. I was also drawn to the Rallye appearance package (black headlight buckets, slightly darker 19" alloys, roof rack deleted) as I like the headlights better, and the deleted roof rails make it look more like a sport wagon than a family car. My family is my animals. I'm glad I got the R/T also for the stiffer suspension. It doesn't compare to my old Road & Track Charger or my 300M Special, but it does allow me to take certain interstate junction ramps at speed. My R/T can handle the 696 east to 94 east ramp near Detroit at 70 MPH without much issue. If it wasn't for traffic, I wouldn't need to slow down at all on dry warm days. When I get 20" wheels with thinner sidewalls and stiffer tires, it should be perfect. I noticed some flex this morning in the factory tires, which should be corrected when it's time for new tires (currently over 16,000 miles, so that should be a while). I rented a 2015 SXT (not SXT Plus) for a trip to Toronto in June, and it could not pull the same maneuver without some scary body roll. Again, all personal taste. Unfortunately the R/T Rallye in Pitch Black is common around here, so I'll need to make some exterior changes at some point...

Looks like I've made the list... Do I get a prize? I want a cookie. And AWD lowering springs.

Good choice on the V6. Our household has both engines (4-cyl SXT Plus Blacktop and 6-cyl R/T Rallye). FYI, and I know I'm nitpicking, but Dodge does not have a V4 anywhere in its lineup. I don't think FCA has one anywhere in its global offerings. It has an I4 and V6... inline 4 and V-configuration 6. Anyway. The 4-cyl is a good engine if all your driving is going to be around town. Ours has plenty of pep around town and manages 20-22 MPG with lots of traffic lights and stop signs and heavy traffic around Metro Detroit. However, it's a gutless wonder on the highway without the MPG to back it up. Our V6 R/T averages 16 MPG in the same traffic, however it moves like a scalded cat on the highway. We went up north with it on vacation this past weekend and with four adults, luggage, and cruise set to 75, I got 26-28 MPG. On a trip to Toronto in June I rented a V6 SXT Journey and at 65 MPH, I got over 32 MPG. Not bad at all for a heavy vehicle using a NA V6 without direct injection. My R/T cracked 16,200 miles on that trip and the only issues for the life of the vehicle so far was a bad washer fluid level sensor. Apparently RainX dissolves the sensor, so be sure to use the cheap solvents instead.

I was just thinking about this the other day at HF... I have an aluminum "Racing Jack" (I swear, it's in the low 12s!) that I bought to fit under my Special (1/2" factory lowering springs, and 1/2" lower fascias and rocker panels), however it only lifts about 13 or 16" I think. Barely enough to get the tires off the ground lifting from the pinch weld. I might get the low profile steel jack from HF that lifts to 20" and is much longer. Hopefully it doesn't crush my rocker panels like the "Racing" jack does... the pinch weld is an inch above the rocker panels and they flex a lot with my current jack.

Sorey, don't know what you're talking aboot.

E-85 is completely pointless. The lower energy content versus E0 and E10 reduces the fuel economy enough that it costs you more to use E85 than standard regular gasoline (E10 or otherwise). Yes, studies have been done. One of the car rags tested a flex-fuel Tahoe, driving it from somewhere near LA to Las Vegas. It made it to Vegas on one tank of E10 just fine, and returned to CA. They then drained the fuel tank of all E10, and refueled with E85. They filled a couple of jerry cans as well, worried that it might run out. Their worry was well-founded, as it indeed ran out and they needed both cans to get to Las Vegas, in the middle of the desert. They crunched the numbers with the round-trip economy figures collected and found the cheaper-by-the-gallon E-85 cost them more per mile than the E10 did. Moral of the story, don't buy the hype. If any car I buy in the future is flex-fuel and comes with an extra charge for that feature, the dealer will be removing that charge, removing the flex-fuel equipment AND the charge, or there will be no deal.

They lied to you. Dodge installed those shields to prevent heat from the mufflers degrading the rubber of the spare tire over tens of thousands of miles. By removing those shields, they're jeopardizing that spare tires ability to safely get you from the side of the road to a repair facility in the event of a flat, and by extension your safety. They need to reinstall those shields, yesterday, and they need to be reported to FCA, US corporate. That "worst case scenario" is the spare tire blowing out on you and causing an accident, because it was badly degrade from being exposed to the head of the muffler. Ask yourself, would you remove the other heat shields over the other exhaust components, put there to prevent other parts of the car from being damaged by that heat? I hope not.

The aesthetics are polarizing. Not necessarily hideous, but I'm not whipping out my credit card, either... The big question is what the output is. I had Spyder projectors on my Grand Prix years ago, and while the output was certainly improved over OEM (candles duct-taped to the fascia were better than OEM), the cutoff was poor and the projectors position inside the headlights forced me to adjust them up to the max setting.

The good news is since you do not have AWD, you can replace in pairs. AWD throws a tantrum when you don't rotate routinely or replace in full sets. If I was in your position and the one tire was not repairable, I would first consider doing all four. At 5/32, you've less than 25% tread. More than likely, at that point *my* wallet would tell me to go piss up a rope, so I would simply buy a pair of new tires roughly similar to the current set size and put them on the back. By the time you need to rotate, the front factory set will be ready for replacement as well. If money is truly driving this question, you can go one step down and ask the tire shop if they have a same size used tire in stock with roughly similar tread, and replace the one tire. I did this with my R/T RWD Charger when I had a flat in the dead of the winter and it was -15F without the wind chill. I drove to work (3 miles at the time) on the flat, then went to the shop around the corner at lunch and had them replace that one tire, since driving on it shredded it internally. A couple months later I got my tax return and used it to buy four new tires since the old ones were due anyway. The used tire got me back on the road just fine until I could do that, and allowed me to end up with four identical tires with identical wear. Having said that, where is the puncture? If the puncture is in the tread and more than two-fingers-width from the sidewall (edge of the contact patch, where the wear on the tire visibly stops), any competent tire shop can dismount the tire, patch it from the inside, and remount/rebalance it for you for not much money. $10-15 for the remount/balance plus a few bucks for the patch. I've had two 20" tires done that way with zero problems, including one now on my summer car that I discovered on a road trip last fall. 5000 miles since repair and it's pressure is still the same as the other unpunctured tires, repaired at Belle Tire (who does it at no charge).

I use the waffle-weave towels. Meguiar's water magnet is a waffle-weave. I get it at Meijer here in the midwest/great lakes region. I don't think Advance sells it anymore. Very good towel. I've considered getting an electric leaf blower, however with how dusty my driveway gets I'd just be blowing dirt right back on the car. Important thing with towels is to wipe in one direction. Never in a circular motion, as that induces swirls and makes more work for you to polish them out. Even worse for gloss black cars.

As was noted, Journey has no wireless connection to the world (terrestrial and sat-radio/nat notwithstanding) and are in no danger, however it is important for consumers to know and understand the darker side of these fabulous new technologies the automakers are peddling (Chevrolet touts the fact that all of its models have available 4G LTE connectivity to keep spawn entertained so mom/dad can keep some resemblance of sanity on trips). I tried to use those dongles when I had Progressive a few years ago on my Charger and my Special. I don't drive my Special often, so if I didn't have it on the Battery MINDer, it would be flat within a few days and I'd have to jump the car to go for a ride. Although they were courteous to tell me the car was flat when by emailing me to say that they detected the device was no longer reachable. I wonder why... On my Charger, I was refused any discounts after the 30-day data-collection period due to many aggressive accelerations and decelerations. Sorry, I can't help it if PA drivers are horrible and cause me to hit the brakes frequently, and if normal NJ driving is considered "aggressive". That said, it's just another point in favor of older cars. My Special is a good in-between in that it's easy to operate with the computer doing all the tuning adjustments and no need to perform the old tune-ups of the 60s, yet all steering, gear selection, and accelerator/decelerator input is still mechanically controlled by cables at both ends and no servos or drive-by-wire systems involved. The autostick is controlled by by electronic sensors/buttons in the gearshift assembly, which isn't a big deal. If a wireless dongle for a Snap-On Verus is connector, the wielder of the Verus can control my lights, turn signals, wipers, horn, and possibly HVAC and radio (I still had a radio instead of a tablet). That's it. I don't think it has the programming to touch the airbags or seats.

Have the dealer replace it. Shouldn't take longer than half an hour. When my fluid sensor in the washer system disintegrated, I was in and out within half an hour. Just call ahead, tell them the hose on the bottle failed and needs to be replaced (and you've already confirmed this, no diagnosis needed), and set a time and day to come in. Any competent dealer will be ready for you. Common parts they normally have in stock. I'm also a little surprised that at 1500 miles the hose failed. I have over 15,500 on mine with no hose failure, in spite of 15,000 being on Michigan's sad excuse for paved roads and going through a nasty winter. But, then I'm also surprised that my fluid sensor failed before 13,000 miles (apparently the solvents in RainX dissolve the sensors that Dodge switched to sometime after my 07 Charger and 02 Special were made... both of which handle RainX just fine).

The chime will sound regardless if the door is closed or open. If yours does not chime, the dealer needs to fix it. "We can't fix it" is not an acceptable answer. If they can't figure out, they need to contact Chrysler engineering services and have an engineer figure out the problem.

The reason is because the car makers want you to use their system, not someone elses. Apple and Google have run into many roadblocks put in place by the automakers because the automakers are very reluctant to cede control of anything in their product to a third party, even their system sucks big floppy donkey d***. That's why CarPlay and Android Auto haven't been adopted by all automakers, and part of why they're only minor companions and OEM systems still dominated the dashboard. They want you to store your device in the console, hence 12v charge ports, USB ports, and aux. ports are normally in the console or in a cubby below the radio.

I would call the dealer and ask. The if the listing says "Gloss Black", then that is what you should have received. It sounds like they sent you a standard crash-replacement grille. It should come painted in PX8 - Gloss Black (though Dodge calls PX8 Pitch Black now... my R/T is Pitch Black. Standard ink toner color according to my painter).

The cubby under the radio, or the cupholder. Although I can control the phone without ever taking it out of my pocket, it helps the microphone catch my voice if it's out. Besides, even when I say "OK, Google Now, Navigate to the Landing Strip Gentleman's Clu... err Kroger!" I still have to enter the unlock sequence before she pulls up the directions. Kind of annoying that they advertise it be controlled without hitting the wake button, but it still needs to be unlocked if it needs you to pick options... One of these days I'll get a mount that sits on top of the dash and grips its (no sticky pads) so I can have the nav screen in view. My buddy has a Nexus 6 on a magnetic mount with wireless charging in his 2015 200... and it looks ridiculous with such a big phone blocking the windshield lol.

The Henry Ford Museum is in Dearborn, MI. A vast collection of industrial age, pre-industrial age, US political, 20th century, automotive and aeronautical history. There's even an exhibit showing the evolution of travel as the car was invented and evolved. Very interesting stuff. Easily more than a day to see everything. There is also a line of past US presidential limousines. Very interesting to see how drastic the changes were following John F. Kennedy's assassination in the back of an open top Continental.

The shows I can go to tend to be limited, since my car was made after 1980. A lot of people still discriminate against newer cars that "don't have any history" or "weren't made when cars were artwork", blah blah blah. The same people who fail to realize that their prized classics were in the same boat at my cars age. The shows I do go to, it's not uncommon for me to walk away with an award anyway, as perceptions change. The shows I go to tend to be either a Mopar show, or a show that benefits a charity. My Special won an award this past Saturday at an event put on by a local Lions club, which donated all profits to Leader Dogs for the Blind and other charities they donate to every year (usually cancer research, veterans, etc.). The key is to be interesting. If you buy a new Toyota Camry and bring it to a Cars and Coffee, you'll likely snubbed. On Thursday my company is having a small Cruise-in at the office and the organizers said to bring any vehicle of interest. Since my Special is modified and clearly is set apart from the standard 300M you see every day, it's more than welcome. When I sign up every year for the Endless Summer Cruisin' Car Show at the Ocean City, MD inlet, the only show that welcomes all makes, models, years, the form says "Vehicle must be 1979 or older. Vehicles 1980 and newer must list 3 modifications other than engine." I go with my club and we have a mix of people admiring our cars, reminiscing about ones they once owned, and people who vocally say "What's this shit doing here?" with the owner five feet away. Local shows are shifting now that there are local car clubs that are bringing significant attendance, such Detroit Area Modern Mopar and Detroit 5th Gen Camaro Club. Organizers have taken the time during awards presentations to thank these groups for coming out and joining "this thing of ours".

More than likely, yes. FCA's goal with Dodge is to be the performance brand, with the intent to roll out RWD models as the bulk of Dodge's offerings. To that end, Dodge engineers are working closely with Alfa engineers to develop new platforms. Of the remaining FWD Dodge models (Avenger, Grand Caravan, Dart, Journey), two have been axed (Avenger, Grand Caravan) and the other two are up for heavy re-engineering (Dart, Journey). The only way Alfa can reinvent itself and release a bunch of new models is if Dodge lowers the per-unit cost to produce them by selling sister vehicles. The new Guilia is a preview of the next Dodge mid-size sedan (Avenger), and this SUV will make its way to the US as a Dodge, very likely replacing the Journey. The only snag in that thought is the 2013 5-year plan noted that the next Dodge D-CUV (Journey) will be primarily FWD, offering AWD, so it MAY be based on CUSW along with Cherokee, Dart, 200. BUT, FCA is putting off updating Dodge vehicles for several years while Alfa is reborn (DON'T EVER SAY ALFAS WERE CO-DESIGNED BY DODGE! The Italian ego has no room for filthy American influence), then the Dodge Versions will be completed and come out.

I wouldn't be surprised if the battery failed completely. With all of the electronics in cars now, a bad battery can wreak havoc and cause all sorts of things to go wrong. Since the car is new, the dealer should replace it at no cost to you.

Our Blacktop's wheels are fine so far, with about 8,000 miles on them. I would check into warranty if you're still under the 3/36.

Remember that the pinchweld is what you're lifting, not the body. It isn't necessary (and some believe it to be unwise) to have something that comes up to the body and take the weight there. It's also unecessary to make something for the jackstands, since they don't normally go on the pinchweld. Most place them at subframe and framerail points to prevent damage to the body.

Everytime I buy a car I tell myself, "I'm not changing this one!". My Grand Prix lasted a week. My Special lasted 4 months, ish, before the SRI and SRT Design wheels happened. My Charger lasted two months before projectors went into it. I broke a record with my Journey... a whole year! I'm not counting the front molded slush mats as a mod. It was up in the air whether or not my Special was going to make it to Carlisle in July with the engine making a tapping noise that I now believe may be an exhaust leak at the passenger manifold. She wound up making it, but since it was a 50/50 shot I figured I'd make a few quick 5 minute changes to my R/T Journey. So... I ordered from eBay some 6000K LED reverse bulbs and 6000K LED fog light bulbs. I also ordered 6000K LED 194 bulbs from VLEDs to update the license plate lights. Still trying to find something to fit the cargo lights. Yes, the car is filthy. It rained almost non-stop for weeks. Deal with it. Yes it looks awkward having bright white LED foglights and standard halogen headlamps. I'm considering acquiring new headlamps and projectors during TRSs black Friday sale and fixing that either before winter chokes us again, or in the spring.

Guilia will be the basis for an upcoming mid-size sedan (Avenger) and SUV (Journey) for Dodge. The Alfa SUV is reportedly finished and going into testing, possibly entering production late 2016. Dodge might have its own versions of the sedan and SUV by 2020. It's believed that the SUV will finally be the car that replaces the Journey.