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difference between 3.5 vs 3.6 VVT


biohazard

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has anyone owned an older journey and a newer one and compared REAL WORLD fuel milage difference. I know there is the stats on each motor but that isnt a true value of daily driving....we are currently looking to upgrade from our 2010 to a 2013 and the dealship keeps talking that we are going to save a ton on fuel cost. Also we are going from a regular 3.5 to a AWD 3.6...

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The formal MPG ratings, if sone to the same standards oughtotto give you a ratio of what you have now with what you WILL have if you upgrade. Want to save on MPG? Buy the 2.4 - it isn't 'tons' different from the 6, but it is less.

I question the concept of using hundreds of dollars in fuel savings as justification for spending 10s of thousands of dollars to replace the vehicle. It's going to take a ton of savings in fuel consumption to cover the cost of upgrading your vehicle. The same argument applies to spending many thousands extra to buy a Hybrid.

Edited by bramfrank
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The 2.4 is enough to keep the Journey moving at highway speeds, but it is no police interceptor.

The 3.6 does have more power than the 3.5 and I know that the AWD does have negative impact on mileage, not to mention that being in Canada it means the R/T with it's 19" wheels. But one item of nte is that AWD on most vehicles, including the Journey requires you to swap out a full set of tires if you have an issue with one tire beyond the initial treadwear period. Unless you drive through huge snow drifts or try to do offroading I don;t personally think one requires AWD (and driving theough a national park isn't offroading, if you get my drift and the Journey isn;t a CJ either).

It shouldn't be hard to get a read back of the MPG specs for your '10 and compare them to the claimed MPG spec for the '12s in both FWD and AWD formats.

Edited by bramfrank
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  • 4 weeks later...
has anyone owned an older journey and a newer one and compared REAL WORLD fuel milage difference. I know there is the stats on each motor but that isnt a true value of daily driving....we are currently looking to upgrade from our 2010 to a 2013 and the dealship keeps talking that we are going to save a ton on fuel cost. Also we are going from a regular 3.5 to a AWD 3.6...

It's best to use the EPA ratings to compare - that's what they are there for. Anectodal data (that's what real world data is) is not a good guideline - too much variance in driving habits. The EPA ratings are done in a measured consistent manner and do not necessarily indicate you will observe those mileages.

That said comparing a 2010 Journey FWD (3.5L) vs 2013 Journey FWD (3.6L), the 2013 is only 1 mpg better:

2010 Journey FWD 3.5L - 16 city / 24 hwy / 19 combined

2013 Journey FWD 3.6L - 17 city / 25 hwy / 20 combined

AWD:

2010 Journey AWD 3.5L - 15 city / 23 hwy / 18 combined

2013 Journey AWD 3.6L - 16 city / 24 hwy / 19 combined

As you can see going from a 2010 3.5L FWD to a 2013 AWD 3.6L is no difference. The salesman is uninformed and not comparing the proper models. IMHO, it will take a long time (like 15 years or so) to recoup the cost of a new FWD unit on a 1 mpg gain - if ever. And that assumes you get the same fuel mileage as the ratings. There's no guarantee you will. Hence the phrase "Your mileage may vary".

If you really need to have a vehicle that gets significantly better fuel mileage, you need to be considering models with much better fuel mileage ratings. Vehicles such as the new Dart (35-37 mph hwy) or Avenger (4 cylinder models) or a hybrid such as a Prius (ugh!) or a Fusion (Hybrid).

To add fuel to the fire, you'll probably be upside down on your trade as well and will have to make up the difference out of pocket or roll the negative equity into the loan on the new vehicle. Not a smart idea.

Unless you really, really need to upgrade, I'd walk, no, ummm, run from the dealer. He's just trying to make a sale.

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well we were going to but a new journey anyways so I was just wondering... our new journey is already on order and we are going to love it either way.. :) as far as the negative equity we will be rolling it into the new loan but also changing the terms(48 months) so we can pay it down faster... the money was never really an issue we just like the neweer model and wanted to upgrade to the leather and GPS also, something we should have done when we made our 2010 purchase but didnt....

Edited by biohazard
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