Redesign Rearranges The Furniture
AS long as parents have traveled with offspring there has been one overriding goal: keep siblings from engaging in verbal or physical combat as a form of in-car entertainment. The 2008 Chrysler Town & Country is tailored to parents who continue to pursue that ancient quest for tranquillity during travel.
For example, the new Town & Country and its sibling, the Dodge Grand Caravan, offer separate DVD players for the second- and third-row seats. This superstupor option lets children of different ages view different movies. Neither of the main competitors, the Honda Odyssey and Toyota Sienna, employs such a shrewd divide-and-conquer strategy.
Another option allows the second-row seats to swivel to face the rear. To the casual observer this appears to pay homage to Linda Blair’s head-turning character in “The Exorcist.†But Chrysler asserts that children will enjoy looking out the rear window or facing siblings in the third row during brief truces.
The overall result is a package that is not compelling, partly because there wasn’t a serious effort to reward the driver who wants a connection with the vehicle. The Town & Country’s handling achieves, at best, the level of so-so. Meanwhile, the rear-facing seats, which look great in a sales brochure, are not so satisfying on the highway.
These new models have been a long time coming. This is the biggest redesign of Chrysler’s pioneering minivans since the 1996 models, although there have been some updates in the interim, including some new features.
All versions have three rows of seats and lifesaving features like electronic stability control (which tries to correct skids) and air curtains (which cover the side windows and provide head protection in side-impact crashes).
The Town & Country received top scores in front- and side-impact crash tests done by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration as well as in more rigorous testing by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. In the institute’s overall minivan ratings, the Chrysler ranked behind the Odyssey but ahead of the Sienna.
One option buyers will not find is a choice of sizes. For years, Chrysler offered smaller models like the Dodge Caravan as well as the more popular, longer models like the Grand Caravan. The slow-selling short models were discontinued this year.
The overall length is 202.5 inches, 2 inches longer than before. The cargo capacity, already ample, is virtually unchanged. Chrysler calculated the cargo space as about 32 cubic feet behind the third row and about 83 cubic feet with the third row folded flat.
A nice feature is the way the second row moves fore and aft about four inches to provide some flexibility. With the second row in its most rearward position, four six-foot adults can sit in the first and second rows. But with the second-row people going for maximum legroom, the third row literally comes up short, making it suitable mainly for small children.
One of Chrysler’s bragging points for the Town & Country and Grand Caravan is the Swivel ’n Go option. By squeezing a handle, each second-row captain’s chair can be easily turned to the rear and locked into place.
Such an about-face does seem odd when two adults up front are facing forward and children in the second row are facing the rear.
A table, normally hidden in the floor, comes with Swivel ’n Go for use when the seats are turned around. One Chrysler ad shows a happy group of children playing a game of Jenga, stacking wood blocks high while zooming along.
A lot of effort has been aimed at the passengers. Too bad about the driver. The Town & Country’s ride is reasonably comfortable, but its handling is thoroughly average. Not only does the steering feel disconnected from the road, the weight of the steering is inconsistent, undermining the driver’s confidence. Turn the wheel from the straight-ahead position and the effort becomes noticeably, and unpredictably, lighter.
Under way, the Town & Country seems far noisier than some of the new minivan alternatives i.e., crossover competitors like the Buick Enclave. Also, the Chrysler tended to quiver when hitting a tar strip or pothole, its body seeming generally less rigid than those of the Enclave, the Odyssey or the Sienna.
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