What It Is: A luxury-oriented seven-passenger minivan.
What's New: Engine, interior, exterior.
Why You Need to Know: Chrysler is moving its minivan farther away from the Dodge Grand Caravan in both perception and price.

Update: While the Chrysler press conference isn't for a few more hours, a couple of 2011 Town & Country minivans are already on the floor. A quick look proves one important thing: The interior is vastly improved. gone is the hard plastic on the doors, replaced with comfortable armrests. The pile-of-boxes look of the dash is also replaced with a smoother, more integrated panel that not only looks better, but feels beter to the touch. Most surprisingly, even the sliding center console seems less flimsy, as though they took the time to add a little extra plastic into the molds, or at least lubricate the sliding mechanism.

The new Stow 'n Go is also better, although not quite as successful as the dash upgrades. While it's true that you can stow the new seat -- which is marginally wider than before -- with one hand, you need to slide the front seat to its furthest extreme and hold up the bin lid with your spare hand. So, Chrysler is half right: It does reduce the number of hands needed to fold the seat, but from three to two, not from two to one. One of the vans sports Chrysler's new integrated center console, and it gives the van a much classier appearance.

Overall, the new van looks like a worthy upgrade, and right on time, as Honda and Toyota aren't sitting still.

Preview: The Chrysler Town & Country is benefiting from a much-needed new interior for the 2011 model year, and just in the nick of time. With a new Honda Odyssey now hitting dealer showrooms, the 2011 Toyota Sienna already cleaning up, and a new Nissan Quest on the way, the Town & Country's sub-par interior just wasn't going to cut it. Along with the all-new interior, the Town & Country gets a new V-6 engine, making it the most powerful van in its class, and a new standard set of safety equipment that includes blind spot detection and a cross-path alert system. With prices recently announced, it looks like Chrysler is also moving its van upscale, with even base models coming in at more than $30,000.