Dodge Journey Problems

Even though the Journey was not a particularly popular model in Australia, I’m still a bit surprised that we don’t get this question a bit more often. Because the answer is a real doozie. While a lot of car-makers find that underbonnet space is too limited to place a battery, some resort to locating the battery either under a seat inside the car or in the boot. But not Dodge in the case of the Journey.

To access the battery in that case, you need to jack up the car, remove the front passenger’s wheel, peel back the plastic inner-guard and there, behind the corner of the front bumper, you will find the battery. For jump starting a car with a flat battery, Dodge placed a positive and negative terminal in the engine bay near the front-left suspension tower, and you’ll identify the positive by a small, red plastic cap with a `+’ moulded into it.

Definitely not the Journey; the Territory is solid and good value; but my current favourite in the class is the Kia Sorento. It gets The Tick and is well worth the extra, even though the starting price of $40,990 is well beyond the $33,500 base of the Journey.

Brake wear is a serious problem with the Journey as we reported in  our used car review recently. Your experience is common. Some owners have had success in getting Chrysler to cough up for the new pads and rotors when their cars are under warranty, like yours is, so I would continue to press your case with the company. The unfortunate thing  is that you can expect to have to replace the brakes at regular intervals of the sort you've already experienced for the life of the car. I would suggest legal action if you feel strongly about it.