Driving Chrysler's Town & Country

It was a full day of testing yesterday. Amazing what a love of cars will do even if your wife is about to give birth at any moment. The van we drove was a top of the line Limited model with pretty much every bell and whistle short of a sunroof.

Some folks have complained about the boxy styling being too old school. The wife agrees with this assessment calling the exterior "unappealing." I personally rather like the new look, it's a nice return to form after an overly ovoid stage.

Things didn't start off well for the T&C as the battery was flat. No matter how the dealer tries to spin a dead battery on a brand new car, I'm always very skeptical. Maybe the interior lights were left on, but even if this was the case where is the battery rundown protection? I mean, this van is a rolling Circuit City and if any vehicle called out for battery protection its the T&C.

A quick jump and the van fired to life. I was very impressed with the tinting of the front side windows. The subtle greenish hue really classed things up in my opinion. Just pulling out of the lot and heading out on the road, I noticed that the transmission had to downshift with even a small dab of my foot. The shifts were smooth, but I found this to be a little annoying as the van didn't feel as sprightly as our Odyssey. Corning also took a back seat to the Honda, presumably in the name of improved ride comfort. As we were rolling down the freeway, I asked the sales rep to turn on the backseat Sirius TV, but he couldn't get it to work. Once we swapped drivers and I was able to fiddle with the entertainment screen, we finally got the TV to work: a promising feature once more channels are added. With so many entertainment options and flexibility built in to the system, the price some added complexity to the menus. Once you've got the system down, I think you'll be fine and will appreciate all the options Chrysler crammed in there.

The power doors, hatch and rear folding seats were nice luxuries. However, my son nearly lost his finger tips when he pressed the side door button and then jammed his finger in at the very last second! There is a disabling switch for the side door buttons, but in my opinion that switch should be mounted higher up on the pillar: it's waaaay too low if a 19 month old can reach it.

The plastics were a bit on the cheap side, but not as awful as I had expected them to be. The dash mounted shifter wasn't a problem either. All the lights inside the cabin were appreciated: you really can't have too many in a van if you ask me.

Overall we were fairly impressed with the van with a few caveats. Firstly, the van felt a little anemic even with the top of the line 4.0 V6 and I would like to see the handling tightened up a bit. Chrysler will have a new range of engines available in a few years and hopefully they'll quickly find their way into the minivans.

The worst thing about our drive, however, was sadly the dealer. They were friendly enough, but had plastered a $6,000 markup on the vehicle. I find those stickers insulting and indefensible. The salesman tried to tell me that this was one of only two Limited vans in California (maybe he said Northern California, I'm not certain). In any case, he said that they were getting "full sticker" for the vans. This markup would place the van at over $47,000. Ridiculous. A quick check of Cars Direct showed a price of around $37,000 for the van and checking Chrysler's website showed a considerable number of Limited model vans in the Bay Area. I would never buy from any store that fibbed as badly as this group did. Shameful.

I do think that the fully loaded T&C fairs very well against equivalent models from Toyota and Honda. I would certainly consider this van when we look to replace our Odyssey. As an added bonus, we'll see the VW version of this van at the Chicago show. The VW will have improved plastics and better handling: both welcomed improvements. However, if this loaded T&C is $41k then how much will a decked out VW be? Scary.