Woo-hoo! It is time for a new review. Just a quick reminder – my reviews are very subjective, I just share a personal experience with different cars that I happened to drive.Last weekend I got Dodge Journey R/T 2016– a crossover designed by Fiat-Chrysler.
3.6 L engine, AWD, 7 seats.
My first impression was:”What am I going to do with a huge car in a city?” But I didn’t have a choice. First 2 kilometers Journey and I spent in traffic, bumper to bumper, since I was trying to get back to the Commerce Valley at 5 PM on Friday. It was raining, so first surprise reached me pretty soon – being surrounded by other cars, I tried to turn on the wipers. I found the rear one, but could not find the windshield wiper! In a new generation of American cars wipers and turn signal switch is combined. I would not say that it is intuitive. It took me some time to figure out which ring on the switch controls what.
Another surprise was the location of the parking brake. Journey has a foot parking brake, located above normal position of the left foot. I was always controlling myself not to move left leg spontaneously. Another thing to mention, gas and brakes pedals were too high. Even though I have shoes size 8.5 (European 39) and I always wear comfortable shoes for driving, I had a feeling that I am reaching only the tip of a pedal.
Next morning was pretty cold and Journic activated a steering wheel heater and a driver’s sit heater. I am pretty sure there is an option in its computer to deactivate those heaters completely, but my weekend was so busy, that I didn’t have any time to adjust such things. After 3 days with the car, I think it was set to automatic activation if the temperature is below 5 degrees. So, steering wheel heater is perfect after 10-15 minutes. First 10-15 minutes it has hot areas and cold areas, which is kind of strange and not very pleasant. Most of controls were on the touch screen. If in other cars you can activate heater by simply pressing a button without even looking, here you have to have your eyes on the screen to pick a control and adjust temperature or whatever.
It is a bit unstable in turns, especially with speed. I know, my bad habits are the reason, but sedans are fine.
Gas! I thought it has a hole in a tank and gas evaporates to the air! On 180 km gas consumption was 27 liters. It is 15 L /100 km mixed city and highway, but mostly city.
So, let’s summarize
“+”
- A big and powerful car, perfectly suitable for camping, traveling with many people or dropping a half of a hockey team to the ice rink.
- Parking assistant instead of the rear view camera. In my opinion, it is safer.
- AWD and 3.6L, should be nice to dig out from the snow.
- OK, steering wheel heater is nice to have.
“-“
- Not a car for rentals. Takes time to get familiar with it (Actually, noticed the same with GM cars. Japanese made – you adjust mirrors and a seat, done)
- Too high gas consumption, useless car in the city or for less than 5 people.
- Too many electronics. The screen is low and looking at it takes drivers attention from the road.
- Pedals and switches design.
- Space at the back sit is narrow, at least Alison said so.
Out of three crossovers, Pathfinder is the best. Chevy Traverse was better than Journic. Though, I have to admit that my weekend was all about running. I didn’t have a chance to drive for just driving – we were always in a rush. Maybe the car is not bad if you get used to it.
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