2 month review of 2012 Journey R/T

[doubleO7]

I have had my Journey just over two months so I thought its time to write a review

Model: R/T

Colour: Storm Grey

Options: Trailer two prep

Navigation

Sunroof

Current Odometer reading: 3600 km (2236 mi)

Vehilce rating 9 out of 10

Driving has been mainly in a combination of rural/city (60/40) percentage. Finally had the vehicle on a 100% road trip.

To say the least, I have been very happy with my choice. After looking at many other CUV's, the Journey just stood out for me. I looked at other CUV's in the same price range, nothing over $36,000, so I was comparing apples to apples and not apples to oranges.

The three deciding factors that led to the Joureny purchase were as follows:

1. Penastar engine- love the smoothness of this engine and when called upon, it really moves the vehicle with

authority

2. Interior is well laid out (one expection-will mention in the Dislikes)

3. Depsite Dodge reputation for "poor quality" , my experience with my 2001 Dodge Grand Caravan, kept me in the Dodge family. Over 200,000 km and other then regular and preventative maintenance, absolutely no issues.

So, yesterday, I took the vehicle out for a drive in the mountains here in BC. I filled up the vehicle just before entering the freeway and knowing that I would be returning the same way, I could fill up at the same location, which should give me a fairly accurate reading for straight highway driving.

First part of trip was in the Fraser Valley(completely flat, tailwind, avg speed 110 to 120Km/hr ( 60-70 mph), and the EVIC for that part of the trip was showing 7.9l/100km (a switch of the unit measuremet to US gallons indicated around 29 mpg)

Once we got into the Fraser Canyon ( mainly a two lane hwy except for some short streches of 4 lane, and started to do any signifcant climbing, I dropped it into manual mode and downshifted once the climb started. I was able to find the right gear very quickly and wow, I had had no problems, in fact a light touch on the accelerator peddle and I was gaining speed with ease. In areas where I was descending, I would drop down one or two gears and not have to use the brakes at all. This vehicle is made for mountain driving.

Of course once we were in areas where there the road was flat, back into auto mode.

Had once incident where some moron who was doing 30km under the speed limit. Speed limit is 100, they were doing 70. So there was a line of cars (we were third in line behind this person). Behind me is a lady driving a Chev Cruze, who decides when we get to a passing lane, that she is going to get right on my bumper. The first two vehicles, a Hundai Accent and a Chev Silverado pulling a trailer with a dragster on it, are ahead of me and they have no guts to pass quickly. So this lady behind me won't back off, but I can't get over as I haven't passed anything yet. Well once the other two vehicles got over, I dropped down a gear and floored it, the lady in the Cruze couldn't keep up. Once I got over in the other lane, I settled back down to around 110 km but she was determined to get ahead of me, and I thought go ahead, better to rear end someone else.

The return trip took us over the the Coquihalla Hwy, a four lane (sometimes six lanes). When you in a hurry, this is the road to travel on. Speed limit is 110 km/hr, but most people do between 120 and 130 km/hr ( 70-80 mph). I usually do somewhere around 110 to 115 km/hr

Out of Merrit, there is a steep climb heading south, but I thought I would keep it in auto mode, to see (experience the downshift lag that others have talked about in the forum). Yes, it occured, back into manual mode for the steep climbs only then back into auto mode, however where the climbs were more gentle, a slight push of the accelerator and the vehicle found the correct gear quickly.

For those not familiar with the Coquihalla Hwy, heading inland from the coast, the first part of the highway from Hope to where a toll booth used to be, is around 60 km of very steep climb. Consequently heading from the interior to the coast, you have a very steep descent. While everybody is riding their brakes, I just geared down on the steepest parts and I never had to use the brakes once.

I got this vehicle for highway driving and more then thrilled with the performance. So on the way back, I filled up at the same service station.

Before trip: fill -46.81 litres -distance travelled 352.6 km l/100km - 12.5

After trip: fill 46.97 litres- distance travelled 515.3 km l/100km- 9.0

I could probably go onto Fuelly and get more accurate numbers, but for the few times I was on there and entered my data, I was probably .5 yo .7 km/100 over what the evic says. Not enough to worry about. So, I will just go by what the EVIC reading is.

Likes:

Performance - I don't think anything in its class can come close.

Interior comfort - outstanding

Exterior styling - love the presence it has on the road. From the front, only Kia comes close to having a front end that I like the looks of

Air conditioning: since I have a five seater, I don't have the rear air like I did in our van, but when its 33 celius (91 degrees fahrenheit) and my sister inlaw complains that its to cold in the back seat, I don't see a problem with only having air up front)

EVIC display - love the information it provides

Steering wheel controls - I have had no issues with the steering wheel controls, love that I can change stations or volume without having to take hands off wheel, or use voice commands. Had this feature on the van and thought it was great

I have also had not issues with the steering wheel controls for EVIC, I am able to change the display without taking my eyes of the road. Just takes practice (feel) to know which button your thumb is going to push.

Neutrals:

LED light pattern: Not enough to be a dislike, but I really don't care for the LED design. I knew of the design when I bought it, but would think it would have been more of presence if the leds on the body panel area went horizontal to meet the leds on the hatch.

Windshield wipers block view: I listed this as neutral, as it may have more to do with my driving postion. It would have been nice if they sat below the windshield surface. I know I can raise my seat, but if I do, I block

Gremlins: mostly with radio/ bluetooth (and not a dislike because I don't think this problem is just a Dodge thing)

Voice command: sometimes it just doesn't understand. So when she says "she doesn't understand", I just say shut up and she comes up with "she doesn't understand", the Mrs and I have a good laugh.

Presets for Radio: sometimes when I start the vehicle, it has switched stations.

Using voice command to play a particular piece of music - when I say the song, it goes to the song but then immediatley goes to the next one. Oh well, I just use the steering wheel control.

Dislikes:

Drone between 60 and 70km/h - apparently only an issue with AWD models, and is only noticeable when accelerating lightly. According to dealer it has to do with clearances between the exhaust and the AWD appratus. You would think, the design team woud design for the more complex applicaton (AWD), rather the the simple one (FWD) and then try and adapt.

Gear Selecotr location: I missed this when I test drove the vehcile, because I didn't test the manual shift mode. My problem is that when I go into manual shift mode, my arm is at my side, which feels very unatural. I think if the gear selector and the cup holders were reversed, a more natural feel of having the arm slightly extended for shifting manually would be achieved. Again, it may be more that I have to have the seat up a little closer then others. I consider myself average height at 5'8", so I don't think it could be a "short" thing.

Accelerator pedal: Again it just may be me, but I find the accelerator pedal a little on the small side, as once in awhile my foot slips off for no apparent reason.

None of the disikes makes me think I made the wrong choice. NO vehicle is perfect.

Cheers

DoubleO7

[DodgeCACares]

doubleO7!

It is comments such as yours that allow us to evaluate our achievements in quality production and customer satisfaction, while also highlighting areas where we can continue to improve.

If you’d like to get a second opinion on the drone and look into your gremlins, don’t hesitate to send me a PM, and I’ll gladly look into it for you.

[CCCacher]

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.

Edited August 22, 2012 by CCCacher

[doubleO7]

CCCacher

Storm grey was the Mrs DoubleO7's choice, I wanted Pearlescent white, but hey we have to comprimise right. But now I really like the colour.

When I mentioned the A/C, I don't have the rear air as I didn't want to get the third seat. So for my sister in law to complain its to cold in the back seat, remember the air is only coming from the front vents. The external temperature was 33 degrees celius that day, and I was a little worried that maybe the AC wouldn't be powerful enough to cool the back.

I'm sure you will get used to the autostick. I had this in my Grand Caravan, and really got to like it. I have owned many manual transmission vehicles in the past, and still like to be able to select the proper gear for the situation, rather then rely on an automatic to select for me. Left leg injury a few years ago, negates having a manual transmission now. Darn.

I'm with you on the boxy look, it looks much better and makes loading and unloading boxy items a lot easier.

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.

My apologies to the rest of the people on the forum for some errors in spelling, missing parts of sentences, on my original post, but when I went to edit, for some reason I was unable to correct the errors.

Cheers

DoubleO7

[CCCacher]

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.

Edited August 22, 2012 by CCCacher

[doubleO7]

CCCacher

I might wait a year before buying snows as our other vehicle is a Subaru Legacy, that has snows for the winter, so if our son isn't using it, I can always use it in pinch if I have go somewhere during the snowy season.

But will let you know if I decide to get snows this year and what I end up with. I will be checking with the gentleman at the dealership as to what packages he is putting together, then once I know what size an actual Dodge dealer is recommending, I can comparison shop for the best deal.

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. A couple of years ago we rented a motorhome that not only had a rear camera, but had side cameras also. Voila no blind spots. When you wanted to change lanes, just pick right or left camera and you had a great view of what might be in your blindspot otherwise. It would be neat if such an option was available for the Journey.

[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.

[DodgeCACares]

Hi all!

Wanted to chime in on the backup cameras.

The whole idea with the camera is to assit when backing up, look for things in the way, but mirrors are still helpful seeing as the camera only picks up what is directly beind you and some of what is around.

Love it when hooking up to the trailer with the Ram and great feature in the Journey when trying to get out of a parking lot.

[Revelation]

I just bought a 2012 Dodge Journey with Storm Grey as well. I just love the car, but I will comment more after my family puts more miles on it. With two kids, my wife wanted a car with an option of a third seat. Since she drives the car during the week, I focused more on her needs. Tried the Ford Edge, it was .....ok. Tried the Durango, and she did not want the heavy feel when driving. The Chevy Transverse was too big as well and expensive. So without getting another minivan which we both did not want, no other vehicle offers the third seat option in this size. Did not like the Mazda CX9 bouncy feeling.

We bought a SXT with 19" tires. We had a 2010 for a loaner while we had our mini van worked on. I did not like it, but my wife did. I found the update in 2011 and the new V6 engine to be much improved over the 2010 model. Love the engine, interior, and size. It is also a lot quieter than our Mazda MPV we sold which was a big plus. I wish they had 2 more inches for your feet for those using the third seat. To deal with it, if necessary, you can move up the seat on the 2nd row, to give more room. If it was up to me, I would have purchased the upgraded stereo and leather wrapped wheel, but my wife did not care about spending the money for it. Instead we bought the $70,000 bumper to bumper. The standard 3 year is pretty lame, as most cars won't show any issues in the first 3 years.

I did find an article on line about a tapping sound from the engine on some 2011 built in Mexico. Replacement of the heads was the solution of the problem. Hopefully we won't have that issue with our vehicle. So far very happy with it. Getting mud flaps for the car as well as the cargo mat as we don't want our dogs or weather to affect the cargo area when the third seat is down.

[Shadow]

I've had my R/T now since August and have put on a whopping 4500 kms. I really like this vehicle. It is well thought out and has the elbow room that I like. I traded in a Durango with a Hemi and this has just as much juice if not more on the highway. The led lights inside and out are great. I have to disagree with Double07 about the postion of the shift lever. By having the cup holders below the shift you won't spill into the shift lever. Also when I rest my arm on the centre consol I can shift comfortably with a couple of fingers and I am 6 ft. tall. Yes the 6 speed is a little lazy but use the manual mode and colour me gone. The back up camera is a nice touch and I am impressed with how sensitive it is in a low light situation. The fit and finish is excellent for any vehicle and the quiet ride inside is amazing. I think dodge really got their shit together with these newer models.

I'm really looking forward to taking this to Florida in March.

Just my 2cents worth.

[doubleO7]

HI Shadow

I can see why we have a difference of opinion on the shifter location and I respect that. I think it has to do with our differences in height. Since I am shorter ( 5'6"), I have to have my seat up a little closer to the steering wheel then you have to in order to reach the accelerator. Damn, being shorter has its disadvantages. The postion of the seat that feels comfortable for me puts my right arm so close to the shift lever, my elbow is actually slightly behind my body when I have it in manual mode (which I use a lot). Just awkward for me, would still like to see the cupholders behind (can still be lower). I don't use the cupholders, but I would think that if one had a coffee and they lifted the drink out of the cupholder, that there could be a chance of the cup hitting the shifter. If the cupholder is behind, it eliminates that possibiltiy IMHO. Most other SUV/CUV/s seem to have shifter ahead of cupholders.

I am so used to driving manual tranmissions where I have my elbow extended from my body, that it just feels weird to me to have my elbow at my side when shifting. I can see what you mean about just using your fingers for shifting, that part is nice as I do that also.

[ferrari1.8t]

Dislikes:

Drone between 60 and 70km/h - apparently only an issue with AWD models, and is only noticeable when accelerating lightly. According to dealer it has to do with clearances between the exhaust and the AWD appratus. You would think, the design team woud design for the more complex applicaton (AWD), rather the the simple one (FWD) and then try and adapt.

Double07 - Thanks for your post. I love my 2012 R/T as well, however, I have been experiencing the same problem as you since I purchased the vehicle. The low drone/rumbling from the floor of the car during light acceleration between 60-70km. Not one dealer has been able to give me an answer as to why I am experiencing this, it is quite frustrating. Have you come across any more information about this issue since your last post? Any information you may have is greatly appreciated!

Edited January 7, 2013 by ferrari1.8t

[doubleO7]

Double07 - Thanks for your post. I love my 2012 R/T as well, however, I have been experiencing the same problem as you since I purchased the vehicle. The low drone/rumbling from the floor of the car during light acceleration between 60-70km. Not one dealer has been able to give me an answer as to why I am experiencing this, it is quite frustrating. Have you come across any more information about this issue since your last post? Any information you may have is greatly appreciated!

HI Ferrari1.8t

When I had it looked at, the tech that looked at the vehicle, traced the problem to the limited clearance between the body and the exhaust. This can happen on the AWD models only and is a known problem he has been told. However there is not fix at this point.

I told him I only experience it during mild acceleration and not during full throttle. He then explained that during full throttle the exhaust gases are moving at a higher rate then under mild acceleration so this could be why I don't feel/hear the droan at certian times. My problem is that where I live speeds are are between 60 and 70 on almost all the rural roads I drive. Having said that, since I have almost 10,000km on the vehicle, it seems to be a little less noticable or I'm just getting used to it.

Other then that, all the little gremlins on my initial review have been fixed(with the exception of one). Voice recognition is better but once in awhile it doesn't understand, but hey I haven't seen a voice recognition system thats perfect. At least now when I ask for a song to play, it goes to that song and plays it, rather then highlighting the song and immediatley switching to the song below.

The one exception is with the nav and losing the streets on the screen(this has happened three times). I won't go into detail here, will post in the appropriate forum.

Other then that I am suffering no buyers remorse, still love the vehicle. No vehicle is prefect and I'm down, the location of the shifter still bugs me since I use the autostick alot. The accelerator pedal (and this is embarrasing) was a problem because I moved the seat back to clean and vacuum the driver side area and forgot to put it back up. My short little legs just couldn't reach.

If and when there is a final fix for the droan, or if it disappears on its own, I will let you know.

[DodgeCACares]

Double07 - Thanks for your post. I love my 2012 R/T as well, however, I have been experiencing the same problem as you since I purchased the vehicle. The low drone/rumbling from the floor of the car during light acceleration between 60-70km. Not one dealer has been able to give me an answer as to why I am experiencing this, it is quite frustrating. Have you come across any more information about this issue since your last post? Any information you may have is greatly appreciated!

Ferrari,

If you want, I can help look in to the drone, mostly for the peace of mind of knowing your dealer is aware and looking in to it for you. This way they know what is going on and they can follow up if/when there is a fix.

Just send me a PM with your VIN, Name and Dealer name and we'll go from there.

[ferrari1.8t]

Ferrari,

If you want, I can help look in to the drone, mostly for the peace of mind of knowing your dealer is aware and looking in to it for you. This way they know what is going on and they can follow up if/when there is a fix.

Just send me a PM with your VIN, Name and Dealer name and we'll go from there.

DodgeCACares,

Thank you for your reply, however, the forum does not allow me to send a PM due to insufficient posts. Is there any other way I can send you the required information privately? I would appreciate you looking into this issue for me. Thank you

[DodgeCACares]

Ferrari,

Just sent you PM - hope you can read it at least.

[pcrmike]

Okay. Six months in, 16K miles and absolutely zero issues except for the known fuel gauge reading empty early issue. 2.4 SXT with 4 spd. Incredible braking for a vehicle this size. Luvvit.