Dodge rolls out safety with new Journey

2009 crossover offers plenty of storage, seating for up to seven

AP

Towing capacity on the 2009 Dodge Journey tops out at 3,500 pounds. Meanwhile, the crossover sport utility vehicle has a turning circle of 38.5-39 feet.

Dodge, the brand with powerful Hemi V-8 engines and a brawny image, is showing less brawn in its latest sport utility vehicle.

There's no Hemi available for the new-for-2009 Dodge Journey sport utility vehicle. In fact, the base engine for the four-door Journey is a four cylinder.

Passengers don't have a big climb up to get inside the Journey, and there's no truckish, bouncy ride. That's because the Journey is built on a modified platform of the Dodge Avenger sedan and is a so-called crossover sport utility with a carlike ride.

Best of all, the Journey, which is available with seats for five or seven people, has an across-the-board five-out-of-five-stars rating in government crash tests. And the vehicle includes some nifty storage spots and convenience features not found on other crossovers.

Some features, such as hidden storage spaces under the carpeting of the second-row floor and at least a dozen other storage spots here and there, come from the minivans that Dodge's parent company, Chrysler LLC, pioneered.

Indeed, one of the debates during my Journey test drive was whether the Journey looked more like a sport utility or a minivan on the outside. The Journey seems to have some bewildering styling cues from each one.

An early 2009 model, the Journey is positioned between the boxy Dodge Nitro sport utility and the larger Dodge Durango and is the Dodge sport utility with the lowest starting price.

Starting manufacturer's suggested retail price is $19,985 for a base Journey with front-wheel drive, automatic transmission and 173-hp four-cylinder engine. The previous Dodge sport utility with the lowest starting retail price was the two-wheel-drive 2008 Nitro, which starts at $20,290 with V-6 and manual transmission.

A four-wheel-drive Nitro, however, has a lower starting price than an all-wheel-drive Journey. It's $21,950 for a base Nitro with a manual transmission versus a pricier all-wheel-drive Journey starting at $25,530 with a 235-hp V-6 and automatic.

Competitors in the midsize crossover segment that offer five or more seats include the 2008 Toyota Highlander, which starts at $27,985 with V-6 and automatic, the 2008 Hyundai Santa Fe, which starts at $21,845 with V-6 and manual transmission, and the 2008 Saturn Outlook that starts at $28,995.

While Journey prices may start low, they can reach to the low to mid-$30,000s. The test, a top-of-the-line Journey R/T with a number of options such as moonroof, rear-seat entertainment center and Chrysler's MyGIG hard drive for music storage, was priced just over $34,000.

The all-wheel-drive Journey handled city traffic well, with decent "oomph" from the 3.5-liter, high-output, single-overhead-cam V-6 that generates 235 hp and 232 pounds-feet of torque at 4,000 rpm. But mated to a standard six-speed automatic transmission, the engine sounded a bit noisy when pressed on mountainous country roads. And there were times when the shift points in the transmission weren't smooth.

Fuel economy is lackluster at just 15 mpg in city driving per the federal government rating system and 22 mpg on the highway for the R/T model with all-wheel drive. As expected, the best mileage rating is for the base, two-wheel-drive Journey with a 173-hp, 2.4-liter four cylinder. The rating is estimated at 19 mpg city, 25 mpg highway. But some other crossovers get better mileage.

At nearly 5.6 feet tall, the Journey isn't so tall as to feel tippy. But the R/T model with all-wheel drive weighed a hefty 4,233 pounds, and at times, the weight shifted awkwardly from side to side or front to back, keeping me a bit on edge.

The Journey's independent front MacPherson strut suspension and rear multilink setup managed to keep most road bumps away from passengers.

The Journey R/T had more mainstream power and steering characteristics.

Front seats were supportive and nicely positioned. Second-row seat cushions were a bit higher and took a bit more effort to get on. Those seats also slid fore and aft on tracks to help passengers adjust legroom between the second row and the optional third row.

I liked the convenience of the optional two child booster seats that were embedded in the second-row seats. They pulled out and down easily and then folded back out of the way. The two third-row passengers do sit with their knees up, and legroom back there is for kids at just 23.4 inches. (Toyota's Highlander offers 29.9 inches in the third row.)