regfootball

I guess I have had not much time to complete this. So I will give a brief rundown. Tested, new Journey SXT AWD v6. No idea on price / MSRP. A quick build and price shows it's around 27 MSRP. This was a base SXT with no other options. HIGHS Sweet Pentastar v6 and responsive tranny. Plenty of power, and very smooth. Surprisingly good observed mileage (at least for my driving) Room and space, legs, shoulders, head A nice tweener size (in between the Traverses and Kia Sportages of the world). Still manueverable. Visibility is very good and lots of glass, no bunker feel Nice looking new front beak. Very quiet inside at all speeds, a major improvement in this area. Very well done new design interior. Attractive plastics and cloth. Vastly improved console / center stack. Some climate and radio controls they left buttons for! Nice cargo area (Equinox are you listening) Many crossover / SUV fans will like the seating height and position with it's height and uprightness. A couple unsuspected amenities like pushbutton start and dual zone climate. Priced very well, MSRP and actual prices after rebate Lighted cupholder! Very good vehicle at basic function Shares the showroom with the minivans, which it probably takes some sales from. Don't stop Believin LOWS Occassional driveline lash or jerkiness. Cruise control was a bit mishappen a few times, slow to react etc. The seat, despite looking uber comfy and well shaped, actually hurt my back and butt. It is possible other shapes of people, this may not be the case. Seat was hard, not shaped right for me, and I wonder if it will break in or break down. Legacy of some poor ergonomics before, cupholders are down low and obscure a valuable storage bin. Armrest lacks some padding, and shifter is kind of far back. You sit on, instead of in. Side mirrors need more area or width and don't give much confidence for where the cars behind you are...they conspire with the pillars to have some pretty large blind spots at times A nice looking touch screen, and this is a common complaint across many makes now, but why do we need to go through so many menus to adjust tone or other radio and climate functions? Push button start, touch screens, and dual zone climate, but no bluetooth and power seat? No auto headlamps? Yes it's all optional, but still...... I am not a fan of buttons on the backside of the steering wheel, I prefer all the buttons on the front where I can see them. Color touchscreen display is nice idea, but this one is pretty small. DATED STYLING, aside from the new beak. Not at all in the current group of sexy. It also looks more like a wagon than a crossover. Suspension occassionally felt unrefined and choppy. Over time I think this thing will feel trucky. Steering felt dead and slow, this is not a bad driving SUV but its not really much to write home about either (although it probably drives nicer than an Equinox perhaps). Doesn't really feel 'all of a piece' at times. Glossy silver dash features reflect up into your eyes when the sun is out. (Problem on may vehicles now I bet) Gauge faces, while styled fancy, lack crispness in edges and colors and lighting, enough so that the information is not always clear at a quick glance. They are too busy. I don't like pontiac excitement red lighting either. Sound system is weak as far as speakers. Despite the touchscreen and steering wheel, it would still help to have a few more radio buttons on the center stack. Same for climate. Where were the rear cupholders? OK I did not search for them. The two on the center stack were good but the ones in the front door tilt forward (no way to put a 70% full coffee in the door for later and not have it spill all over). Shares the showroom with the minivans, which it probably loses some sales to. Overall lacks style, glitz, and does not make up for that with any noticeable road pizazz either. The band doesn't come with. SUMMARY I enjoyed my time (400 miles) with this rig. As a family guy, having had crossovers for many years now, the function they provide is wonderful. But at the same time, they can be dull to drive. Any crossover you evaluate these days has to focus more on function. Yet sometimes you still want something fun to drive. I think the Journey meets criteria that a lot of folks want these days for a family hauler, and they have been able to do this by correcting a lot of the older model's huge flaws. I know what those flaws were because we also have an older Journey in our fleet, which I have driven before. The improvements are vast.....powertrain, front styling, interior.....so I view this as as close to a new model as you can get. Kudos for all that it does do. Roomy and quiet, does feel stable and secure on the road. Visibility mostly is good. Plenty of power, smooth, and if you treat it nicely, it will get good mpg. The price is very good, and it makes a great buy vs. a lot of the smaller crossovers that might seem more glitzy or cost more. Or you can save a ton of money vs. some larger competitors and get a good chunk of their room and space in a less bulky package. I think for me, I would lean to giving this my typical B+, except that I really do think the dated style and slight clunkiness and old age feel here and there make it a B to me. It does excel in function, and it a good competitor vs. say, an Equinox. Likewise it is a good alternative toward spending a bunch more on a Traverse, for example. I would rather have an Edge than this, and probably a Sorento also. In some ways, the Sorento has age and dated feel against it also, but it drives a bit nicer. Just a bit. Even though I give this a B, it hits home runs in basic value and function, and is quiet and smooth, and by all means that means a lot more to many people than the steering and suspension feeling a bit unrefined at times. Props to Chrysler for big improvements and now let's hope a replacement is on the way to clean up the really old looking station wagon style.

did you do your survey yet? that is when the customers get back at the salespeople....... the salesperson has as part of the task list to set the first service appt, and sometimes there are quotas or bonuses the mfrs set for that first service return percentage. Some sales dudes either then genuinely forget, or are too busy to follow up. If they sold the car on a busy day, they may have simply lost the info or did not turn it in. Sometimes the sales guy turns over the info, and service chokes on it. No excuses really, but the process sometimes is not terribly seamless. Sometimes it is so filled with garbage tasks that it takes away from your ability to service your sales also.

This is a little bait and switch. Release the car with the higher mpg motor, and then gradually ramp up the percentage of the motor you think more people will buy / want. The 1.4 remains for advertising and the fuel thrifty.

Lincoln needs to stay, but they are in a serious hurt bag right now. I do think an MKc could turn it around for them.. MKz needs a huge interior upgrade to get the job done. If i were Ford, I would gash MKz and MKs prices to get a few more in the market short term.

the 28.5 was achieved with the engine turning about 1500 rpm..at 60 mph. 5 mph was like 1750 rpm. pentastar is not gobs of torque, it's sort of like GM's 3.6...needs a bit to wake up and get in the powerband.

40 miles this morning, a lot at 75mph. about 21 mpg. A little more aggressive with the smooth v6. Pentastar is really sweet.

not much time to get into it now, but the return leg, 150 miles, mostly at 60mph with some stops and slowdowns, 2 hours 45 min, 28.5 mpg. No shee-ite. 28.5 mpg from a v6 AWD crossover that is fairly large. This vehicle is capable of very good mpg.

There's a new car in my driveway! And it has new car smell! (disclaimer, it's my companies car) Full day test drive tomorrow! Got about 25 mpg with it on a 40 mile sprint tonight........

coolness.

Does the BMW Crosstour make the list?

if someone wanted to throw away an assload of money, they should buy my house. Oh wait, i already subsidized that loss. what is the end of Tesla? At what level of sales and models do they either choke under their own weight, or get bought up (inevitable).

Can they fix the ugly on them before they introduce them?

by the way, the 300 is a perfect car to offer the diesel on. I bet it would hum wonderfully at speed.

http://green.autoblog.com/2013/04/02/diesel-benefits-shrink-gas-engines-fuel-efficient-torque/ 5 grand more! I think that is crap, but apparently in the US, it costs so much more! The old bull$h! was that it was because of the emissions, then it was because the diesel had a turbo. But a garden variety Cruze has a turbo, so does that wash? Apparently I think the new Mazda diesel uses the same block as the gas. WHERE EXACTLY IS THE EXPENSE?

Some nice $h! going on in this thread.

And of course, our resident C/G'er and his diesel....

chinese buy

glad they tweaked the interior. Nice improvements.

sweet

terrible. sat in a new RAV4 at the auto show. HARD PLASTIC ugly inside. I can't see this being very nice inside either.

one chinese buffet i used to frequent, even that family bought a used BMW X5 when they struck it big.....they didn't even gaux faux

If i ever were looking at Bimmers, I would seriously consider the diesel route.

Love that screaming chicken on the airbag cover...LMAO Sat in one at the autoshow. Joke interior. How can anyone take this car seriously? The interior updates look improved but if it is the same level of interior materials and such, it will still look like a dollar store version of a real lux car. I guess if you hit a goldmine in the chinese buffet business, you might be the market for this car because i fail to see anyone else who would pony up for this.

Z28 is a well done package. Doubt you will find one out there without the A/C at a dealer. Not a fan of the the new front and rear though. And they didn't fix the crappy interior. Think of how long this car has languished with its killer exterior and amazing hardware, to be crippled with the junk interior design theme.

Certainly fugly......however, it seems they did a reasonably nice job on the interior. Perhaps if they change the front end and make it nice, it will do alright. Cherokee still is a poor choice for this vehicle, raiding the good brand image/equity of something it is clearly not.