Reader Review of the Week: 2009 Dodge Journey

The Journey handles very well. I can’t wait to put on some new tires and see how well it does. Even over railroads, the car is smooth. With the 19-inch tires, the car is a little harder to steer in parking lots. I drove another SXT with 17-inch wheels, and there is a big difference. Overall the car is a very smooth ride, like I would expect a luxury car to be.

The features with the radio are very nice. I love the satellite radio and being able to insert six CDs.

Being able to have seven seats is awesome. I took six people on a short trip to the airport and with one seat folded down could fit all the luggage.

Here are the cons, which are mostly small but can be annoying:

The comfort of the armrest is not good. My elbows were sore since I usually rest them on the armrest on the door and middle for long trips. The hard plastic for that was a bummer. I’m going to look into getting some kind of pad for that.

The interior pieces are cheap. The mirror flap on the passenger-side sun visor already broke. The rearview mirror in the roof does not usually work when you try and see your kids in the backseat.

Also, the pocket in the middle on top of the dash usually has a very hard time closing.

The biggest problem I have is that we have three kids and one in a rear-facing car seat. There is just not enough room to put the car seat on either side of the second row. Since we are a tall family, our seats hit the car seat no matter where we put it. Even in the middle it feels like it takes up the whole second row.

Also, if you have it in the middle you can’t easily fold down the side seats to get the other children in the back. Now of course all this will be solved once our baby is big enough for facing forward and in a booster seat, but at the moment it is very annoying. If you have a car seat just be prepared.