2008 Dodge Journey gets dual clutch
May 29, 2008 by David Twomey
Chrysler Group Australia will join Volkswagen and Audi in offering a dual-clutch transmission later this year when it launches the all-new Dodge Journey in Australia.
The Journey is a vehicle CGA says takes the practicality of a people-mover, the capability of a sport-utility vehicle (SUV) and the overall efficiency of a passenger car and blends all the best attributes of each into an all-new “right-sized” crossover for the Dodge brand.
CGA says the dual-clutch transmission, developed in conjunction with gearbox maker Getrag, will provide consumers a fuel economy improvement and CO2 emissions reduction of six percent.
Frank Klegon, Executive Vice President – Product Development, said: “Chrysler’s new dual-clutch transmission is the next step in transmission technology, offering consumers improved fuel economy along with smoother and quicker shifting.”
“This important technology is one of several initiatives we have in place to directly focus on improving fuel efficiency across our vehicle line-up.
Chrysler says its dual-clutch transmission technology improves fuel economy and CO2 emissions by reducing parasitic losses—first, by eliminating the torque converter, and second, through the use of synchronizers instead of shift clutches.
In its first Chrysler LLC vehicle applications, the new dual-clutch transmission will debut in international markets on the all-new 2008 Dodge Journey when mated to the turbo diesel variant.
Originally developed by Volkswagen, which calls its DSG, the dual-clutch transmission is an automatic transmission which utilises dual launch and shift clutches with a manual transmission style lay-shaft gear arrangement, instead of a conventional torque converter and planetary gears.
During shifts, the next gear is anticipated and pre-selected. Then one clutch is opened while the other is closed, allowing shifting without torque interruption. The result is quicker acceleration and refined shift quality. Further, with the lay-shaft arrangement of gears, there is increased flexibility to optimise gear ratio selection for performance and fuel economy.
The Chrysler/Getrag version of the dual-clutch transmission does not require a torque converter to transfer engine torque to the transmission. Instead, it uses two wet multi-plate clutches. With the wet multi-plate clutch system, the clutch components are bathed in lubricating/cooling fluid in order to provide adequate thermal capacity.
The wet multi-plate clutch system uses hydraulic pressure to actuate the clutches and provide for gear selection.
With this system, the power flow from the engine to the transmission is not interrupted during a shift, resulting in a power-on shift.
This means that there is less torque disturbance than a conventional planetary automatic transmission with torque converter.
Also, by eliminating the torque converter and reducing the number of shift clutches, parasitic losses are reduced leading to improved fuel economy.
Print it: 
*****PRIMO!*****
Why do they bother importing this rubbish, they will only sell 10?
Better to put there effort into the Ram P-U-Trucks
Cheers,
F-0
Hmmm… Shame itll be crap to drive.
Will Chrysler/Dodge still be in business when this thing arrives?
Who cares?
Reckless1 – “Who cares? ”
HAHA
More Plastic!
agree… stop importing this wannabee crap and start importing the ram and dakota trucks.
Why are vehicles like this called people movers when they only seat five?
That transmission sounds expensive to repair!
Like any Chrysler product, as soon as it gets driven out the showroom, straight away it’ll be 1/3 the price that was paid for it! Septic American garbage!
I think Australia should build if not then design cars for them lol.
Doesn’t look bad compared to other Dodge prroducts like Caliber. But it will probaly sell very little and have heaps and HEAPS of plastic!
If you can’t afford a Ford, dodge a Dodge.
Well that sounds like about enough to completely demoralise the poor suckers who are expected to sell these crapheaps alongside all the other junk that this not-long-for-this-life outfit squirts out.
You guys are funny…hands down the ford is the toughest truck…but Dodge makes a great vehicle that lasts forever….oh and families can afford them since cars are triple the price here. My borthers only have Dodge vehicles (Ford Truck girl myself) but they have never had one problem with them. Do Aussies ever NOT complain.
Look Allamerican, first and foremost America are well known for their cheap cars that are throw away items after 3 years max. Secondly, I don’t know where you have been in the last couple of centuries but Australians are the most easy going nation on earth. Don’t hold it against us for not liking your cheap crappy cars! As for a real review of this vehicle, I will endeavour to reply once I have driven one and assessed it properly.
In defense of allamerican, & dodge i suppose, i lived/travelled in Canada for a yr. I bought a Dodge van as we were doing a lot of traveling. It had close to 300K kms when i sold it, i put on about 24k of those. Great car.In the real world it may not have been my choice of car, but was totally happy with it. Now maybe some willsay 300k on highways is not much, but i was driving that car in all sorts of crazy conditions. like -40C in winter & +40c in summer. Ice, salt, poor roads further north etc etc.
if anyone is actually stupid enough to buy this make sure you get the diesel, i left a comment on another blog about this car to. Go to carcomplaints dot com, click on “worst vehicles” now you will see the dodge intrepid and chrysler sebring appear ALOT, all main complains are about the 2.7 litre chrysler V6 sludging early and causing complete engine failure, and timing chins breaking, causing the same problem. God bless american engineering.
Sorry for post whoring but someone up there mentioned the Dodge Ram? the 4.7 litre V8 apparently has the same problem. Leave this shit in the “greatest country in the world” where is belongs.
geez fellas settle down you are sounding like a pack of pre schoolers! if you hate these vehicles with such a passion well why are you here??? all american not ALL aussies complain……….you just took a wrong turn and ended up with all these….umm…experts?
Can someone please provide a fair dinkum comment about this SUV? How practical it is and how well the Six speed dual clutch transmission works compared to standard ones?
I get it that we’re better when it comes to car manufacturing but what I don’t get is arrogance. Why hit them when they’re already down? Now that’s un-australian!
Please do not reply if you do not own or have not test driven one of this. Please!
I can give feedback about this Car. Had it now since March 2009 and 24,700 miles on it so far. It failed on the highway today and thus the reason for me searching posts. The transmission was slamming into gears (similar to a U joint going out on the 1970’s cars) and it would not shift out of second gear today. Limped it to the dealer. This is a free company car so my opinions are from driving it and driving a new car (various brands) about every two years and not emotions. Fit and finish are poor. Brakes / rotor problems. Rattles in the dash. Three to four second delay if you press the accelerator to pass. Excessive tire wear. The in-floor coolers are neat but they get very hot from the exhaust and are only good for storage. Remote locks won’t work part of the time. Bad blind spot. The good: looks, acceleration from a stop, lots of storage, comfort and seats, creature features, free XM radio for a year, easy to see the dash and use controls, rear doors open wide, easy use of the back and loading. Steering feel both at slow and higher speeds. Deep tinted windows. Tight turning and easy to maneuver. Would I buy one with personal money? No way.
Regarding the transmission, it feels more like a CVT than a traditional transmission. When it works correctly, you can hear it shifting but not feel it. Starting from a stop is a little invigorating because the six speeds click off quick and with little to no delay between gears. The tach stays just under the red zone so the car feels as if it stays in some kind of hither RPM power band (if that is the proper description). Other cars I have driven seems to rev up and then rev back down between shifts. I am guessing that there is only about 1K difference in RMP when the transmission shifts up and it will get up to highway speed very fast. Passing is the opposite. Going from 60 to 75 for instance is painful. The car won’t down-shift enough to get good acceleration. If you happen to have the traction control off at a start and mash it, you spin the tires. The engine is loud but I like that so it’s a plus in my opinion. You really hear it go to work. Under 40 miles per hour, the transmission feels responsive. Over that level and it feels sluggish. The auto-shift feature works well. In auto-shift mode, the car will only shift into first when you are at a stop. Summary: It works like a CVT and is fast from 0 to about 65 or 70. Passing is almost worthless.