3 Of The Best Years For The Dodge Journey, And Some To Avoid (According To Owners)

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.

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.

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, giving it 4.3 stars. This is easily the best option for the first half of the vehicle's run.

[Featured image by TuRbO_J via Wikimedia Commons | Cropped and scaled | CC BY 2.0]

We jump three years ahead in time for the next Dodge Journey recommendation on the list. While the previous entry was a recommendation, there were some small reservations about that 2013 model. With the 2016 Dodge Journey, there is much less equivocating that needs to be done to justify getting yourself one on the used market. Right off the bat, we see some improvements based solely on the ratings of drivers across the Internet. The one exception to that is owners rating the vehicle on Kelley Blue Book, as they maintained a 3.7 out of 5-star average for this model year. Over on Edmunds, the numbers improved significantly, bumping the average to a full 4 stars, the first model year of the Journey to do so. Once again, Cars.com customers are the highest in their praise, with 4.4 stars worth of approval.

The 2016 Dodge Journey has a smaller number of reports on CarComplaints compared to the 2013, with just 43 total complaints, half the total from just two years earlier. The number of complaints issued to the NHTSA were also lower than they were in 2013, accumulating 340 total complaints. Along with that, we see the very same number of recalls issued for the vehicle as well, with just four. The 2016 Dodge Journey was able to right the ship after a couple of down years to be a solid vehicle once again.

For the final positive recommendation on this list, we go to the penultimate model year for the Dodge Journey. Only 44 complaints have been submitted to the NHTSA. Considering that the other recommendations on this list had complaint totals north of 300, this is a tremendous step in the right direction. Granted, much less time has elapsed since this vehicle's introduction, but considering this also includes zero recalls, the lack of complaints seems completely justified. There are even less over on CarComplaints, as this model year has only earned five. Clearly, drivers are seeing their SUVs hold up to scrutiny.

This reliability probably plays a big reason as to why the 2019 Dodge Journey also has some great overall ratings from drivers too. Customers on Kelley Blue Book have remained remarkably consistent, giving this an average of 3.7 out of 5 stars. The ratings on Cars.com average out to 4.3 stars, and the drivers over on Edmunds give this the highest rating for any model year with 4.2 stars. According to drivers, the 2019 Dodge Journey is the best one.

Now, we move on to the negative half of this list. Narrowing this down to just three model years was a little difficult because drivers have never been all too kind to the Dodge Journey on the whole, but there are a few model years that are undeniable stinkers. Nowhere is that more crystal clear than with the very first year. The 2009 Dodge Journey arrived and was immediately met with poor reception from purchasers.

Drivers who have been surveyed by J.D. Power gave the 2009 Dodge Journey a quality and reliability score of 59 out of 100. If you examine the data collected by J.D. Power, you will notice that the drivers it surveys are fairly forgiving and positive across the board compared to ratings from other sources. A 75 quality and reliability rating would be less than mediocre, so a 59 is downright abysmal.

The number of complaints levied against the model bear this out too. Over 970 complaints have been posted by drivers on CarComplaints, which is far and away the most for any model year. Even more reports have been made to the NHTSA, with 1,586 complaints total. According to drivers, the 2009 Dodge Journey stands among the most avoidable Dodge models of all time.

[Featured image by IFCAR via Wikimedia Commons | Cropped and scaled | Public Domain]

You would hope that after such a terrible beginning, Dodge would have made some improvements by the time the 2010 Journey rolled around. That was not the case. While the ratings were overall higher and the number of complaints were down in comparison to the 2009 model, this is merely damning it with faint praise, as the number of issues drivers found with the 2010 model are still quite high. The 2010 Journey has accrued the second most complaints submitted by drivers on CarComplaints with 497. Premature brake wear was the number one issue, and various electrical system problems were not too far behind that. The number of complaints to the NHTSA was even higher, at 1,071.

The reliability rating for the 2010 Dodge Journey is just as terrible, too. This model year received a 59 out of 100 quality and reliability score from J.D. Power drivers, contributing to an overall rating of 69 that is only one point higher than the previous year. It comes nowhere near making the top ten SUVs of its class for the 2010 model year from the organization, either, considering the overall score for the last entry on that list is 82. These two rough early years make it clear why the Dodge Journey underwent a redesign that updated everything from the grille to the powertrain for the 2011 model year.

Luckily, none of the other model years for the Dodge Journey are nearly as bad as the 2009 or 2010 models. That being said, there are still several down years for the SUV in its time. The third-worst offender is the 2015 model year. For the first data point, we have the scores from drivers surveyed by J.D. Power. They gave the 2015 Journey an overall average of 77 out of 100 with a quality and reliability score of 75. This may not seem too harsh, but considering the overall score is still three points below even cracking the top ten rated vehicles of its class for the year, that isn't a great starting place. There are model years, such as the 2013 model, that received a slightly lower average, but when you consider the number of complaints that model received, it pushes the 2015 ahead of the pack.

Drivers have submitted a total of 514 complaints to the NHTSA for this Dodge Journey. That is a significant improvement from those first two years but still significantly more than the best model years for the SUV. There were many different issues, and one of the biggest was reported failures of the electronic anti-lock braking system. Six different recalls have been issued for the vehicle for problems ranging from cruise control malfunctions to water getting in the ABS module. The 2015 Dodge Journey wasn't the worst model year for the SUV, but it wouldn't be one you should get behind the wheel of either.

To determine what constituted the best and worst years for the Dodge Journey, we looked at actual owner opinions. While the initial reviews of a vehicle are important and illuminating, those who drive these cars on a day-to-day basis can often be more beneficial to those looking to purchase a used vehicle. We used the overall average scores from drivers' reviews and ratings to websites such as Kelley Blue Book, Edmunds, and Cars.com. From there, we looked to sources such as J.D. Power, which surveyed drivers of the Dodge Journey to get their impressions of the vehicle in various categories. The most important element of this was the quality and reliability score, as a used vehicle requires a certain amount of durability to be a worthwhile investment. Reliability was also determined by the number of complaints drivers registered for the vehicle, which have been collected by sources like the NHTSA and CarComplaints. Once all of these elements were brought together, these six Dodge Journey models were selected to represent the best and worst of the SUV.