2008 Chrysler Town & Country Limited
Wednesday, July 30th, 2008 in Advanced Auto NEWS, Chrysler
Usually, a new vehicle in AutoWeek’s long-term test fleet is cause for celebration, with a stampede to the garage followed by the inevitable jockeying for keys to our latest toy.
Not so much with our latest addition, a stone-white 2008 Chrysler Town & Country Limited that was dubbed “the Norge”–as in the refrigerator brand–before it even got here. That’s not to say there wasn’t immediate interest. The vehicle was booked before it arrived for an across-the-country family ski trip, and its dance card filled rapidly thereafter with requests for everything from family vacations to short hauling jobs to towing duties.
We’re an enthusiast magazine, and we have grease, oil and gasoline running through our veins, yet deep down, many of us harbor a secret lust for the most mundane of automotive creations, the humble yet infinitely practical minivan.
This is no ordinary minivan, mind you. Our Town & Country started at $36,755 but stickered out at $41,990 (both prices include $770 destination) once we got done piling on the extras. The highlight is the DVD entertainment system, including two eight-inch flip-down video screens (three screens in all if you count the front navigation screen, which will play movies when the car is in park), backed by Sirius satellite radio and television (although the TV is limited to three kids’ channels). We added Chrysler’s MyGIG multi-media/GPS navigation system, which can store up to 20 gigabytes of music, movies, photos and phone numbers. We also prepped the vehicle for towing, with a wiring harness, load-leveling and height-control suspension, heavy-duty engine cooling, heavy-duty radiator and heavy-duty transmission cooler, but for some unknown reason, we didn’t include a trailer hitch or a wiring plug.
The coup de grâce? That has to be Chrysler’s new Swivel ‘n Go second-row seating, which comes with a stowable table, and a power-folding third row.
Can you say “road trip”? We knew you could.
Our chrome-accented white van is as boxy as any other minivan, but Chrysler took it a step further by squaring off the corners in an obvious move to quit trying to make its minivan emulate the sporty curves of every crossover sport/utility vehicle on the market. The result is a fresh, new appearance that also takes Chrysler’s minivan back to its Lee Iacocca-influenced roots.
The interior, in gray and light shale shades (and leather for the first and second rows), is well appointed and practical, with controls readily at hand, such as the dash-mounted shifter. The center console provides lots of storage space, including a handy top-door stash spot for smaller items such as wallets and phones.
Special attention to light-ing is evident in the Town & Country, from the projector-beam map lights to the illuminated band surrounding the overhead console to the always-charged flashlight tucked into the rear cargo area. Other little surprises: upper and lower gloveboxes, a designated ice scraper/umbrella holder and power windows in the sliding doors.
Hauling this 4621-pound front-driver down the highway is a quiet 4.0-liter, 251-hp, 259-lb-ft V6 hooked to a smooth six-speed automatic. Vented disc brakes at all four corners provide the stopping power, while MacPherson struts and coil springs in front and coil springs in back soak up the bumps.
Let’s just get it out of the way: In keeping with our philosophy of properly testing our long-term vehicles, yes, we track-tested a minivan.
It performed about as well as we expected, running from 0 to 60 mph in 9.12 seconds and through the quarter-mile in 16.93 seconds (at 83.5 mph). That’s about a second slower to 60 mph but nearly identical in the quarter-mile to our 300-hp, 3.7-liter V6-powered long-term 2008 Acura MDX, which weighs 4587 pounds.
Braking was a weak point, with the soft pedal diving all the way to the floor on hard stops. Stopping distance from 60 mph was 133 feet, 11 feet longer than for our MDX.
Predictably, the minivan was a bit of a slouch in our handling tests, pulling a mere 0.71 g on the skidpad (vs. 0.84 g for the all-wheel-drive MDX) and running our slalom course at 36.9 mph (compared with 41.3 mph for the MDX).
“It just mushes its way around” the skidpad, our test driver commented. On the upside, the tester reported that the minivan easily absorbed big bumps that typically cause other vehicles to bottom out and was highly controllable and predictable through our cone course, even with traction control turned off.
Suffice it to say, this is one great family hauler, long-distance runner and utility vehicle extraordinaire. We look forward to a year of piling on the miles as we explore both town and country.
Source:autoweek.com