Chrysler created the minivan segment a quarter-century ago, and continues to sell more of the things than any other manufacturer. But its success with minivans has been threatened from two directions. First, Honda and Toyota finally introduced highly competitive minivans in the late 1990s, and have continuously improved them in the decade since. As a result, Chrysler's share of the segment has declined. Second, the minivan segment as a whole has been shrinking as buyers have increasingly opted for less practical but more stylish SUVs. Recently both General Motors and Ford decided to abandon the segment in favor of large crossovers. But Chrysler decided to stick it out, and to introduce all-new minivans for 2008.

Are these new minivans good enough to compete with the Honda Odyssey and Toyota Sienna? Might they stop the decline of the segment by providing additional reasons to buy a minivan? To find out, I recently drove a Dodge with the 3.8-liter V6 and a Chrysler with the 4.0-liter V6. A previous review focused on the new Dodge Grand Caravan. This review focuses on the Town & Country Limited.

Styling

Even since Chrysler introduced the first minivans, their styling has become rounder and rounder. The previous generation Chrysler minivans have often been described as "egg shaped." Well, the new Town & Country is about as boxy a minivan as you'll find these days. Essentially, Chrysler kept the overall width about the same, but widened the body a number of inches at both the floor level and the roof level, dramatically reducing the curvature in the bodysides.

There are at least two explanations, both of which might be true. First off, a box feels much roomier inside than an egg. At eye-level the body is much wider. The A-pillars don't curve inward nearly so much, and as a result remain outside the driver's line of sight. From behind the wheel you don't much notice them. In the rear rows, outboard passengers' heads are much further from the window headers. So there are practical reasons for going boxy with the body.

From an aesthetic standpoint, egg-shaped vehicles cannot aspire to the rugged image that prompts many SUV purchases. An egg suggests motherhood and family. Many family vehicle buyers would like to think that their identity extends beyond parenthood. Hence the aversion to the typical minivan.

The new boxy design lacks these overtones. In addition to the slab sides, the hood is higher and much more horizontal than that of other minivans--almost like that of an SUV. This supports the relatively masculine character of the "Ram tough" Dodge much better than the old egg shape did.

However, the boxy new shape doesn't work as well with the luxury-oriented Chrysler. With a big chrome grille and chrome plated wheels, the Town & Country Limited looks like it's trying too hard to be something other than what it is--a plain box.

Inside, the styling follows a similar logic. The flat surfaces and sqaure shapes are plain and functional to a fault. That said, thanks to generous portions of both fake wood trim and fake aluminum trim, the Town & Country Limited feels much warmer inside than the Dodge Grand Caravan--especially if you opt of the beige interior. That said, the plastics used are just as hard to the touch in the Chrysler as in the Dodge, and don't look nearly as luxurious when scrutinized as they do at a glance.

I specify the Limited because lesser Town & Country trims have less of both the wood and aluminum, and have a much less luxurious ambiance as a result, even with leather upholstery.

Like the interior trim, the switches all feel as if they were engineered with low cost a top priority. They lack the smooth, solid feel you'll find in many competitors. All of the vans I drove or sat in were fitted with Chrysler's new uplevel center console, the top portion of which can slide rearward over a foot to ferry food and drink from the first row to the second. A nifty idea, but the execution leaves something to be desired. The console felt loose and rickety in all but the Town & Country Limited that I test drove.

Accommodations

The 2008 Chrysler Town & Country's driving position is much different than that in other minivans, including the previous generation Chryslers. The instrument panel is much higher than the minivan norm, and the hood is relatively level. In other minivans the hood tends to drop out of sight. As a result of these differences, from behind the wheel the new Town & Country seems more like an SUV, or at least a crossover, than a minivan.

The shifter is mounted on the instrument panel to the right of the steering wheel. The transmission can be manually shifted by tipping it left and right while in D. Unfortunately, it's a bit too far away for most people to comfortably reach. There's a reason why shifters are usually closer to the driver than the steering wheel is, rather than farther away.

Like that in other recent Chrysler products, the driver's seat in the new Chrysler Town & Country looks plain and insufficiently contoured, though the Limited's leather and faux suede upholstery does lend the seat a slightly more upscale appearance. Luckily the seat feels more comfortable than it looks. The driver gets a manually adjustable lumbar support, but the passenger does not, even in a fully loaded van.

Three second row seats are offered. Few Town & Countrys are being equipped with the base seat, a two-person bench. Next up are the Stow 'n Go seats introduced on the 2005. These are standard on the Limited. As before, they store completely beneath the floor, for quick and easy transitions between people-hauling and cargo-hauling. The downside: thought shaped well they are undersized for adults. In their lowest position, the headrests are at shoulder blade level.

New this year are Swivel 'n Go seats. These can be turned 180 degrees to face the second row. A small plastic stowable table is included with this option. When swiveled, the second row ends up about a foot away from the third row. This is too tight for adults who aren't intimate, but should be fine when the rear seat passengers are pre-teen children.

The swivelers do have a major advantage for adults: they're much larger and more thickly padded than the stowable buckets. So they're much more comfortable. The downside: they're too large to stow beneath the floor. The usefully large underfloor storage compartments are included with all three seating options, though.

Either set of buckets reclines. The Limited includes power windows in the power sliding doors are an option and power flip-out windows in the third row. Rear A/C is an option on the base minivan. I cannot imagine having such a large vehicle without it, and of course it's standard on the Limited.

Only one third-row seat is offered, a split stowable three-person bench. As before, it's shaped to provide adults with good thigh support. It can also be reclined or flopped over into a tailgating position.

On paper, the 2008 Chrysler Town & Country isn't as roomy inside as the competition from Honda and Toyota. In person, they all feel about equally roomy, with enough headroom and legroom in all three rows for adults. Notably, the second row now provides plenty of legroom for adults even when not adjusted fully aft. The big difference: there's now much more room for feet beneath the driver's seat.

Chrysler's innovations don't end with the center console and seats. LED reading lamps swivel like those on airliners (but feel a bit cheap in the process). Ambient lighting halos the ceiling-mounted console at night. The top level audio systems include a hard drive for media storage. And the top level entertainment system includes two screens, each of which can play a different movie or--via satellite--TV show.

Safety

Front seat side airbags, side curtain airbags in all three rows, and stability control are now all standard. A rear backup camera is available even without the nav system. Between this, large mirrors, and rear obstacle detection, backing up doesn't pose too great a challenge in a Grand Caravan with all three. One note: objects are closer than they appear on the screen.

On the Road

Three V6 engines are available in the 2008 Town & Country: a 175 horsepower 3.3-liter, a 197 horsepower 3.8-liter, and a 251 horsepower 4.0-liter. The 4.0 is only available in the Limited, where it is standard. The first engine is paired with the old four-speed automatic, while the other two are paired with a new manually-shiftable six-speed automatic first offered in the 2007 Chrysler Pacifica.

I drove a Dodge with the 3.8 and a Chrysler with the 4.0. Thanks to very short initial gearing, the six-speed extracts significantly punchier low-speed performance from the 3.8 than the old four-speed did. At higher speeds gearing cannot compensate for the 3.8's modest peak power output, and acceleration falls to merely adequate. Which is, well, at least adequate for how most people drive minivans. The 4.0 feels just a bit stronger below 40 miles-per-hour, but its advantage becomes substantial at higher speeds. The 4.0 also sounds less gruff than the 3.8.

The new Town & Country's suspension tuning is firmer than that of the Toyota Sienna, but not as firm as that of the Honda Odyssey. Handling and ride quality similarly fall between the Toyota and the Honda. The Chrysler handles confidently, but not sportily. Quick lane changes at highway speeds produce a bit of sway at the rear end, but I experienced none of the floatiness that can afflict the Sienna. The steering is moderately firm, not overly light like that of the Sienna. A sport suspension is included with the 4.0 in the Dodge, but is not available in the Chrysler.

Perhaps most importantly, the ride is much smoother than that of the previous Chrysler Town & Country, at least when the latter was fitted with the sport suspension. While the updated suspension does a better job of soaking up the bumps, the largest contributor could well be a noticeably stiffer body structure. The old van suffered from a rigidity deficit over bumps, and felt dated partly as a result.

The Town & Country Limited had 17-inch wheels, one inch larger than those on the Dodge I drove. Oddly, the sidewall height is unchanged. The uplevel tires lend the Chrysler more precise handling and a more composed ride, but the differences are not large. I did not note the makes of the tires, but this could be the source of the differences.

The new Town & Country seemed a bit quieter than the related Dodge, but this could have been a factor of different test drive routes or simply my imagination. I'd need to drive them back-to-back to be sure. Even if it is quieter than the Dodge, the Chrysler is not super-silent like the also new Buick Enclave crossover. The Toyota Sienna also seemed a bit quieter, with more of the smooth, silent feel of a luxury vehicle.

Chrysler Town & Country Price Comparisons and Pricing

The Chrysler Town & Country I drove, with pretty much everything except the swivelers, listed for $40,600.

The problem when comparing the price of the Dodge to the Honda and Toyota is that you need the 4.0 in the Dodge to match the base engines in the others, but this 4.0 is only available on a heavily loaded van. That said, I drove a heavily loaded van, and that's what I'll compare.

Compared to an 2008 Honda Odyssey Touring, such a loaded 2008 Chrysler Town & Country Limited lists for a whopping $30 less. Yep, they're quite close, and probably not by accident. But the Chrysler's virtually identical price includes about $2,300 in additional stuff, including the MyGig media heard drive and the second screen for the entertainment system.

A similarly loaded 2008 Toyota Sienna Limited lists for about $1,100 less, but the Chrysler includes about $1,600 in additional features. Further complicating the comparison, Toyota dealers do enjoy much wider margins. In the end, the Toyota will probably cost a little less, at least until Chrysler puts big rebates on its van.

Prices change frequently, and differences will vary based on feature level. To quickly generate these and other comparisons with the specific features you want, visit my Web site, www.truedelta.com. (It's the only site that provides true "apples-to-apples" price comparisons.)

TrueDelta's page for the Chrysler Town & Country:

http://www.truedelta.com/models/Country.php

Last Words

Overall, the 2008 Chrysler Town & Country sets few if any new performance benchmarks for the minivan segment, not even with the 4.0-liter V6, but neither is it far behind the leaders in any particular area. Where the old van felt dated, the new one feels competitive.

The main performance issue: the 4.0 is only available in the Limited.

But performance isn't what minivans are about. In other, more important areas, the Town & Country sometimes leads and sometimes lags. The largest shortfall is in materials quality. The interior materials and switchgear don't compare well with those in the Dodge's primary competitors. The largest advantages are in seating and toys. Often when a manufacturer introduces a new design, they want one feature that no one else has, to attract buyers' notice. The new Town & Country has a slew of such features: stowing seats, swivel seats, a table, dual entertainment systems, the sliding console, the aimable reading lights...the list goes on and on.

The driving position is another notable difference. The view forward is much more like that in an SUV than in other minivans. This will appeal to many people, especially those who tend to avoid minivans, but others will prefer the even more expansive view forward in other minivans.

Put it all together, and the new Chrysler Town & Country is the clear choice for those into innovative features (and keeping the kids occupied) while those who place a higher priority on interior materials will go elsewhere. Of course, the same pros and cons apply to the Dodge. The major differences are aesthetic. Want a warmer, more luxurious interior? Get the Chrysler. Want a truckier exterior? Get the Dodge.

A Note on Chrysler Town & Country Reliability

I cannot practically cover reliability within the context of this review. However, many people are interested in such information, so I've started collecting my own data. Results, once they are available, will be posted to my site, www.truedelta.com, with updates every three months.

Unlike other sources, TrueDelta will clearly identify what difference it will make if you buy a Town & Country rather than another vehicle by providing "times in the shop" and "days in the shop" stats (among others). You will be able to specify the number of years, annual miles, and types of repairs to include in Chrysler Town & Country reliability comparisons.

Before I can report results, I need reliability data on all cars--not just the Town & Country--from people like you. To encourage participation, those who help provide the data will receive free access to the site's reliability information. Non-participants will have to pay an access fee.

For the details, and to sign up, visit www.truedelta.com.

A link to this website and alphabetized links to my other vehicle reviews can be found on my profile page.

Some of my reviews of related vehicles:
Buick Enclave review
Dodge Grand Caravan review (similar to this one)
Honda Odyssey review
Hyundai Entourage review
Kia Sedona review
Nissan Quest review
Toyota Sienna review

Amount Paid (US$): 40,600
Model Year: 2008
Model and Options: Limited with nav and entertainment