2008 Town and Country -- LONG Review

[autofan]

Originally Posted by kodos78

As I noted, the Lambdas work well -- to a point. When you have more than two kids (especially in child seats) a Lambda doesn't work well any longer. Accessing the third row is a problem.

Sliding doors are not present on the Lambda, making it harder to get the kids in and out as well. With a couple of clicks on our fob, we can open the doors and the kids scurry in easily (lower step in height) even at 2 & 3 years of age.

And of course the cargo capacity of the Lambdas is much much lower.
Some magazine did a comparison of the Sequoia to the Acadia and the Odyssey. The Odyssey was far more versatile than the other two and could haul more stuff inside.

You're correctly describing the functional benefits of a minivan but my point was that Chrysler's vans have no style along with the functionality. The Lambdas manage to do both, perhaps at the expense of all-out function. For me (and I assume many others), I cannot completely forego style for functionality. For such buyers, crossovers are a reasonable alternative. While I had the T&C rental my wife and I appreciated all of the storage and ease of entry/exit and excellent visibility, but the dull and lifeless look and feel was nearly depressing.

[kodos78]

I do not disagree with your assessment. I think you have to realize that if you have 3+ kids with some in child seats, Lambdas are non starters. Plus, rentals are traditionally pretty drab lifeless affairs. Our T&C is rather pleasant on the inside.

I would have loved to buy a minivan built on the Lambda platform. Instead GM spends money on the ZR-1, Solstice Coupe, Sky, etc...

I think that if anyone could create a great looking functional minivan it would be GM. Oh well, Chrysler got my dough.

Originally Posted by autofan

You're correctly describing the functional benefits of a minivan but my point was that Chrysler's vans have no style along with the functionality. The Lambdas manage to do both, perhaps at the expense of all-out function. For me (and I assume many others), I cannot completely forego style for functionality. For such buyers, crossovers are a reasonable alternative. While I had the T&C rental my wife and I appreciated all of the storage and ease of entry/exit and excellent visibility, but the dull and lifeless look and feel was nearly depressing.

[goblue]

Yes, Yes, Yes - much of this is true, but its still a minivan - and it brings with it the stereotype of a neutered dad and a rabid soccer mom.

Personally, I could care less about the stereotypes, but still wouldn't consider it unless I had 3 kids or more close in age. And I'm quite confident I'm not retarded.

[kodos78]

I PM'd you back, but I figured that I might as well respond to this thread directly. I had to check on this this morning, as my wife drives the van and I got home too late to bother to check last night

But yep, the window/door lock switches are illuminated. The only thing that isn't are the exterior mirror controls. But there's also a lot of ambient light in the van now due to the overhead lighting, so it makes looking around the cabin at night pretty pleasant.

Originally Posted by Shotgun

Kodos78, have you happened to notice if the window/door lock switches are illuminated at night when the lights are on? I have an 06 T&C Limited and that is one, if not the only, peeve I have with it. Just curious to see if this "issue" was addressed with the new vans.

[MalibuMaxxSS]

Originally Posted by goblue

. And I'm quite confident I'm not retarded.

Hmmm I think the jury is still out on this one....

my poke for the day.

[Ghrankenstein]

Delayed reaction, I know, but this is the single best reader review I've ever seen on GMI. The read was refreshing yet useful, to which I can relate a lot since I use great quantities of neither in my own reviews.

Well done.

Ghrankenstein

[Exploder]

Excellent, detailed review. I believe Chrysler, for all the crap they make in other areas, does a commendable job when it comes to minivans.

Perhaps GM should try their hand at minivans again in the future - if the future gives minivans a chance.

[kodos78]

Exploder/Ghrankenstein -- thanks for the positive feedback! I wrote the review because I was pretty frustrated by how little attention these vans (and minivans in general) have been receiving from the mainstream car reviewers.

And I do hope that minivans receive a chance. I wish that the upcoming Ford Flex had a sliding door option, and I wish that GM would devote their creative and engineering resources to a new minivan. I know that Ford and GM could create a world class van (I think something with the Flex's looks with minivan features would be killer) if they got off their asses and did it. Just like they finally got competitive with the Malibu & Fusion.

[69Firebird400]

Great review, kodos78. I've spent a lot of time in the current crop of minivans (for better or worse) and liked the Town & Country a lot. I tested a Limited with everything, and it was a very useful vehicle. I agreed with bascially all of your assessments.

My wife and I ended up choosing a Sienna Limited AWD because unfortunately Toyota was the only one that still offered AWD, and we wanted at least one of our vehicles to have all four wheels driven in case of snow/inclement weather. That my wife and young sons are the ones in that vehicle (clearly the safest in terms of size, features, and AWD that we own) is icing on the cake.

The T&C Limited I drove obviously had the 4.0/6 speed, but after an idiot ran into our Sienna a few weeks ago, we got a Grand Caravan SXT with the 3.8/6-speed that your van has. Although it had been nearly a month since I had the Chrysler in the garage, I didn't notice any dropoff in low-RPM acceleration in the 3.8 vs. the 4.0. The only difference was the 4.0 also had the higher-RPM power which the OHV 3.8 lacked. But the 3.8 still moves the van well enough.

I had also been averse to driving a minivan until we got ours, and you really can't beat the family-friendly utility of them with any other vehicle. I wouldn't be surprised (though we're not seeing this yet) if the families who abandoned minivans in the 1990s for large SUVs come back to minivans eventually in an era of $4+ gasoline prices.

I had a lot of the same interior observations that you did, especially in terms of material quality. The Sienna, since it's an older design Toyota, doesn't have the obvious cost cutting that their more recent models suffer from, so it (at least our Limited) had a nicer interior than the T&C Limited. The gearshift feel in the two Chrysler LLC vans I've spent time in as you shift out of park into drive was the cheapest, worst tactile feel I've experienced in probably a dozen years. They REALLY need to fix that ASAP.

Overall, they're pretty good vans and worthy of consideration if AWD isn't a must as it was for me.