Dodge Journey 2.0 CRD SXT manual Road Test Report

Performance

The 2-litre CRD Journey uses the same 138bhp diesel found in the smaller Jeep Patriot. In the Patriot the motor is eager and willing, but in the bigger, heavier Journey it’s less impressive. With performance figures of 11.6secs to 62mph and a max of 116mph, the six-speed Journey is ultimately only fractionally slower than the Patriot, but for reasons unknown the Journey’s engine also feels less refined and sounds noisier, whether inside or out. That said, the Journey can still eat up motorway miles at a fair pace without getting breathless, but ‘performance’ isn’t this model’s strong suit.

Ride & Handling

The Journey isn’t the sort of car that begs to be driven hard, because lithe and nimble it is not. It steers reasonably, but feel at the wheel is a little remote. Although circumstances on this test didn’t allow for bouts of spirited cornering, I strongly suspect that there’d be some vaguely uncomfortable body-roll long before the tyres started to squeal. The Journey’s ride quality is decent though – its suspension adequately dealt with both ripples on the motorway and genuine Belgian cobblestones, but it’s difficult to describe it here as anything other than average.

Build Quality & Reliability

Importantly, nothing squeaked, rattled, came loose or broke while the car was in my care, and there was nothing I found that indicated that any such thing would happen even over a much longer period of time. But unlike most European- or Far Eastern-built cars, the Journey doesn’t exude a feeling of high quality. Although the dash is soft to the touch, many of the plastics used look a bit cheap, as does the peculiarly designed instrument binnacle. Still, at least it’s all covered by Dodge’s 3-year/60,000m warranty.

Safety & Security

No EuroNCAP star ratings to report here as the Journey hasn’t been crash-tested by that organisation yet, but the car has a modern and sophisticated bodyshell as well as a long list of standard safety items including: multi-stage front airbags, front seat-mounted side airbags, side-curtain airbags for all three rows, ABS with brake assist, ESP with traction control, hill start assist, electronic roll mitigation, trailer sway control, tyre pressure monitoring and side impact protection in front and rear doors. A ‘Sentry Key’ theft deterrent system and security alarm are also standard.

Space & Practicality

Here’s where the Journey starts to really make sense. Firstly there’s what Dodge calls ‘stadium seating’, which means that the second-row seats are 40mm higher than the first row – allowing kids a better view, and the third row seats are 17mm higher again. The second row seats slide fore and aft while under the front-row seats there are two handy storage bins (with another bin right at the back). The middle row seat cushions easily fold upward which allows the whole seat unit to conveniently slide forward, either for more loadspace or to allow easier access to the third row seats. The 50/50 split/folding third-row provides enough room for two adult passengers over a shortish distance and if you have small kids you’ll appreciate the child observation mirror and cloth upholstery that’s stain and odour resistant... Boot capacity ranges from 303-litres to a cavernous 1,914.

Ownership & Value

At comfortably under £20k the SXT is a lot of car for the money, and for a couple of grand more you can have Dodge’s comprehensive multimedia infotainment system. The combined fuel consumption figure is 43.5mpg – impressive for a car of this size, CO2 at 186g/km is reasonable too, and Glasses Guide experts have predicted that the Journey SXT will be worth an impressive 41% of its purchase price in three years time. So, if you’ve got a few kids and need a practical family bus that doesn’t look like a bus, then you could do worse.