The 2005 Chrysler Town & Country Touring: Quietly the Best

Life is a bit like an auto show: It always seems to be dazzling you with sexy creations, while more worthwhile offerings bide their time in the waking-world equivalent of a third floor viewing area.So it was with Chrysler’s excellent but unsexy 2005 Town & Country minivan at a recent car show we attended.Of course, any minivan has a problem appearing sexy. And if its sad association with the shuttling of suburbanites weren’t enough, anything made in North America is going to have to overcome the inferior status (relative to imported competitors) ascribed to it by our country’s coastal elites.These elites might consider buying a Chrysler for its link to Daimler Benz, but generations will have to pass before they’ll ever forget the K-car. So, until then, pass the Honda Odyssey or Toyota Sienna, thank you very much.To its credit, the Chrysler’s minivans don’t even try attracting the overseas gaze of America’s Oceanside gentry. The K-car platform is long gone, but when, earlier this year, minivan-pioneer DaimlerChrysler treated its current crop of vans (which are also sold as Dodge Caravans) to a $400 million midcycle revision, the fact of it didn’t so much as scratch the consciousness of your average coastal Bobo in paradise.And, really, why should it? After all, Chrysler has barely altered the Town & Country’s appearance. Those for whom the revised minivan might hold an appeal must look for changes taking place within it. Here’s what they’ll find:First, there are the new second- and third-row “Stow ‘n Go” seats that fold into wells located in the floor to free up the best-in-class 161 cubic feet of cargo space that the Chrysler affords. The wells become covered storage bins once the seats are raised. Other Town & Country upgrades include three-row, supplemental, side-curtain air bags and the use of something called “Quiet Steel,” in which high-tech noise-baffling material gets sandwiched between two layers of the metal. Chrysler claims that this reduces noise, harshness, and vibration, particularly in the van’s rear flooring. The refined vehicle also has had expandable polyurethane foam injected into several of its platform cavities.Chrysler brand minivans fall into Base, LX, Touring, and Limited trim categories, with the base model coming on a 189-inch regular platform and the others on a 201-inch extended wheelbase. Each uses either a 3.3-liter or 3.8-liter V6. All Town & Country models have four speed automatic transmissions and newly available driver-side knee airbags. Fold-flat seats and antilock brakes are standard equipment on most of the long wheelbase models, while traction control remains as an option. All but the Limited model (in which it comes as standard equipment) have a newly optional array of curtain-side airbags to help protect both seating rows.The test Town & Country was a Touring FWD, its three-letter suffix standing for front-wheel rather than four-wheel drive, as slow sales have prompted Chrysler to drop the latter as a minivan option. Nevertheless, in addition to the Stow ‘n Go seats, the “butane blue” brat-hauler came with four-wheel disc brakes, a tire pressure monitor, and traction control – all part of a package that brought its price most of the way up to 33 grand.Inside the Touring’s leather trimmed interior, driver and passengers felt set high within a roomy, smart looking, and moderately refined cabin. Before the driver were set an easily read array of silver-faced instruments. The dash’s slightly driver-angled center portion contained controls for an in-dash six-disc CD/DVD changer as well as for a “3-Zone” climate system that provided settings for the driver and front- and rear-seat occupants. Both sets were annoyingly complex.Access to the rear passenger area was easily attained via power-sliding side doors that led to a seating area that was large, albeit slightly compromised by the structure of the Stow ‘n Go seats. Once you folded these down, however, the 161-square feet of cargo area opened up was large enough to accommodate coastal-elite assumptions too big to comport with reality. No problem for your T&C Touring, though.What’s more, this cargo can be accessed by means of a powered rear-lift back that will automatically retreat once it encounters the slightest resistance. Coastal elites ought to go for that in a big way.We drove the Touring to the coast, enjoying its road composure, strong acceleration, and quiet passage. On the Eastern Shore, we coursed the cobblestone streets of colonial-era towns, but no one in any Starbucks we passed so much as looked up from their New York Review of Books to regard the minivan as it rolled past. Most likely, they were waiting for a real Mercedes to go by. No matter. While it will never merit model-and-turntable treatment at the East Hampton auto show, we consider the Chrysler Town & Country to be among the best in its class.

The 2005 Chrysler Town & Country Touring: Quietly the Best

The 2005 Chrysler Town & Country Touring: Quietly the Best

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