Minivans

Review: 2010 Chrysler Town & Country Limited

Family Friendliness: 8.8

Recommended: Yes

Specifications apply to this test vehicle.

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By Keith Buglewicz

After a decade of declining sales, minivans look like they're making a comeback. The 2011 Toyota Sienna is already here, and both the 2011 Honda Odyssey and the 2011 Nissan Quest could shake up the minivan world when they debut this fall.

But what about the company that started it all? The 2010 Chrysler Town & Country -- along with its counterpart, the 2010 Dodge Grand Caravan -- were fully redesigned a couple of years ago, and together they account for nearly half of all minivans sold in the U.S. But today's competition is fiercer than ever, and after the updated Odyssey and Quest go on sale the Chrysler and Dodge twins will be among the oldest minivans on the market. Can they handle the coming competitive onslaught? I spent a week hauling the family in a 2010 Chrysler Town & Country, and while the van boasts unique and compelling features, it also suffers from some shortcomings that made me stop and think hard about endorsing this particular people mover.

Model & Pricing

The 2010 Chrysler Town & Country Limited test vehicle I drove was about as fully loaded as you can get. The van's base price was a somewhat modest $35,880, which included the $820 destination charge. That gets you a nicely equipped van that includes the top-of-the-line 4.0-liter V-6 engine, leather upholstery, backup sensors and a backup camera, rear window shades, a power rear hatch and other luxury items. Options on our test car included a $595 power-folding third row seat, a $2,020 dual-screen DVD system with Sirius satellite TV, and a $1,300 navigation and audio system. The $495 Chrysler "Swivel 'n' Go" second-row seating added comfortable second-row captain's chairs that can be turned to face rearward, and they included $225 pop-up booster seats built into the bottom cushion. A $600 towing package added heavy-duty engine cooling and other durability improvements. Put it all together (along with a few other items) and you have $41,415 worth of 2010 Chrysler Town & Country, not quite as modest, but still competitive with other premium model minivans.

Safety

Minivans have to boast impressive safety features just to be in the game, and the Chrysler Town & Country makes no apologies. It has five star federal front and side impact ratings, and Good ratings from the IIHS for the same tests. It also boasts standard stability and traction control and about as many airbags as you can think of. Our test van featured Chrysler's Safety Sphere group, a $515 option that adds blind spot detection and also alerts you to cross traffic when backing up. About the only demerit is the Marginal score it earned in IIHS rear collision tests.

Behind the Wheel

The Town & Country's 4.0-liter V-6 engine puts out 251 horsepower, plenty to get this big van moving, but it never felt spry like its Honda and Toyota competition. The engine also gets loud and unpleasant when you floor the gas pedal, and even at cruise on a highway you can hear the V-6 droning in the background. Fuel economy was poor too, averaging only 14.2 mpg in city-biased driving. On the road the van bounded around after large bumps and didn't absorb small ones particularly well, either. Throw in steering that felt vague and required multiple corrections just to keep the T&C going straight down the highway and you have a generally unpleasant driving experience compared to the new Toyota Sienna or even the soon-to-be-replaced 2010 Honda Odyssey.

Utility & Comfort

If you're going to drive a four-wheeled box, you'd expect a premium on utility and any minivan is tough to beat in this category. The 2010 Chrysler Town & Country boasts plenty of storage space, with cupholders everywhere, a dual glovebox, ample door pockets, power windows on the sliding doors and power vent windows, and space for enough knickknacks to create a mobile Bed Bath & Beyond. We especially liked the big compartments under the floor in front of the second-row seats. They're big enough for a couple of backpacks, purses, camera bags or other items you'll want to conceal.

Behind the third row is an ample 32.3 cu.-ft. of cargo space, enough for a stroller, groceries, and few big-box store items if you spend a couple extra minutes packing it all right. Chrysler's power folding third row makes collapsing the seats a breeze. A single press of the buttons folds (15.5 seconds) or unfolds (17.5 seconds) the seats on their own; no constantly holding the buttons down as with the Toyota Sienna. They're also located conveniently on the side of the cargo area, rather than on the ceiling where Toyota puts them.

Behind the second row seats is a downright gargantuan 82.7 cu.-ft. of cargo room, but if you want to expand the Town & Country to its full 140.1 cu.-ft. of cargo space, things can get tricky. The Town & Country offers two different second-row seating options, and it should be noted that neither allows three-across seating, which both the Honda Odyssey and Toyota Sienna have. Instead, Chrysler's two-place seating configurations for the second row focus on flexibility. The first -- standard on all models -- is Chrysler's clever Stow 'n' Go seats. With the pull of a lever, the seats fold into a compartment under the floor, eliminating the need to ever remove them from the vehicle. It's great for quickly maximizing cargo space, but designing a seat to fit into the floor meant making it thin, narrow and not too comfortable for anybody older than a 'tween. It's not a big deal if your primary second-row passengers are in boosters, but it's important to keep in mind if you plan on long hauls with older kids or adults.

Our test van had Chrysler's optional Swivel 'n' Go seats. Like the name says, you can swivel these big, cushy, multi-adjustable captain's chairs to face the rear. The option also includes a floor-mounted table, allowing you to turn your van into a mobile conversation pit. While the concept sounds good, it had some significant drawbacks. First, although kids dig the idea of facing the rear, the novelty wears off as soon as the unfamiliar angle makes one of them carsick. The flimsy plastic tabletop and hard-to-mount post conspire to keep you from wanting to even use the table, plus it complicates getting in and out of the third row. But by far the biggest demerit was the weight of the seats themselves. At more than 90 pounds apiece, the big, bulky seats required two adult men to remove, important to keep in mind if you frequently max out your van's cargo area. In fact, the seats would get thumbs down but for two things. First, they're more comfortable than the Stow 'n' Go seats. Second they're the only way you can order a Town & Country with the built-in pop-up booster seats. These are super handy, and make converting the van from kids-only hauler to grownups-night-out as easy as pulling a strap; no boosters cluttering up the garage or cargo area. It's about as convenient as it gets, but for the $720 you have to pay (remember, you have to get the $495 Swivel 'n' Go to order the $225 boosters) you could get the nicest boosters Babies R Us offers, with money left over. As a side note, by coincidence we rented a Town & Country with the Stow 'n' Go seats shortly before receiving this test vehicle, and hands down preferred them to the swivel seats.

So the T&C has compelling utility, as long as you choose your seats wisely, but what about comfort? Here, the Town & Country continues to be a mixed bag. On the plus side, the seats in our test van were plenty comfortable in all three rows, with plenty of head and leg room for virtually any stature. I received no complaints about the built-in booster seats either. In fact, my three pint-size testers worked out their own U.N.-worthy compromise, rotating in and out of them so everyone would get a turn. The third row seats were also comfy, boasting one LATCH point for a child seat, and with a split-fold that allows for long cargo and passengers. The power folding mechanism includes a power reclining seatback, and since the bottom cushion tilts sharply upward, there's decent thigh support for adults. One downside was that it's difficult to properly fit the seatbelt when using a booster, as the shoulder belt never quite fit snugly across the shoulder and chest as recommended.

Our biggest problem was with the overall quality of the interior, which felt cheap despite numerous clever features. Much of the plastic inside feels low-grade, and only the seat faces had leather in the Limited model we drove; the sides and back were covered in durable cloth. The dash-mounted shifter was too high and away to reach comfortably, and it didn't slide smoothly through its positions. The multi-adjustable center console is great in concept, but it's so flimsy it feels like it'll break each time you adjust it. The list goes on and on, and while there are quality touches here and there, it's not enough to offset the overall feeling of cheapness that pervades the Town & Country.

Family Friendliness

Family friendly features make or break a minivan, and it's here that the Town & Country redeems itself. The blind spot detection and cross-traffic warning sensors can be very handy when executing a lane change or reversing this big van into traffic. Chrysler's uConnect system of iPod and cell phone integration is as good as anything out there, and the navigation system is superb. The satellite TV is very cool, and although it's limited to Cartoon Network, Disney and Nickelodeon, you can quiet your screaming progeny by either turning it on -- or threatening to never again let them watch Hannah in the vannah. The dual screens mean that one display can show a DVD movie, and the other can use the built-in RCA jacks to play Wii games on the road. Even Swivel 'n' Go, despite its shortcomings, can be nifty if your passengers have iron stomachs. Obviously, there are power sliding doors, and the Limited comes with a power hatch that has cargo lights mounted on the door for great nighttime illumination. There's even a rechargeable flashlight in the cargo area. It's just too bad that there's no way to fit eight inside, a distinct disadvantage compared to the Honda Odyssey and Toyota Sienna.

Conclusion

The Town & Country presents us with something of a conundrum. On one hand, it's packed with a lot of cool features that simply aren't available elsewhere. If you like them, the Swivel 'n' Go seats are pretty neat, and the standard Stow 'n' Go is incredibly handy. It's the only van available with pop-up boosters at all. The dual-screen system can show two different things at the same time, and there are lots of little touches -- like the monstrously big coat hangar hooks -- that show Chrysler's designers were thinking things through. On the other hand, the Town & Country's interior quality and driving experience were disappointing. Furthermore, the T&C's competitors offer their own mix of compelling features, and generally are more pleasant to drive. Yet after weighing all the pros and cons, we decided that the pluses outweighed the minuses just enough to Recommend the Town & Country and its Dodge Grand Caravan sibling to minivan shoppers. However, we'd also recommend waiting for a few months. Not only will the new Honda Odyssey and Nissan Quest be available, but the Town & Country is rumored to be getting an interior makeover for the 2011 model year, which likely will address many of our complaints.

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