Before Daimler got rid of Chrysler, there was a team in DaimlerChrysler Malaysia (now known as Mercedes-Benz Malaysia) studying the possibility of introducing the Chrysler brand here in Malaysia, and other marques within the Chrysler group. If that happened, one of the vehicles that could have found its way onto our roads would be this.
Introduced at the 2007 Frankfurt Auto Show, the Dodge Journey only went on sale to the public in March this year in the US, and soon in Europe as well. The Journey is based on an extended D-segment Dodge Avenger platform and its wheelbase measures a long 2891mm, providing excellent interior room for its three rows of 7 seats.
Under the hood is a choice of engines including the 173 horsepower 2.4 litre GEMA engine that is also found in cars like the Hyundai Sonata and Mitsubishi Outlander, a 235 horsepower 3.5 litre V6 and a 190 horsepower 2.7 litre V6.
It’s trademark Dodge muscular and boxy styling gives people an alternative to all the more sedate-looking soccer mom MPVs out there. Threatening to ruin ride comfort are large 19 inch wheels with low profile tyres. The car is front wheel driven by default but all-wheel drive is available.
Look for more hi-res photos after the jump.
PHOTO GALLERY: Dodge Journey
Click thumbnails to view high resolution photo
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After dabbling for years in the IT industry, Paul Tan initially began this site as a general blog covering various topics of personal interest. With an increasing number of readers paying rapt attention to the motoring stories, one thing led to another and the rest, as they say, is history. An avid electronic gadget aficionado as well as big-time coffee lover, he's also the executive producer of the Driven motoring TV programme.
Oh man! That looks really sweet… quite a handsome and spacious vehicle I must say. The grille is just so Dodge, something we don’t see here that often, other than the Chrysler Voyager… The pepsi holder’s cool imho
wondering when Chrysler will come into malaysia? been waiting for this brand quite a while. initially was mid of 2007 but no news until now. hopefully this brand can give a choice for consumer btw Japanese and Continental cars..
VW Touareg buttocks… Overall looks like an SUV, a Vauxhall Sintra replacement model?
looks nice. if the mercedes team handled the aftersales, it’ll also be a viable addition to the market (unfortunately the mercedes-chrysler marriage is no more) but will ‘asian’ minded malaysians accept an american brand and leave all their negative hang ups about non asian cars behind? i don’t think malaysians will give it a chance.
I love Chrysler 300C and Dodge Charger. They are both so nice. Hope Chrysler will bring their car to Malaysia.
the plastics are terrible
Im not usually a fan of Dodge designs but this is a deal maker.
Not sure with interior quality though.
yeah, but so is the plastics of the hummer and that is going for about 400k. yet, there are people buying it instead of used cayennes cos it is bought purely for image. i like the new charger too. see those in lots of american movies. managed to see a real one as a cop car when i was in mexico last year. it looked real mean. plastic quality? nah i’m not too concerned. imho, those cars are bought purely for image and their mean looks!
smallest engine is a 2.7 all the way up to a 6.1. I think the smaller engine models will be an interesting bet for our market. depends on 2 things. whether there is an importer to bring these cars in and 2, thether malaysians take to muscle car culture or not (imho, not in the engine but the way it looks and drives).
they have the avenger in the uk too. smaller engine (2.0 and 2.4) but still has a hint of muscle car look.
the only dodge/chrysler models i like are the 300C, Charger, Ram and Viper…all almost impossible to sell here unfortunately
Don’t forget to bring in the 300C too…
if that happened, dont forget to bring in Viper, Magnum and the beautifuuuul Chrysler 300C…..
300C is a real bad aXX machine that is just so cool. I’m sure some may just buy it to break out of the norm (meaning the e-class and 5 series). dynamically it can’t match those established german cars but attitude wise, it’s way meaner!
but the viper and bigger ones will probably sell in low volumes due to their very big engines.
I see there are some interest of the Dodge brand from the Malaysians. It will be interesting how much would it cost to buy one after all the taxes and stuff. However, Chrysler has a lot of quality & reliability problems and in the US rumors are flying around that they’re going to go bankrupt. Chrysler is known in the US as how Proton is known in Malaysia. It would be interesting to see how Malaysians react towards this brand.
Can’t agree more with dodge, it’s making really bad car that Daimler would have force to drop them out.
Few of my colleAnd try some of the Chrysler here in US, it really does not show it’s quality, especially the interior. Some of the plastic are really like paste into it. whenever there’s shutting door, you could hear the squeezing nice. And the smell is awfull when heat under the sun.
gosh. that awful huh. will be quite funny for a muscle car to have the parts fall off!!
car maybe too powerful!
Nice vehicle – loads of room in there to pile allthe kids gear in
This is probably better than the old overweight Pacifica. Perhaps should be viwed as the Pacifica MkII.
I’m a bit partial to the Dodge Magnum SRT8 myself. Now, thats something different. I’ve seen 1 300C pottering around before.
Chrysler has had some decent cars before. In the late 80s and early 90s, they had a slew of Japanese compacts based on Mitsus, much like Proton. One to the stars of the day was the Eclipse/Talon twins(or triplets if you count in the short lived Plymouth Laser). It was something even Japan didn;t have, a good looking sporty 2 door fastback coupe running on Galant VR4 engines and drivetrains. A 2 door EVO if you could.
Very clean cut design. A boys car!