Dodge Journey

"Yowen - not necessarily not spaghetti and meatballs" (yowen) 01/28/2014 at 09:56 • Filed to: None

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My friend has it, she is constantly complaining about how bad it is in the snow, it's the R/T model with AWD. So I am wondering if she's doing something wrong or if she has really bad tires, she still has the stock tires from when she bought the vehicle new. Anyone know if these came with shitty tires? My google-fu was not strong enough. Knowing her it could just be the way she's driving, but who knows.

Nibby > Yowen - not necessarily not spaghetti and meatballs 01/28/2014 at 09:59

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Could also be that... FWD bias AWD

CalzoneGolem > Yowen - not necessarily not spaghetti and meatballs 01/28/2014 at 10:00

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I think you can safely assume it came with shitty tires.

Takuro Spirit > Yowen - not necessarily not spaghetti and meatballs 01/28/2014 at 10:00

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Kumho KH16 or Hankook Optimo if memory serves me correct.

She probably just needs new rubber.

Nibbles > Yowen - not necessarily not spaghetti and meatballs 01/28/2014 at 10:01

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Original tires should be Kumho Solus KH16s, tires that are "high performance touring". Even Kumho doesn't rate them well in the snow.

Yowen - not necessarily not spaghetti and meatballs > Nibby 01/28/2014 at 10:04

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My SHO has FW-AWD and is great in the snow, it came with Goodyear RSA's. I'm thinking it's the tires. Even a FWD car with decent tires should do better than she is describing.

Yowen - not necessarily not spaghetti and meatballs > CalzoneGolem 01/28/2014 at 10:04

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Well that's dodgy... :P

Yowen - not necessarily not spaghetti and meatballs > Nibbles 01/28/2014 at 10:05

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Ah right on, that explains a whole lot.

Kind of shitty that you can buy a car in Michigan, with AWD, that has shitty snowtires on it, Dodge really isn't helping themselves here...

Yowen - not necessarily not spaghetti and meatballs > Takuro Spirit 01/28/2014 at 10:06

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From what Nibbles tells us, I tend to agree. The words Solus and Optimo do not instill me with confidence in their winter abilities.

CalzoneGolem > Yowen - not necessarily not spaghetti and meatballs 01/28/2014 at 10:06

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Seriously, what the Chrysler were they thinking?

Nibby > Yowen - not necessarily not spaghetti and meatballs 01/28/2014 at 10:07

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Tell her to ditch that thing for this.

Nibbles > Yowen - not necessarily not spaghetti and meatballs 01/28/2014 at 10:08

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Granted, "R/T" generally alludes to performance, not stability ;)

Kinda like buying a Focus ST (without the, you know, power ) and dealing with those tires all year long

I would suggest getting a set of winter wheels and tires for her. Not only are the R/T's tires expensive, but apparently their particular size is hard to come by.

offroadkarter > Yowen - not necessarily not spaghetti and meatballs 01/28/2014 at 10:09

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eagle RSA's are one of the worst car tires ever made. They came standard on police interceptor and the kids who bought the auction lot ex police cars always complained about how awful the RSA's performed in every condition. They aren't cheap tires either.

offroadkarter > Yowen - not necessarily not spaghetti and meatballs 01/28/2014 at 10:10

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How old is it? Tires have an average life of 5 years, it could be bad tires + old age = fffffuuuuu

Yowen - not necessarily not spaghetti and meatballs > offroadkarter 01/28/2014 at 10:13

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The ones on my car, I'm told, are a recent re-design, so perhaps they got better? Honestly, I have no complaints, but then it's the only tire I have had on the car since I've owned it. I definitely wouldn't describe them as awful in "every condition". I've grown confident in their abilities and have felt save with them over this winter season in Michigan.

I will agree that they are EXPENSIVE, it's the carbon fiber sidewalls.... $1200 if I wanted to get the same ones put on. I will likely be switching to something else, haha.

Yowen - not necessarily not spaghetti and meatballs > offroadkarter 01/28/2014 at 10:13

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sorry, should have noted it's a '13 model. She drives it for sales, she has already put on 15k miles in 8 months, haha.

Yowen - not necessarily not spaghetti and meatballs > Nibbles 01/28/2014 at 10:15

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Yeah, during my search I found that at one point there was a shortage of that particular tire, haha. With the amount of driving she does I am definitely going to recommend good all-seasons or a set of wheels for winter tires.

offroadkarter > Yowen - not necessarily not spaghetti and meatballs 01/28/2014 at 10:15

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probably just crappy tires, I saw you saying the manufacturer didn't rate them highly for snow use.

Yowen - not necessarily not spaghetti and meatballs > Nibby 01/28/2014 at 10:16

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Hahaha. I am not currently dating her, but if she were driving that, I'd date her for a while for the sake of getting to drive that beast.

Yowen - not necessarily not spaghetti and meatballs > offroadkarter 01/28/2014 at 10:17

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That was nibbles, but yeah, I think it's safe to assume that is where the problem lies.

offroadkarter > Yowen - not necessarily not spaghetti and meatballs 01/28/2014 at 10:17

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It looks like they launched a new tire called the RSA-2, which has way better ratings over the RSA. This might be the one you're referencing

http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires.js…

Nibby > Yowen - not necessarily not spaghetti and meatballs 01/28/2014 at 10:18

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You get to drive *2* beasts...

offroadkarter > Yowen - not necessarily not spaghetti and meatballs 01/28/2014 at 10:20

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I saw someone say something about some tires

sorry i got like 3 hours of sleep last night and have been at work since 8am.

all i know is, the wheels on the journey go round and round

oldirtybootz > Yowen - not necessarily not spaghetti and meatballs 01/28/2014 at 10:22

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As others have said, they come with Kumho Solus. We just got hit with alot of snow and I felt the Journeys perfromed decently in it, at least as far as getting around the snowy lot. My car comes with Solus LLRs and it does decently in the snow with just FWD.

Yowen - not necessarily not spaghetti and meatballs > offroadkarter 01/28/2014 at 10:23

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Haha ok, I'll have to check my car to see which I have.

I just read the reviews for the RSA's, they are positively bipolar, lol.

Yowen - not necessarily not spaghetti and meatballs > CalzoneGolem 01/28/2014 at 10:27

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Not sure, but as someone that produced the Magnum, you'd think they'd know about better rubber.

Takuro Spirit > Yowen - not necessarily not spaghetti and meatballs 01/28/2014 at 10:46

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They're not BAD tires, but decent all seasons. Certainly not a bad cheap choice so long as there's AWD to spin as many of them as possible.

Textured Soy Protein > Yowen - not necessarily not spaghetti and meatballs 01/28/2014 at 11:47

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It would appear that most people who have experienced this tire in winter feel it is mediocre at best.

The Journey R/T has a weird 225/55-19 tire size where there aren't a lot of available options. The best of which seems to be the Pirelli Cinturato P7 All Season Plus .

Yowen - not necessarily not spaghetti and meatballs > Textured Soy Protein 01/28/2014 at 12:32

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Awesome, thanks for the recommendation, I'll be sure to pass it along.

Dunnik > Yowen - not necessarily not spaghetti and meatballs 01/29/2014 at 11:26

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Nope, I can in fact confirm that it is working as intended. Your friend is probably doing nothing wrong.

We have many Journey R/T AWD's in our rental fleet, and we all know how bad the weather has been. The other day I took one to the airport terminal. Along the route is a slight uphill hairpin that leads to an overpass. Conditions were quite slippery, but several FWD cars I'd taken that day hadn't had much issue with it (I know this turn very well) But the Journey sure did.

I entered the hairpin at a normal angle but at a speed consistent with road conditions. I may have had an entry speed slightly higher than I would have in a FWD car, trusting in having power to all four wheels.

Entry was undramatic but the exit was a joke. As I pointed at my exit line and started to ease back on the throttle, the back end swung right. Lifted, straightened, feathered the throttle...then it swung left. Rinse, repeat - now I'm doing, like, 5 kph - and back on the gas again to get up the gentle slope. Rear wheel spin. Lift. Again: oh...oh! There it goes.

An airport limo was behind me, an Escalade, no less. He was on my ass pretty close in the entry - they usually drive aggressively and recklessly - but backed-off when he saw the dramatics. Once I was up the hill I checked my rear view again, and saw that the big Escalade was now giving me about 10 car lengths of separation, hah.

(N.B., all-seasons, about 45,000km on the odo, so tires were a factor too, but I felt that, ala Micheal Jordan/Spike Lee, that it's not the shoes .)

Yowen - not necessarily not spaghetti and meatballs > Dunnik 01/29/2014 at 13:11

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Lol, so it's just a terrible vehicle? Poorly managed AWD system you think?

My SHO kicks the rear end around a bit in the snow, but it's predictable and also a lot of fun, lol. Also I have to goose the throttle a bit to make it do it (make the rear break traction).

Dunnik > Yowen - not necessarily not spaghetti and meatballs 01/30/2014 at 07:38

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Well, for a vehicle that costs somewhere in the mid 20's, it's well-equipped with heated seats, heated steering wheel, heated mirrors, sat radio, power 4-way driver's seat. And unlike some CUV's, where form is sacrificed to function, the Journey does have traditional wagon proportions and has a decent amount of cargo room. It's 3.5L VVT six also provides a good amount of power.

But it handles like a greased-up pig in the snow and ice and it's a Chrysler product: I'm not a fan. They tend to start falling apart well before 50k miles: bits of loose trim, miscellaneous squeaks and rattles. The Chrysler dealer parts van shows up on our lot about 5 times as often as for other manufacturers, and, and any given time, half the vehicles in our shop will be Chrysler's, but they only account for about 25% or less of the fleet.