One of the fun parts of the annual sales number is the so-called “zombie car”.
Parsing the annual sales charts reveal some critical details about where buyers are spending their hard-earned money, and most of the figures aren’t too surprising. The Toyota RAV4 is the best-selling car in America…but it’s always the best-selling car in America (at least for the past several years). You guys also seem fond of bigger SUVs and off-roaders, as I laid out in the last sales-related piece. And then some of you out there…keep buying Dodge Journeys. And I just want to meet you so I can ask, “why?”.
Nevertheless, the Dodge freaking Journey — an SUV that went into production on the heels of the 2008 financial crisis and went out of production in 2020 — still managed to find some buyers in 2025. Though it’s no where close to the 1.1 million Journeys FCA officially cranked out over the car’s 12-year lifespan, these cars are technically among that batch. In fact, 17 of you purchased a brand-new Dodge Journey last year. At least, I think 17 of you did…I’m curious if someone out there actually bought two.
There are a few reasons why the Dodge Journey is still, somehow, showing up in Stellantis’ sales charts. The automaker is well-known for doing this, as new-old stock Darts, Caravans and even Vipers keep popping up from time to time. So, it may be an accounting move where some dealers somewhere finally shuffled these Journeys off their books. Part of that “accounting” may be finally getting rid of said new-old stock after heavy discounts.
Unlike a lot of modern SUVs, too — including the Dodge Hornet, actually — new examples aren’t exactly cheap, either. When the Journey went out of production, prices stopped at about $30,000, and let’s not forget this is for a three-row SUV. Even if the third row is a time-out box. Nowadays, you have to step a class down and lose passenger capacity to get a crossover whose prices start where the old Journey’s stop.
And while we’re here, in the same time span, you all evidently bought 9 Dodge Caravans, two Fiat 500Ls and 6 (count ’em, six) Darts. You do you, I guess.
