The best thing about the Chrysler Town & Country minivan is that if you have one, you really won’t need to have a living room in your house - it’s all there for you in the car.
More features than I can list
The list of features in this rig is nothing short of amazing. Three video screens - one for each row of seats - allow you to play DVDs for the whole family. And get this, the Town & Country has satellite TV! You can cruise down the road and the people in the back can catch whatever happens to be on. When you get the car, the only channels enabled are Disney, Nickelodeon, and Cartoon Network - I think they know their audience for the test drive.
But it doesn’t end with a home theater extravaganza. The Town & Country also has special power gewgaws to let you open or close both sliding side doors and the rear hatch with the double-click of a button. You can start the car up remotely as well, but it won’t let you go anywhere until you insert the key properly.
And - as if all that wasn’t enough - once you get the hatch open, the third-row seats are powered and button-controlled, too. All you do is punch a button and the seats fold themselves up into the well at the back of the van.
More TVs (and channels) than my living room
Don’t press that button with your groceries packed into the storage well, though. Three guesses how I figured that one out.
There’s also a center console that has more little pop-opens and drawers than a Chinese puzzle box - and this was my only real peeve about the T&C - the console wobbled a lot and just felt like it wouldn’t last. The rest of car seems well-built and solid.
Party Central
Driving the Town & Country van is nice. The 4.0-liter V6 has plenty of power and the 6-speed automatic transmission shifts quickly and smoothly. The T&C handles better than you’d expect for a minivan - especially a pretty big minivan. Brakes are likewise adequate to the task. It ain’t a Ferrari, but it gets you down the road just fine.
Oh yeah, the T&C also has a backup camera that displays on the dash video screen (which also serves as your touchscreen audio control). I like that feature, especially in a bigger vehicle.
And you can drive it, too!
The van I had was also equipped with rotating second-row seats and a socket in the floor where you plug in an RV table - so you can have a meal, work on homework, or hold a meeting in the van. With satellite TV, no less.
The T&C is also comfortable. You could drive this thing across country and not cripple yourself. Fuel economy is OK, at 16/23 - not bad for the size, weight, and engine/transmission combo you’re working.
OK, so, believe it or not, there are still a lot more features and ding-dongs to mention. You also get HID headlights, fogs, a built-in universal garage door opener, tire pressure monitoring, a curved mirror for the driver to observe the back seat passengers, 3-zone air conditioning, 110-volt outlet, plenty of cup holders and 12-volt outlets, a removable-rechargeable flashlight, heated seats in the first AND second rows, a hard-drive audio system in the dash, ambient surround lighting - and the list goes on and on and on. I bet if I looked under the rear seats, I’d find a kitchen sink.
About the only thing a family could want that’s not offered in the Chrysler Town & Country minivan is a Swedish nanny named Inga - but if you have one of those, you’ll have enough room to carry her along with the kids, the dog, and up to 11 soccer balls.
I’m not really a minivan guy - I’ve never wanted one, never shopped the segment, and I don’t know a lot about them. But I do know cars, and at $39,785, the Chrysler Town & Country van is a good deal. You get every feature you could want in a van and it’s a good car.
