Dodge Journey test drive since 2008 SUV

Dodge Journey: Asphalt

If you want Dodge Journey from advertising billboards. That's just who he himself is: an exemplary family man or a wanderer who was eager for adventure, the successor of the legendary Voyager has not decided. We did it for him.
 
I had to do a lot. We disassembled and collected passenger chairs, loaded bags and looked for the limit of the man-slander that the thunder Journey really possesses.
The salon is, of course, the most significant trump card of this gigantic angular body.
Here you can sit down with the whole, and it will not be a painful torture! Beautiful in front: the chairs are well -stained well, quite gestures and have just imagine! tangible side support. Remember Voyager with an ottoman instead of a driver's workplace! I have one in the living room, in front of the TV and only there, and not in the car, he is the place.
Hard times
Setting up in the cozy chairs of the car dealership, we were waiting for the test Journey. At this time, fascinating news was uttered from the TV with drama: the US government recommends Chrysler to declare itself bankrupt
On Thursday, December 4, the head of Chrysler Bob Nardelli asked the US banking committee of the US Senate $ 7 billion to overcome the crisis. For this, the president and CEO promised to continue the restructuring that had begun, invest in the development of modern fuel saving technologies and begin to return the debt by 2012 ... The company has already reduced the constant costs of $ 2.4 billion and fired 32,000 people.
The case of auto giants and besides Chrysler, in a critical situation, GM and Ford were also caused by lively discussions in the US Senate, the result of which should be summed up in the coming days.
 
Journey is stricter in this regard: sharp faces and straight lines prevail in its interior, without traditional-American plush, which generally create a rather pleasant impression of the salon.
For the third row of seats, even armrests are provided, and the seats themselves cannot be called Spartan, but to get to the gallery, you need to work hard. Under the laughter of the photographer, my colleague and I took turns practicing in penetrating the rear sofa between the counter and the back of the second row. It is good that it is adjusted by inclination, and even the split managed to make the hole a little more, but still the movements were far from grace (see photo).
The crossover, the mini-wen in Chrysler, it seems that they themselves did not decide what they did, and the manager in the car dealership, echoed American bosses, called Journey this way and this way.
You look at the side of a good road clearance in 182 mm and it will seem that a crossover but when you look because of the steering wheel, doubts are melting: mini-wen! The lever of the checkpoint, carried back and inclined in the battleship, is very comfortable in his hands, and the driver himself sits high.
 
But what does it flicker before your eyes? The stingy scales of devices, with semicircular scales, are huddled in a rectangular plastic box. Near the cascading medium console it looks frivolous. Yes, and on it everything is pretty sparing and ordinary. Where is the style, where are the emotions?
Emotions, emotions where to get them? In a sluggish response to the gas pedal there is no, the steering wheel is pleasantly heavy, but the chassis is contraindicated in sharp maneuvers: the short nose of Journey is reluctant to command, the steering wheel is empty and makes you strain.
With a sharp acceleration, the time around Journey seems to freeze. The arrow is incredibly slowly crawling along a funny small speedometer dial, but under the hood of wow! 170 l. with., enclosed in a 2.4-liter volume! Not enough a herd? But the eldest in the line of the motor, although 300 cubes are larger, but only 15 liters more powerful. With. Will he really be noticeably cheerful?
Will be. Two additional cylinders do not just digest more fuel, the engine works with a six -speed automatic (instead of a four -speed car with a 2.4 l engine), which has a more advanced program of work and a close range of the first two programs (4.127 and 2.842, respectively), which should provide an easier start. If he, of course, will need the owner of Dodge Journey
 
We did not go off-road: so, we left the dirt from under the wheels in the wasteland. It was uncomfortable for us there: the rubber is civilian, the rod is not enough, the steering wheel becomes completely sluggish, the stabilization system does not gradually besiege the machine that has lost the trajectory, and tightly and tightly pinches the pads on the disks when you want to get out of the skid yourself.
It turns out funny: you smoothly go to the arc, reach the apex and stop, as if dug! No, in the mud Journey and the very bad thing. Sloped, settled, grinded and overheated the pads. It would be better if we further loaded something into it and transformed the salon
Despite all this, Journey liked. And let him brazenly claims to be versatile, we understood: his element begins where they do not know about the demographic crisis, they like to take their beloved mother-in-law and dog on the picnic, and they spend the weekend in the country. That is, they know how to live positively.
 
And all this with one indispensable condition: the presence of asphalt. Not a Dodge Journey crossover, we decided for him, whatever one may say.

Text: Alexander Mikhailov
Photo: Roman Ostanin

 
 
 

 

Source: Wheel magazine [December 2008]