Most of our cars through the years have been Chrysler?Dodge and have proven to be very satisfactory. We recently sold our 04 Caravan which had proven to be a great vehicle and we bought the latest Grand Caravan with the tow package. This latest vehicle has towed our new small trailer through the Rocky Mountains both ways and this trip took 2 months and 15000km. Nothing went wrong with it. I am sorry to hear about the problems previously mentioned with the Journey but there is no need for others to pour bad rhetoric on this domestic company out of hand because of this. Satisfied customers are seldom heard from.
One would have thought though that there should be rules about replacing seriously flawed new vehicles with new ones and have done with the customer "loosing" dealership frustrating nonsense. Nobody wins in situations like this and no money is saved.
If you don't opt for the third row seat does it come with a lined well and cover for out of sight storage. I see that tow rating is 3500 with no mention of tow package. Agree about the instruments. This seems to be a case where the useless tach could have been left off for certain and the room used for a better speedo. Six speeds on the 3.5 engine is good especially for towing. If this is the engine that was in my Intrepid Sport, then I found it OK. I think that the Caravan is a better buy though. The latest version is well worth a look and it comes with a great 3.3 to start with.
I don't like the central seat dividing console and stick shift in the Journey (for what except appearance) Read restricted movement and space robbing. The dash mounted lever on the Caravan is a far better design. 'There was nothing wrong with the column shift in my opinion'. This frees up the floor and, if you have an extra long piece of wood to carry, you can slide it in there. (The little floor mounted Caravan cup holder is in the basement) The Journey is a utility vehicle, amongst other things, not a sporting device. The 'yes essentials' material I find to be nice. (where did that name come from)
