2009 Dodge Journey R/T AWD Review

Earlier this year, I attended the North American launch of the Dodge Journey, and I must say that I was rather impressed with the company's new priced-right crossover vehicle.

The Journey offers itself up as the almost perfect family transportation device and, as I have already indicated, supplies excellent value for money. In fact, I see it as pretty much the modern interpretation of the well loved family minivan.

Times change and so did the minivan.

Having the Journey for a full week, I decided to explore that theory a little further, and this is what I discovered.

The Minivan, when it first came into existence, was a five passenger vehicle specifically designed for family transport. It worked well, in fact, so well that it became "the" vehicle of choice for families throughout North America.

Of course, times change and so did the minivan. It grew larger, and more seats were added, which enabled the average family to not only transport themselves, but also one or two of their friends.

"Now what does all this have to do with the new Dodge Journey?", I hear you asking, (Well I don't actually, but let's just imagine that you are). Well I'm glad you asked, because if you park the new Dodge Journey alongside the company's famous Dodge Caravan from the 90's, you'll be amazed at how close the two are in size.

In fact, in length, height, and even ground clearance, there's not that much difference so why is it this new vehicle is called a "crossover" and not simply a minivan?

Well, I guess that the "M" word has gone a little out of style over the past few years. Even though it was the perfect family vehicle, its association with that "F" word made it slightly un-cool. Yes, we all know how great and useful a minivan is, but do we really want to boast to our friends of actually owning one?

Enter the "crossover", which, in my mind, is one of the most confusing words in the industry today.

You can get into a brand new Dodge Journey from just $19,995.