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With Chrysler now under control of Europe’s Fiat, and its immediate future assured, we can relax and concentrate on the vehicles this venerable automaker has in its current stable of products.
And despite the anti-American-automaker ravings we keep seeing and hearing in various media, there are some quite nice vehicles in the Chrysler lineup, which also includes the Dodge and Jeep brands.Among the best of this automaker’s 2009 lineup is the Dodge Journey midsize crossover.Built on a unibody chassis, the Journey – which arrived last year as an ’09 model – joins the growing cadre of crossovers on the market, a segment that is growing rapidly as consumers move away from traditional SUVs.Crossovers are the hottest family-haulers on the market, mostly because of their fuel economy, which generally is much better than that of the truck-based SUVs that were so popular for more than a decade.The Journey comes in three trim levels, the base SE, midlevel SXT and uplevel R/T, and prices range from $20,925 (plus $675 freight) for the SE to $29,335 for the R/T all-wheel-drive model.Our tester was the SXT with front-wheel drive, whose base price is $23,925. With freight and options, the test vehicle rang up at $27,110, but it came with the key amenities that most consumers want. Journey compete against such popular crossovers as the Ford Edge, Toyota Highlander, Honda Pilot and Nissan Murano, but unlike the Edge and Murano, it can hold up to seven people when equipped with the third row of seating.In that regard, it also competes to some degree against the larger crossovers such as the Chevrolet Traverse and Ford Flex.The Journey joined the compact Nitro as the second crossover model in the Dodge lineup. The Nitro essentially is a version of the second-generation Jeep Liberty, although Dodge dealers got the vehicle first as a 2007 model. The new Liberty arrived for 2008.All three are built on unibody designs, rather than using the body-on-frame arrangement of traditional truck-based SUVs. But the Nitro has a more-rugged appearance than the softer-styled Journey, and both the Nitro and Liberty have room only for five.Dodge aimed the Journey at a broad range of consumers, from young singles and couples to families and even empty nesters, many of whom have grandchildren and occasionally need the third seat. As with most three-seat vehicles in this class, the third row is limited to two people and is best suited for children.Five adults can sit relatively comfortably in the first two rows, although the middle seat would be better for just two on a long trip. Cargo space abounds, including bins in the floor and under the front passenger-seat cushion. In the floor behind the front-row seats are storage bins that can hold 12 cans of beverage — on ice. They are waterproof and have latchable lids and removable, washable liners, making them essentially built-in coolers.Among the Journey’s standard safety features are front seat-mounted side air bags, roof-mounted side-curtain air bags for all three rows, four-wheel antilock disc brakes and electronic stability control with rollover mitigation.
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