My impressions after two months

[cruisinbill]

I've been a Journey owner for about two months with just over 1400 km driven, about 90% city/10% highway. My worst fuel economy has been about 20 litres /100 km and best just under 14. It's been damn cold here so warming up the vehicle a little longer than usual is probably driving the numbers up.

I love the room, soft-touch interior, engine power (nice sound and responsive), controls, heated seats/steering wheel, the backup assist warning system/rear view camera, the remote start, the AWD on our snow-covered streets, and generally the 8.4N system.

I have similar concerns to other forum members about the upshifting of the transmission. It's just all over the place and the colder the weather, the worse it gets. I am not impressed with the front and rear wipers; they just do not do the job when there is snow on the glass. I am also not impressed with the placement of the backup camera - it gets dirty too quickly - it should be mounted higher on the lift gate. This vehicle also has the passive entry system which is good, however, I put it in with concerns as there have been media reports recently that thieves are using some kind of cheap scanner which opens the vehicle in a few seconds. Although it is unlikely the vehicle can be started, it means making sure that there is nothing personally identifiable left in the Journey .

Some things I am wondering about:

- the manual makes reference to power-folding side mirrors but, even with many option packages on this vehicle, I could not see anywhere where they were offered. At the least the manual ones are heated which they were not on my '08 Caliber SRT4. Does anyone have them on their '13 Journey?

Some things I wish were offered:

- power rear lift gate - that would really help my spouse with her arthritic shoulders.

- power passenger seat - my spouse finds it difficult to adjust it manually when she is the passenger

- a rear tonneau cover, in spite of having the 7-passenger option. We don't use these seats so it would be nice to be able to cover items in the rear cargo area.

- a better cabin lighting system, especially for illuminating the black floor. .

All in all, we're very pleased with the vehicle and look forward to many years of service.

[DarWrath]

I totally agree with the lighting system. I've added floor lighting in the front and rear. I still need a flash light to see into the armrest console. Some one on here suggested changeing the interior lights to LED's you could look into that.

[jkeaton]

I also agree about the interior lighting and the transmission. About the power/folding mirrors, I have them on mine. They are power mirrors that you can fold in. Pretty much standard equipment I thought. The power liftgate was on my wifes wish list when we went car shopping, unfortunately, to have that option meant increasing our price range into the realm of the bigger SUV's that offered that, which also put it out of our price range. Thanks for sharing your experience.

[onecrazyfoo4u]

Just upgrade your interior lighting so it's all LED bulbs. We did that first thing when we got ours and it makes a huge difference. Super annoying how Dodge couldn't splurge the extra $10 to make everything inside LED.

I wonder if there's any way to retrofit a power lift for the hatch? That would be nice to have too. Just give the transmission time to break in; it'll get better. At least ours did after probably 6 months of driving or so. Have you had the TSB done to reflash the transmission?

[guls]

I totally agree with the lighting system. I've added floor lighting in the front and rear. I still need a flash light to see into the armrest console. Some one on here suggested changeing the interior lights to LED's you could look into that.

DarWrath, where did you hook them up to. Can you post some pictures.

Thanks in advance

Edited December 16, 2013 by guls