So many car manufacturers recently have been doubling and tripling down on SUVs for their lineups. Looking at the best-selling vehicles in the United States, they do make up the majority of the top 25 bestsellers, so the instinct to go all in on these types of automobiles makes perfect business sense. Sometimes, the number of SUVs an automaker produces is twice as much as every other vehicle it makes combined. However, there are a few companies out there that still balance out their lineups well, such as Dodge. The company currently has four models available. Half of them are cars, and the other half are SUVs. However, they very well could have more SUVs than cars had they not decided to cease production of the Dodge Journey after the 2020 model year.
This was an SUV that first debuted for the 2009 model year. It was never at the forefront of the Dodge brand, but it did pretty decent business during its run, peaking during the 2015 and 2016 calendar years by selling over 100,000 units each. Ultimately, it was dropped, and the Dodge Durango became the only mid-size SUV it produced. However, that vehicle is not a crossover, and some people prefer that crossover look and feeling. Although the Dodge Journey is a vehicle we generally recommend avoiding on the used market, there are still a few years drivers think highly of. Here are three Journey model years to keep your eye on and three to stay far away from.
Best: 2013 Dodge Journey
TuRbO_J/Wikimedia
For the earliest model on this list, we are going to start off with the 2013 Dodge Journey. The vehicle got off to a more than rocky start back in 2009, and by this point in the SUV's life, most of those issues had been ironed out. If you examine the year-by-year numbers of submitted complaints by drivers on CarComplaints, you will see that this fifth year for the Journey easily has the lowest number until that point, and the complaints rise again for a few years afterward. In terms of complaints made to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), there is a total of 336 for this model year, which is a fraction of the amount that the SUV would get just a couple of years earlier.
Advertisement
Customer ratings for many of the Dodge Journey model years aren't exemplary, but the numbers for the 2013 model are pretty good, all things considered. Drivers on Edmunds have the lowest opinion of the car, with an overall average of 3.3 out of 5 stars. However, the sample size for these reviews is significantly smaller than you would find other places with just 39 reviews. Customers on Kelley Blue Book are somewhat more positive, averaging out to 3.7 stars, and that is based on 570 reviews, which is a much safer sample. Over 100 owners rated the 2013 Dodge Journey on Cars.com and are the most effusive,
