A while back, I attended the North American launch of the Dodge Journey, and I must say that I was rather impressed with the company’s new priced-right crossover vehicle.

The Journey offers itself up as the almost perfect family transportation device and, as I have already indicated, supplies excellent value for money. In fact, I see it as pretty much the modern interpretation of the well loved family minivan.

Having the Journey for a full week, I decided to explore that theory a little further, and this is what I discovered.

The Minivan, when it first came into existence, was a five passenger vehicle specifically designed for family transport. It worked well, in fact, so well that it became “the” vehicle of choice for families throughout North America.

Of course, times change and so did the minivan. It grew larger, and more seats were added, which enabled the average family to not only transport themselves, but also one or two of their friends.

“Now what does all this have to do with the new Dodge Journey?”, I hear you asking, (Well I don’t actually, but let’s just imagine that you are). Well I’m glad you asked, because if you park the new Dodge Journey alongside the company’s famous Dodge Caravan from the 90’s, you’ll be amazed at how close the two are in size.

In fact, in length, height, and even ground clearance, there’s not that much difference so why is it this new vehicle is called a “crossover” and not simply a minivan?

Well, I guess that the “M” word has gone a little out of style over the past few years. Even though it was the perfect family vehicle, its association with that “F” word made it slightly un-cool. Yes, we all know how great and useful a minivan is, but do we really want to boast to our friends of actually owning one?

Enter the “crossover”, which, in my mind, is one of the most confusing words in the industry today.

What exactly is a crossover? In truth, you can pretty much cross-over anything, just look at the new Infiniti FX50 and the BMW X6, and if you think about it, wasn’t the El Camino’s of the 70’s simply a crossover pickup truck?

Honestly, it confuses me, let alone the buying public. Perhaps it is time that we stole the Europeans term for the humble minivan. They call them by their individual names and term them “people carriers” which would get us away from the unpopular “M” word, and yet, perfectly sum up these types of vehicles. Basically, if a vehicle carries more than 4 passengers and a driver, then it’s a people carrier.

This now brings us back to the new Dodge Journey RT, because in my opinion, it is one of the best people carriers on the market today.

Why? Well, first off, it carries five people in comfort, and should the need arise; there are two additional seats available in the rear. It is also priced with the family buyer in mind. After all, children might be wonderful little creatures and heaps of fun, but as any parent will tell you, they can strain the family finances somewhat.

Dodge understands that most family buyers operate on a budget, and that’s why it priced the Journey at the right end of the market. You can get into a brand new Dodge Journey from just $19,995. Of course, if finances allow, you can move up through the range to the top of the line RT AWD, and you'll still only be around $30k. Now that’s what I call family pricing!