drb227

I wasn't aware that OS 6 has built-in MAP support. I took a 9700 that was upgraded to OS 6 and paired it with my Journey but the Text Messaging button stayed greyed out. I kept it connected for about 10 minutes just to be sure. No idea why the Text Messaging button didn't light up. Does anybody have a phone that does work with the text messaging feature in the Journey?

I can definitely attest to the slow downshifting. The transmission seems to be programmed heavily towards fuel economy - too much so, in my opinion. I hope Chrysler modifies this behaviour with new firmware soon! This is particularly noticeable when using cruise control and going uphill. In my Journey, it is not uncommon to lose 10 km/h before the transmission will finally shift down to 5th. I get around this now by manually shifting down to 5th at the start of any long uphill climb. Once in 5th, it has no problem maintaining the set speed. In your test drive, it almost sounds like maybe the transmission shift lever was in the manual shift mode. If that is where it was, no amount of gas pedal pressure would have caused a downshift. While the transmission is slow to downshift, it will most definitely do it if you push the pedal far enough and it doesn't have to be floored for that to happen.

There have been a number of separate threads regarding various issues with the Uconnect Touch system in the 2011 Dodge Journey. I created this thread so that we would all have just one place to go to for info/updates. If I have missed anything, please let me know. I will keep this thread updated as needed. In no particular order, the following issues are being reported by owners: iPhone/iPod connected via USB(many of these items also apply when using an SD card or a USB memory stick): - It takes quite a while for the music Browse button to show up on a newly purchased vehicle or when a new device is connected. It took several days before the Browse button showed up for my iPhone connected via USB. Previous to that, I could only select the songs in alphabetical order. Extremely long indexing time to blame? - There is no playlist support for iPhone/iPod. - Voice control of music playback does not work. Trying to select an artist, album or song using voice command always results in "Command Not Understood". - Album artwork is hit or miss. I seem to get album artwork displaying for maybe 70% of the music on my iPhone. - The system shows the wrong artist name for a small amount of my music. All my music is tagged correctly with both album art and artist/song titles. - Songs on the iPhone/iPod are displayed and played in alphabetical order within an album, not in track order. - Song titles on an SD card are usually (but not always) displayed using the filename of the song file, not the ID3 tag inside the file. If you want songs on an SD card to play in track order, you seem to have to have the track number as the first part of the filename, which also results in the song title showing the track number along with the song title. However, it has sometimes worked for me where it will display the correct song title from the music file but then other times it displays the song title by using the filename. - The Shuffle option sometimes picks the same shuffle order. Also, if you are many songs into a shuffled play and you leave the vehicle, when you come back it doesn't always begin playback from where it left off. This features sometimes works perfectly, where it will pick up right from where it left off but then sometimes it will start over again from the 1st song of the shuffled list.

I guess the first thing I would do would be to try a different USB cable. It's a long shot but you never know. It would also be good to try another iPod or USB memory stick to be sure the problem is not with the USB port itself.

The base tire on the Canada Value Package is 225/70R16. As long as you get the proper OEM steel wheels, clearance will not be an issue and this will be the least expensive option for winter tires and is what I did for my 2011 Crew with 19" tires.

The SMS over Bluetooth feature is only supported if the phone maker has included Bluetooth Message Access Profile (MAP) in their Bluetooth implementation. Very few manufactures have done this to date. I think it will start to be more common this year, as the upcoming new touchscreen Blackberries (Torch 2 and Bold Touch) will have Bluetooth MAP added. I really hope Apple adds MAP to their Bluetooth implementation with iOS 5. Drivesafe.ly is totally different and would not function with the messaging feature of Uconnect. You may be able hear it reading over bluetooth but it's not the same thing as what Chrysler is supporting.

UP, I think if we contact anybody, it should be Marios Zenios' contacts, since they are at Chrysler. I'm all for contacting them about our concerns/problems. The more of us that do it, the more likely we are to have something done about it. I am definitely going to put something together this weekend and send to them on Monday. I am also going to start a new thread about all the problems we are having with Chrysler's 2011 Uconnect touch systems (4.3 and 8.4), so that we keep everything in one location.

If that is a real number, you are missing a digit:D

Welcome to the Journey club! As has been reported in other threads on this board, many of us are having issues with the way the Uconnect system in the 2011 Journey (4.3 or 8.4 system) handles music playback over USB or SD Card. I experienced the same problem as you the first few times I used my iPhone connected via USB. The Browse button would be greyed out and the only option would be to play music in alphabetical order. What I can tell you is that, after a week or so of using my iPhone to play music over USB, the Browse button would light up and it has stayed working ever since. I can only guess that the Uconnect system has to do some sort of indexing and that this indexing process takes an inordinate amount of time. Several other issues are present that will need a firmware update to fix: - There appears to be no playlist support for iPhone/iPod. I never see a playlist button when my iPhone is connected. - If you have the Uconnect Voice Command with Bluetooth option, the system simply does not work to control music playback via voice commands, despite what it says in the manual. - Album artwork is hit or miss. I seem to get album artwork displaying for maybe 70% of the music on my iPhone. - The system will sometimes show the wrong artist name for a small amount of my music. I know that all my music is tagged correctly with both album art and artist/song titles, so this is definitely another Uconnect problem.

Other than the colour (mine's white), we seem to have the same vehicle! Very nice!

I am loving my Journey so far. Have had it for 5 weeks and have just over 2000 kms on it. I have the Crew with the Flexible Seating and the Navigation and Sound Group 1. In regards to some of your "not so good" points: - Agree about the transmission being slow to downshift. It is clearly programmed for fuel efficiency over all else and I think they've taken it too far. When on the highway and going uphill with the cruise on, it will sometimes drop 15kms from the set speed before downshifting. This is nuts. Only way to stop this is to put it in manual mode and shift down to 5th for any long hills. They really need to adjust the transmission programming to make this work better. - In regards to the back doors not auto-unlocking, I prefer it this way. With my kids in the back, I wouldn't want them being able to open the rear doors unless we have specifically unlocked them by opening either of the front doors or pressing the unlock button. My Caliber worked the same way and so does my wife's Ford Fusion. This is an important safety feature. The owner's manual actually makes mention of a setting called "Auto Door Lock" under the "Doors and Locks" menu, which would give the option to stop the doors from automatically locking in the first place but that option is not present in the Settings menu on my Journey. - There has been discussion in several threads on this board about the voice command not working at all to control music playback. Very frustrating! Chrysler needs to fix this pronto! - I am not looking forward to the day if/when I get a flat tire and need to find a replacement for the 19" tires!! - Agree about the EVIC defaulting to MPH. It should be using the Metric/US setting from the Uconnect menu to determine what the default setting should be for the speed display. - I'm getting about 12-12.5L/100kms of mostly around town driving. Let's hope that the fuel mileage increases once the engine gets broken in. - My Homelink has decent range. I can open the garage door from about 30 feet away, same as it was for my Caliber with Homelink. No vehicle is perfect. They all have their flaws or quirks. I'm quite happy with the Journey overall and will be happier when Chrysler fixes some of the issues that can be fixed with firmware updates.

So today I decided it was time to put my summer tires back on. They are the original 19" tires and non-chrome aluminum rims that come standard on the Crew. Only had them on the first day I got my Journey as I had the 16" winter tires on steel rims put on the very next day. I can now say that my 2011 Crew is riding much smoother, like I was expecting it to be since I got it 1 month ago. Clearly there is something wrong with the winter tires/wheels. My guess would be that one of them wasn't properly balanced or there is a defect with one of the tires or rims. In any event, I will have them re-balanced and checked over before I put them back on this fall. I'm very relieved that it is not a problem with the Journey itself!

@2011mainmango: Roasty47 is in Canada and we still have the SXT model. The model range goes CVP, SE Plus, SXT, Crew and R/T. @Roasty47: On your steering wheel, do you have the two voice command buttons on the left side, above the 4 EVIC buttons? If you do, then you have Bluetooth, if not, you don't have Bluetooth. From what I can tell, adding the $275 option to the 4.3 radio to make it the 4.3S radio only gives you Sirius satellite as the only extra. Bluetooth is still a separate $300 option, just like on all the other models. Pretty sure the dodge.ca website is just plain wrong in that adding the $275 option does not give you wireless connectivity, it only gives Sirius.

Not very encouraging that this is happening even on the 2011s. WTF Chrysler???

1010tires.com and ottawatiresdirect.com are Canadian. I'm sure there are others. I went with 16" wheels and steel rims for my winter tires. Much cheaper and much more selection than 17" winter tires. The correct tire size is 225/70R16. I bought a set of Gislaved Nordfrost 5 tires. They are fantastic. Got them for my wife's Fusion last year. Best winter tires I've had and I've been using winter tires for 15 years.

If the system is only using the Gracenotes DB for Music ID and Album Art, that won't work too well. Not knowing any details of how it works, the way it should work is, if it finds a match in the DB, then use that info, otherwise use the ID tags in the MP3/m4a files to display the album art and ID the music. New music is released frequently but the Gracenotes DB in our Journeys doesn't get updated accordingly. I know there were Gracenotes updates available in the past but have no idea if we'll be able to get the same updates for the Uconnect touch system. Regardless, the voice control is clearly not working. Just wish I knew who we could contact to report this. I'm guessing I'll have to start with my dealer as the logical first step. If enough of us report this as an issue to our dealers, something will eventually happen to get this fixed (if a fix is not already in the works).

I am using an iPhone 4 and am having several issues with the way the system handles music playback. In answer to your questions: 1) The USB port is not powered when the vehicle is off. No way to change this via any settings. 2) Ditto. I have no idea how the Uconnect touch system handles this but it is most definitely not doing it correctly. I have the same issue with artwork when using an SD card. It is also, in a few cases, not displaying the correct artist name when using the SD Card. I had the same issue with the browse button not appearing for the first week or so but now it shows up every time my iPhone or SD Card is plugged in. Maybe it had to do some sort of indexing and it took a long time to compete??? 3) Only upgrades I know of currently are for the Nav system at www.garmin.com/chrysler but there aren't any updates there yet. I really hope Chrysler will release user installable updates for the Uconnect system!

Pretty sure it doesn't support pictures. I think I tried it once. Also, I just did a search of the owner's manual and the Uconnect touch PDFs and there is not one occurrence of the word "picture" or "pictures" in the entire manual. Guessing this means it is not supported. I'm loving the 8.4 system. As UPMedic says, everything is very quick responding and the back-up camera is awesome! I have the up-level sound system and it is good but not great. Was really expecting better bass. For comparison, my last vehicle was an 07 Caliber with the Musicgate sound system with 8 speakers + sub. That was, by far, the best sound system I have ever had in any vehicle. My wife's 08 Fusion has the Audiophile sound system and it doesn't even come close to being as good as the sound system I had in the Caliber. I am still happy overall with the up-level sound system but it could be a bit better. Now if Chrysler would hurry up and fix the non-functioning voice control of music playback, I'd be one happy camper!

The 2009/2010 Journeys have different fobs than the 2011's. The button with a picture of a vehicle with x2 in it is indeed a remote release for the rear hatch. This particular button is not on the 2011 Journey fob.

I posted quite a few interior pictures of my 2011 Crew a while back. I have been waiting to put my summer tires back on before posting exterior photos and the weather here has been really crappy the past few weeks. I will be posting exterior pics, I promise!

Do the following: 1. Click the More button in the lower right corner. 2. Click the Settings button. 3. Click on the option "Auto-On Comfort & Remote Start" 4. Remove the check mark from "Auto-on Driver Heated/Vented Seat & Steering Wheel with Vehicle Start" Note that I sometimes have to press the box a few times before the check mark will disappear. I also do this with the ignition in the Run setting (vehicle not on)

To clarify: With the 8.4/8.4N system, under the settings menu, there is an option called Auto-on Comfort and Remote Start. Under that option, there is an option called Auto-on Driver Heated/Ventilated Seat & Steering Wheel with Vehicle Start. When you enable this setting, the heated driver's seat will always turn on to the high setting whenever you start the vehicle normally or with remote start, as long as the outside temp is below 40 degrees F or 4.4 degrees C. Note that we only have the heated seat, no ventilated seat or heated steering wheel. It is just a common option name since this system is also available for the 2011 Charger and 2011 300.

I have been to several dealerships in the Toronto area over the past few months. Not one of the R/T models that had Nav also had the 2 voice command buttons on the steering wheel if the $300 Uconnect voice command with Bluetooth option wasn't on the window sticker. I know the brochure seems to indicate that this option comes automatically if you get the Nav option but that simply has not been the case on any of the units I've seen and I have seen a lot of them. As others have said, the bluetooth option should simply be a standard feature across all trim levels. It is 2011 for God's sake!

As already posted in this thread, the third row headrests are not removable. I keep my headrests folded when the third row seat is up when nobody is sitting in them and have no issue with rear visibility. You wouldn't gain much more visibility with the headrests removed compared to when they are folded.

I have seen a number of 2011 R/T's on dealer lots. Unless they had the $300 Uconnect voice command w/bluetooth option, they did not have the two voice command buttons on the left side of the steering wheel. Either the brochure is wrong, or this is something new. It is still a separate order option on the dodge.ca website for the R/T model. I guess it's asking too much for things to be consistent and straightforward!