He is thinking it is the car for him, major downside they seem to eat tires and brakes, from some site, your thoughts? $5900, 125k miles 1 owner trade in. Carfax shows all recommended maintenance. His Trailblazer 2009 was totaled due to tbone, got 5k, so looking for a $5000 car,
Generally not a good choice, but if it has been well maintained it might be ok. Lots of transmission issues. Also make sure the timing belt has been done if it’s a V6.
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YES
Talk him out of buying the 2009 Journey
That couldn’t be clearer
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Had a rental 2019 last week, for a V6 the acceleration was pretty weak. The radio reception was dismal. Brakes were slow to respond if you really needed them. Not sure how much worse a 2009 would get. If he needs that size car, I see used Highlanders, circa 2005-2007 go for that. If not, maybe a GM product.
In Maine the floor pan is about ready for repair four years ago.
My vote would be to avoid this thing.
Now the sticky part. If you talk him out of it and he buys something else that turns out to be a major headache guess who will get blamed. You. It might be best to stay out of it or brush the Journey off with a casual not fond of them.
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OK4450 has the winning post .
Remember , no good deed goes unpunished
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“I wouldn’t buy it” is as far as I would go. It’s true, and you’re not telling him what to do.
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Just show him this: https://www.carcomplaints.com/Dodge/Journey/
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The condition of an almost 12 year old car is more important than the make. I have never owned a Dodge Journey, so I can’t comment about the reliability. My only experience was that I made a 375 trip in a 2017 Dodge Journey that we rented from Enterprise. I had reserved an SUV. The agent asked if a Dodge Journey.would be o.k. I said that I preferred a Sentimental Journey. He informed me that the Sentimental Journey had just been rented to Doris Day, so I had to take the Dodge Journey. I had no complaints as to how it drove on the interstate.
As far as the comment about the Dodge Journey eating tires, it isn’t the only vehicle that is hard on tires. I have a 2017 Toyota Sienna with 33,000 miles on the odometer. The tires will probably needed to be replaced before winter. On the 2011 Sienna that I previously owned, the tires were only good for about 35,000 miles. I have the tires rotated every 5000 miles and check the tire pressure weekly. It didn’t matter if the tires were Michelin or Firestone. The 2006 Chevrolet Uplander came with Goodyear tires and those tires were good for over 50,000 miles.
As I said earlier, I don’t know much about a Dodge Journey. I also don’t know what type of driving the friend of the OP will be doing.
The condition of an almost 12 year old car is more important than the make
ehhhhh…to a point. I’d take a 12-year-old Honda CR-V with 3 owners and 200k miles over a 12-year-old Dodge Journey in like-new condition that was used by a little old lady to go to church.
Condition is important, but even the best condition can’t eliminate issues that happen due to shoddy design and materials, and it seems like the 2009 Journey has a bunch of those.
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I decided not to mention anything except he was convinced it had 79k miles and the ad said 125k miles. I just asked if he was sure about the mileage. Not that 125k miles is bad.
@BikeGuy88. Have you owned a Dodge Journey? When a vehicle is 12 years old, ratings by Consumer Reports or other sources don’t mean much. The upkeep on a 12 year old Dodge Journey is probably cheaper than a twelve year old Mercedes, all things being equal. Vehicles in the $5000 bracket are transportation specials.
Back in 1954, my mother went back to work and my parents needed a 2nd car. The conventional wisdom was to buy a used Ford or Chevrolet, just as today the conventional wisdom would be to buy a used Civic or Corolla. Well, the used Fords and Chevrolets in the $500 price range were really used up. The used Fords and Chevrolets in good shape were out of dad’s price range.
For $325 he purchased a 1947 DeSoto coupe. The maroon paint was faded, but it ran perfectly and was very reliable. I was put to work with rubbing compound, polish and wax and in two days, the car looked great.
Now $500 in 1954 is probably like $5000 today for a car. The Dodge Journey may be a better value than a worn out Civic.
The biggest downside I saw is it eats brakes and tires, many complaints about 10k mile brake jobs needed, Trans next biggest complaint, but as mentioned previously buying something else on my recommendation could certainly turn out worse, so I wish him well with his vehicle.
I have not…have you? Just because I haven’t personally owned a Dodge Journey, and you have an anecdote about a DeSoto working well 65 years ago, doesn’t mean that a 12-year-old Dodge Journey isn’t generally a poor choice to put stock in. Again, it goes back to design…even a badly-designed car nowadays might last 12 years; but on some level, you’ll never be able to know for sure how many wheels/brakes/etc. a car has been through as a result of these design issue.
The 2009 Dodge Journey has design issues; there seems to be a preponderance of evidence in support of this. And if a car has problems early in its life due to design issues, it will have those problems for the rest of its life. Again, that seems to be the case from many of the issues and complaints that crop up with the Journey.
@BikeGuy88. I would like to see this evidence. I will only report on experiences of vehicles I have owned.
The important issue is how the friend of the OP plans to use the Dodge Journey. Will this be an “around town” car or will it be used for long distance travel or a long daily commute?
Any used car is a gamble. We have a long thread about the problems with a 2019 Toyota Highlander that has a CPO warranty.
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It will be a mostly around town car, and occasional field trips, like the one in a month to Oregon so we can deal with his recently deceased brother. I am thinking maybe we should take our 2017 rav4,
Better yet, show him this . . . because that’s the verdict
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He is in a world of hurt, paid with a check, then they asked for cashiers check, check from the insurance company did not clear yet, he is not sure if he wants to buy the car he does not really want, unless they give him $300 off as he was looking at trade in value, granted he had a concussion but so glad I am not in he middle of this! Just offered to let me help him if he needs. Driving a loaner car from the dealership, and had to pay rental car for 2 weeks, calling his lawyer to see if he can get out of the deal, what a mess.
I don’t agree with this. As a friend, you can certainly tell your friend to not buy such-and-such model because it is known to have issues. What you should not do is tell your friend to buy a specific model, or even worse, a specific vehicle from a specific seller. I would not buy a Journey either.
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