Dodge Journey

My daughter got a good deal on a used 2009 R/T AWD. that year had the 3.5 and smaller brakes but she really likes it. We have the 3.6 in our 2011 Town and country and that is a much better motor power and economy wise, but the 3.5 has a proven good reliability record, where the early 3.6s of 2011 have had head cracks and not a ton of high mileage examples running around trouble free out there like the 3.5. The Journey is really just the minivan with a different body, especially the redesign. You can get it with AWD because it doesn't have the stow-and-go seats taking up all the room, and they never made a 3.5 minivan for actual sale. They did have a concept RT Grand Caravan with the 3.5. I personally have a true 4wd SUV so all I wanted was FWD so the minivan is a better price and has more room. My daughter is one of those "never" get a minivan elites. We'll see after she has a couple kids to go along with he dogs. We had an AWD Enclave with the GM 3.6 before our van. Very nice inside but a reliability nightmare and always had a weird rear end wiggle at highway speeds. Enough to make rear seat passengers nauseous. The van gets much better gas mileage. We can get 30 mph with the van steady at 65 mph. We got a 28 mpg tank once on a 350 mile trip over the mountains, and average 19-20 mpg mostly around town.