Dodge will borrow the Giulia’s rear-wheel drive architecture from sister company Alfa Romeo. The next Journey will consequently be more dynamic to drive than the current model, which is front-wheel drive. All-wheel drive will be offered at an extra cost for buyers who frequently tackle adverse weather conditions.
It’s reasonable to assume that the next Journey will use a 2.0-liter turbo four. Rated at about 300 horsepower, the mill will be inaugurated next year by the fourth-generation Wrangler, and it will trickle down to other members of the Fiat-Chrysler family such as the Dodge Charger. The four will be bolted to an eight-speed automatic transmission.
Whether we’ll see a V6 in the next Journey is up in the air at this point. Buyers in Europe will be able to order the crossover — which is known as the Fiat Freemont locally — with a turbodiesel engine that we won’t get on this side of the pond.
Two years ago, Dodge told us that we’d see a brand new Journey before the end of 2016. However, the model has been delayed for reasons that remain a little murky, and Automotive News reports that the current version (pictured) of the Journey is now scheduled to remain in production for at least two more years. In other words, it will be over a decade old when it’s sent to the history books.
Read more: The Dodge Charger might go turbo
Its replacement will arrive in time for the 2019 model year, so it will likely debut at a major auto show in 2018. Production will shift from Mexico to Italy because Fiat-Chrysler Automobiles needs as much production capacity in North America as it can get.
