Do we remember the Dodge Journey? The SUV-like one, which was removed from the Dutch market ten years ago, finds succession in a model that is actually not a Dodge at all.
Earlier in September, AutoWeek was able to show you the first teaser plates of a new SUV from Dodge. The Chinese behemoth GAC Group is now releasing a first image of it. Why is a Chinese automaker showing images of a new Dodge model? That’s right. The newcomer is secretly not a Dodge at all.
We’ll start with the name, because it really comes from Dodge. Dodge calls its newcomer Journey, a name we also know in the Netherlands. In 2008, the brand, which had been reintroduced in Europe two years earlier, put the name Journey on the big brother of the Caliber. That SUV – of which Fiat got its own version with the Freemont, which was not available here – was sold 1,340 times in the Netherlands, but in 2011 the curtain fell for the relatively European-looking model. At least, in the Netherlands. In the United States, the Journey was still in showrooms in slightly modified form until last year. Dodge is now dusting off the Journey model name for a Chinese-made SUV that is currently only available in Mexico.
Dodge Journey teaser
The new Journey is the fruit of the joint venture between the Chinese GAC Motor and the Stellantis-based FCA Automobiles. Although the new Journey carries Dodge decals, it is in fact nothing more than a GS4 Plus from GAC, an SUV called the GS4 Plus in facelifted form and sold alongside the ‘old’ GS5. The new Journey does get a slightly different front and back, although we only know the back for the time being from a dark teaser plate. By the way, Dodge supplies another model in Mexico that is actually an odd one out: the Attitude, in fact the sedan version of the Mitsubishi Space Star. The full reveal of the new Dodge Journey will follow shortly.
– Thanks for information from Autoweek.nl