dakotadoc's Full Review: 2005 Chrysler Town & Country
I bought one of the first of the newer style Dodge Grand Caravans back in 1996. With over 101,000 miles of trouble free use I decided it was time to upgrade and buy a new one. I test drove many other vehicles before deciding to buy a Daimler Chrysler product. I just about bought a Toyota Sienna so you could say that one came in as number two for me. Now I’m wondering if I should have made that one my number one choice. I now have 1000 miles on the new van.
Daimler Chrysler offered so many incentives to purchase I swayed towards their product again. I purchased the 2005 Chrysler Town & Country Limited fully loaded with every whistle and bell they have except for the satellite radio. I have the sun roof, DVD player, GPS navigator, 6 CD changer, premium leather seats with electric heat… the works. I plan on having the color matched running boards, molded rear mud flaps and rear spoiler installed as I had those same accessories on my old van.
I think the Town & Country has the best overall body styling of all the mini-vans. The 2005 is a vast improvement over the previous years. I don’t see any need to have any vinyl graphics and striping installed as I had done before. It’s just perfect the way it is. I chose the Inferno Red pearl coat finish and have received many compliments how it is such a nice color.
The overall fit and finish both inside and out is excellent. The ride is much more quiet than my old van and is very similar to that of the Sienna. The stereo system is wonderful. I think it rivals many home stereos in fact. The GPS navigator works well and is fairly easy to learn how to run. I only wish they didn’t have to put up a warning disclaimer screen on every startup that has to be cancelled. Apparently some lawyer must have thought it a good idea to warn you to pay attention to the road. It’s annoying nonetheless.
Rather than go into the operation of the many numerous goodies in this van I will concentrate mainly on what I don’t like. You can assume that everything else are things I do like or they seem to work as intended.
Things I don’t like about this van:
I am a very large person and the vehicle is obviously made to suit small soccer moms mainly.
My number one complaint is that there has been a loss of headroom. The seats are now about 1.5-2 inches higher. My hair now lightly brushes against the ceiling. I have the seats in their lowest position and the back slightly reclined in order to ride as comfortably as I can.
There is no storage drawer option for under the front passenger seat with the power adjustable seats. The glove compartment is nearly identical to that of previous models and storage is marginal at best.
The center console is pretty much a joke. I refer to it as a rounded trash can. There is a hinged lid on the top with a fold out cell phone holder and a removable tray. Under the tray is a big bin. Basically like a barrel or trash bin. I think they should have at least made some sort of CD rack or something to put in there. They should have put some sort of molded in cup holders on it also. (The Toyota Sienna’s console is the one I wish I had in this vehicle.)
The cup holders are now placed much lower than previously and are very flimsy in construction. When I put a large drink in the holder it will bend. I don’t know how long it will survive usage. A spilled drink is sure to slop over into the CD changer. Tall drinks get in the way of both the CD controls and the 3 zone climate control. It’s a bad design. The familiar coin holder and roomy catch-all compartment (when not having a smoker’s package with ashtray) are gone. There is a small tray and no coin holder. The coin holder is now part of the small bin at the base of the dash where it meets the floor. It is absolutely of no use to me whatsoever as I can’t reach it without unbuckling my seat belt. Even so it’s with great difficulty. Not much thought went into the design of the vehicle in this area.
The MSRP on this vehicle is nearly $38,000.00 and I’m now wondering how much I will lose when I trade it off. My neck is beginning to bother me from sitting in an abnormal position. I figured the seats would perhaps settle in and sort of squish down as time went on. Maybe I should have purchased the Sienna.
11-13-04 UPDATE: The radio with the built in GPS navigator seems to work fairly well. The database CD doesn't have a lot of the details of my locality in it however. Some gas stations are shown but many are not. I decided to compare the altitude reported with actual city engineer's reports. The built in GPS shows an almost consistent 100 feet less than the actual altitudes. (So, I'm supposedly driving 100 feet underground). Chrysler says that there is nothing they can do about it and I should contact Alpine to see if the unit is operating within normal parameters. Normal parameters? I can see a few or perhaps several feet difference... but 100 feet? That makes that particular function useless in my estimation.
With nearly 1500 miles in the vehicle now I have found that the driver's seat foam does compress somewhat more now. My hair only occasionally brushes against the roof of the vehicle. I have the seat all the way down, almost all the way back and the seat back somewhat reclined in order to achieve this. I can’t imagine how small a person would have to be in order to require moving the seat higher. The designers should have made it so smaller persons could raise the seat up where needed while leaving enough room for larger persons in the lower position.
Of course, the control pedal adjustment stays all the way down. Again, this vehicle seems to be designed for the very small driver.
08-19-2005 Update: I now have over 10,000 miles on this vehicle. I have been getting excellent gas mileage in the range of 22mpg average at 77mph set on the cruise control.
The GPS Navigator is great when I'm driving in an area that has been mapped such as Fargo, ND. It's totally useless in places such as Winnipeg, MB Canada where it looks as if you have gone off the map in a video game. It's an expensive toy for sure. A Garmin GPS would be a wiser investment I think.
The stereo system is awesome in this vehicle. No complaints there! :)
I purchased the covered storage bin to go in the well behind the third row seats. That's a handy accessory for storage of items out of view to the passerby. It also allows more storage in the area both in the bin and on top of the lid. I also purchased a custom cut carpeted mat for when I decide to have the third row seats folded and I want to haul luggage, etc, in the rear for long trips. That keeps the seat backs from rubbing and wearing out.
I did have some trouble with the power rear gate. Some plastic was in the way of the mechanism and it would get caught once in awhile and not allow it to close. Three trips to the Chrysler garage and they finally fixed that for me.
The automatic climate control is wonderful. It keeps the driver, front passenger and rear areas at whatever temperature that is selected. If it needs the A/C, heat, or recirculation turned on it does it all automatically to maintain that temperature.
The ride is very smooth and quiet even after 10,000 miles.
Although I'd redesign a few things, the vehicle is a keeper. I wasn't so sure in the beginning. But, the seats are more comfortable once they have been "broken in".
More later on.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 32,000
Condition: New Model and Options: Town & Country LIMITED
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