Dodge Journey Reviews

Original review: I have had the overall most dissatisfying experience at this dealership and with this vehicle. I purchased a Dodge Journey from Cherry Hill Dodge in December of 2021 from Jayson. He sold me a complete lemon. A couple days after purchase I had a tire blow out and also electrical issues which resulted in me having to get a new battery and tire. It was working fine for a little while until March. My radio would randomly stop working, car wouldn’t lock and car started overheating. I took it to some local mechanic and they said I have a leak and replaced my radiator. In June my car wouldn’t turn on, I got it jumped and took it to Midas. They replaced the battery, again. In September I took it to Cherry Hill Dealership. They had my vehicle for 2 weeks and they replaced the radiator, water pump, and thermostat and some hoses. As soon as I drove it off the lot it began overheating.

I contacted Cherry Hill Dodge again and they told me to bring it back that Friday and I did. They had my vehicle for weeks leading into October. They did some other work on the vehicle and then was released to me October 12. Again after driving off the lot it began overheating again, I called back and they told me to drop it back off the next day. I was given a beautiful rental that the manager Roko offered me since I expressed how difficult it is for me to get to work and home for weeks without my vehicle. It was to my knowledge that he said that they are responsible for the payments. I dealt with Roko for the majority of my service experience. In the beginning he seemed to be very helpful and very understanding but throughout this process I have called every day trying to get information about the vehicle. I was told I would get calls back I never received.

I’ve been hung up on numerous times after being put on hold for over an hour several times. I even involved my mother and grandmother to see if someone would answer them because they wouldn’t correspond with me. It was interfering with my finances, job and other people I had to ask for rides. I called Roko and finally spoke to him, he said that he was waiting for the warranty assessor to come out and once they contact Dodge after they assessed the vehicle he would let me know. That day they came out but he didn’t call me, I found out because my mom called for me and told me what he said. He said that he just needs my permission to tear down my engine because if the warranty company doesn’t cover it I will be responsible for the tear down and reassembly of my engine which would be almost $3000. I tried contacting him back to tell him to not tear it down and I’ll figure it out.

He didn’t answer so I called again the next day and let him know. He told me I can come the following day to pick up my vehicle. When I got to the dealership I expressed I was billed $500 from Enterprise and that I was told that they were responsible for the rental payments. He argued with me, flipped the script on me, called me a liar, told me I haven’t called… it got the point his supervisor intervened. His name is Chris, Chris assured me that he would handle the rental situation and that I was good to go. Since October my car has been overheating and now it’s December and it finally stopped working. I called back to the Cherry Hill dealer, spoke to Chris and he was very aggressive and dismissive on the phone when I expressed everything I been through with the company and to no avail I was brushed away and was told he basically can’t help me.

I called around, researched what I can do because I feel like I was scammed at this dealership and with this car. I finally contacted someone from consumer affairs and expressed my experience. Today Chris called me expressing he was contacted by Consumer Affairs and they basically said that he has to help me. Hopefully this goes well because I’m financially, physically and mentally exhausted from this whole experience.

I took the car back to the dealership where I purchased it and they did a diagnostic which showed no problem but the problem persist. I had two other diagnostics done by other car services and they found nothing. On June 20, 2022, I called the corporate office and found out they have technicians that can assist Dodge dealership technicians in diagnosing what is wrong with a car. Something that should have been done in February when I first took my car there. Now they are looking for me to pay another dianostic fee. Very unfair.

Bads: We bought it new, 2016. Car was great. Except twice the engine stopped on the highway at 90km/h and the steering wheel was blocked. First time, service said it's a coding problem, and I should come back ONLY if this "problem" persists. Thank GOD it "persisted", the engine stalled again, same speed, middle of the road where everyone is driving at max. Thank GOD it was during the day and other cars noticed us and stopped. In reality that was a life/death situation. Anyway - this time service Turned OFF those codes. Another thing - I have to rebalance the wheels every 4-5 months.

Goodies: Now 5 years, we are still alive and the car is great. Absolutely not one problem. None. Nada (except the rebalancing).

Why we want another car? Third row is really small. But compared to the reviews for Quest or Odyssey that we are reading here, our Journey is a sweety.

Suggestions: The car dealership we bought it from are all a group of liars, manipulators, cheaters and real thieves. Using psychological manipulation techniques to sell cars. ALWAYS buy a new car with someone else beside you. I actually believed that I’m buying a 20K car, but it's actually a 46K.

We used the crane to move the car to the dealer (Arrigo Sawgrass), they said that the problem was in the head gasket engine, for some reason it broke and the oil was mixing with the coolant. That mix (refrigerant with oil) was in the refrigerant system as a pressure cooker boiling and suddenly exploded. The engine temperature was normal, the sensors did not send any warnings and that vehicle does not have temperature sensors for hoses or other elements.

The dealer sent us a quote for the repair, around $10,000. The car has 60,000 miles and the 5-year warranty ended in May 2020, so we are out of warranty for four months. The warranty for this model is 5 years or 100,000 miles. We talked to Dodge and they didn’t offer us any solution. They don't care about the Corona pandemic and the whole time the car was without use. I checked other Dodge Journey reviews online and this car's overheating seems to be a known issue. We can draw some conclusions from what happened.

4. Why, if the overheating problem is a known issue, they are still selling this model? This model should be withdrawn from the market.

We are not going to pay 10,000 to fix the car and we talked with the Arrigo´s Manager (Dealer) and he said that the best solution would be to take the car as trade for another car… they offered us $1,200… no comments. We are really upset by this experience and disappointed by the low reliability of Dodge.

Original Review: Bought a 2015 Dodge Journey with 42000 miles. 5 days after my purchase the transmission failed. Had to explain to the dealer 2 different times what happened before the failure. Took them 2 weeks to tell me they needed to install a new transmission but that they needed authorization from Chrysler to replace it. Then come to find out they are on backorder.... And they have no idea when they will get the part.

I picked up my car to find the check engine light still on!! Sellenriek shut the check engine light off and told me to come back in when it came back on. I came back two days later for them to say they didn't know what was wrong but that my car was safe to drive. I had to take a trip 170 miles away the next day and Sellenriek said that my car would be fine on the highway... Wrong!! It wouldn't start when I attempted to return home. I had to have my car towed to Beachler's Vehicle Repair in Peoria Illinois. They installed a new starter: $637.12 on 12/9/19.

With my having spent $5244.04 within a span of a month, I decided to take it in to the local Dodge dealership. David Taylor Royal Gate Dodge in Ellisville Missouri charged me $162 to diagnose my check engine light issue and tell me they didn't know what was wrong but for an additional $512 they could open up my engine and tell me how much more money I would need to spend.

I don't know what to do. Should I go on and keep throwing money into this car? I called Dodge Corporate and they said that because my repairs hadn't been at a Dodge dealership, there's nothing they can do. I just asked that they would tell me what's wrong with the vehicle without charging me additional diagnostic fees. I'll pay any additional repair fees. They declined. I have paid $5406.04 in repair costs in the last month and a half. My engine is loud and the the check engine light remains on. NO one can tell me what's wrong but everyone seems eager to take my money. I am so angry, broke, and disgusted! I would suggest that no one ever buys a Dodge Journey (unless you wanna buy mine!)!!

The minor disappointments that I can live with are that the heated seat function doesn't always work. Sometimes I cut it on and it goes right back out. Other days it works fine. Haven't taken the time to figure that out. The Uconnect doesn't display info from the stream but I understand later models do. Lastly, there's definitely NOT a 20 gallon gas tank as advertised in here. I've researched many different comments on this without a definitive answer. Max I get is about 15 gallons in when I fill up. City mileage is a little disappointing at about 17mpg but Hwy is pretty decent at about 22-24mpg. Overall I went from liking it to really liking it. Quiet engine, handles well with the sport suspension, and a very roomy and user-friendly interior.