Makes me wonder what the ALG shows as the lease residual on that Journey for a 3 year term. Methinks it's about 25%.

Well, is there any surprise? It's bland as hell.

I don't think this is a portend for this segement so much as this is more like an ill portend for Chrysler. If things continue the way there are I imagine Chrsyler LLC will be filing Chapter 11 within 4-5 years.

I went across the street from my office to a Dodge dealership to look at the new Journey -- it's intriguing in that its not huge, has an available four-cylinder for better mileage, and offers a fairly nice feature set.

I'm a big fan of Ryan Nagode's styling too: attitude without cartoonish-ness.

I was suprised to here the salesman offer the $1000 rebate.

Don't stop believing, Chrysler.

As small crossover utes car-van-truck jelly beans go, the Journey looks better than the average. That means on the better half.

They may want to get a jump start on the competition, well have to see how it pans out

It should help a few customers get in the Dodge dealer and option a Journey any way they want it.

Get in the drivers seat and love, touch and squeeze that steering wheel.

buyers better not waste any Precious Time getting to their Dodge dealer

I have a feeling people will love the Journey; Faithfully

Either American automakers haven't figured it out yet, or don't care: not only are rebates cumulatively harmful to their brands' reputations, but they don't seem to work that well, since their market share continues falling.

I've heard the alternative is to bring out new, exciting, desirable products so people will want them without the lure of rebates. The Journey couldn't be any more all-new, it's a 2009 model (not that I would buy one.) Offering a rebate all but concedes that even a brand new Dodge model won't sell at sticker price - and by extension - is a weak product that needs the crutch every Dodge gets.

Why keep doing this? Force of habit? What kind of a way of doing business is this? Aren't there better ways of luring buyers than reducing your profits? Am I missing something?

Probably...

And they shoulda been gone
After rebate, move the steel
And they shoulda been gone
Thought consumers shopped for deals.

Nardelli, Cerberus
Hold on, hold on

@johnnyichiban: 4-5 Years? I am thinking 12-18 months.

That said, this doesn't look like a bad small CUV entry, but it's up against some brutal foreign and (now) domestic competition.

The biggest problem though is that Chrysler (once again) has the pall of death about them. With Ford there is a sense that they can weather the storm and I think most now think GM is on its way back from brink (even if there are some bad quarterly reports to come). Chrysler, however, seems like a skiff lost in the storm and I think customers sense that. It's not something that is talked about much, but people are often not comfortable buying products from companies that are in notoriously poor health. Combine that with some really bad recent product receptions and I think even a very good car would prove troublesome for Chrysler to move due to perception issues.

@danio3834: Chrysler doesnt wan't any more of its customers going Seperate Ways...

@mackenzie: lets beat this to death once and for all

Love me some Journey...the quintessential 80's band that gets covered at every kareoke night, not another MPV.

Chrysler should've RIP'd after the Imperial got cut in '76.

@makfu:

I wouldn't be surpised at 12-18 months. But I'm going to give it the benefit of the doubt and see how excurtiating Cereberus can make this.

@bmoredlj: Indeed. Ask Citroen. They offer massive cash rebates on most of their models and they depreciate faster than a Steinway falling off a tower block. The only model they don't offer a rebate on is the C6, but you can still get a pretty good showroom discount, so the residual value is still horrific.

They're about to introduce the new C5 and it's getting good preliminary reviews; a desirable product. However, they're advertising it in the UK as 'unmistakably German' with a daft campaign featuring all sorts of German stereotypes. Way to damage your brand's image even further and have no-one take you seriously. They should be emphasising how brilliantly French it is. Anyway, they claim they won't offer rebates, but the residual is only predicted to be about 10% better than previously, placing it somewhere between 32 and 40%.

Basically, this serves to underline your point that once the damage is done, it's very hard to undo. Dodge should take heed.

It'll be interesting to see how the Volkswagen version fares.

A big 'oh fawk, Chrysler's truly on the way down' moment will be when they are offering cash rebates on Wranglers in Southern California. It doesn't appear to be far off as they are offering 0% financing on the X Unlimited models here in San Jose at least, which is rare anytime outside of model year closeouts.

Cerberus needs to do a corporate culture flush ASAP on Chrysler otherwise they're not going to start putting out exciting products in order to get a turn around going. But if they keep letting the ship list like this, it will happen naturally with staff jumping ship like rats. The question is will the ship stay above water long enough to survive the exodus. I'm not optimistic. I think Oldsmobile will have Chrysler as a bunk buddy in badge purgatory soon.

I saw the Journey at the recent Minneapolis car show and it was a nice package. The plastics are still cheap, but the functionality and price were impressive.

So, apart from the Challenger, how long until any pentastar brand gets a new model? Two years? Three?

Plus, the whole cherry deal is going pear shaped faster then the above-mentioned Steinway.

Is anyone here young enough to remember that there was a rock-back called Journey?

They should load up the MyGig's with all Journey songs.

(of course I KEED about anyone knowing)

@mechimike: The Imperial got cut in '83, friendo

then again in '93

@danio3834: Actually, the Imp was cut after the '75 model-year, reintroduced in '81, cut again in '83, reintroduced again in pathetic K-car form in 1990, and then axed yet again after 1993- pally.

@slantsick: you dont have to remind me about malaise era Chryslers, im a collector of such fine autos...

@Seth L: Their cup doesn't runeth over, but the Ram is a rather significant new vehicle for them.

One great thing about the Journey's styling is that it's SO dull it will never be knocked off by the Chinese manufacturers. There. Something positive!

Is it really such a bad car that I had no idea what was being talked about, that I don'

Ash78: FOUL! That's a parody of Steve Perry's solo hit "Oh Sherrie", not Journey :)