2013 Chrysler Town & Country Limited review

The T&C offers an upscale alternative to those in the minivan market

When the current Chrysler minivan came out five years ago, it was packed with innovative features. There were the Stow 'N' Go, Swivel 'N' Go seats, tailgate rear bench, a table that popped up in the middle, handy kid-monitor rear view mirror, rear seat entertainment galore and a host of other features. It was the ultimate family van. Five years later, as the competition has evolved around it, it is still up there with the best of the class.

Being fully qualified to evaluate this 2013 Chrysler Town & Country Limited -- as one of the four in a family of four -- this has everything you could ask for in a family conveyance. In fact, you could fit five kids -- or adults -- easily in back plus the two parents up front, drive them all over the place and no one would complain. Indeed, two years ago we drove halfway across the country in one of these and the only problem was deciding what to watch on the flip-down screen. Should there be another mortgage melt down, you could probably even live comfortably in a Chrysler Town & Country.

This is not to say it's perfect, as Blake Z. Rong points out below, there were fit and finish problems -- who expects the start button to come out of the dash board? But a recent e-mail from quality and satisfaction surveyors AutoPacific lists the Chrysler Town & Country as the No. 1 minivan. Go figure.

On the road the driving position is ergonomically pretty nice; all that's missing is a love knob for the steering wheel to make it perfect. Our Limited edition got eight-way power adjustable seats up front with electric lumbar (good band name, Electric Lumbar).

Kids from numerous families all seem to love the rear-seat entertainment system. On our press van that meant the standard Media Center 730N with Uconnect, CD/DVD/MP3/NAV/SiriusXM and a 40GB hard drive, all blowing out entertainment through nine speakers and a subwoofer. The headsets for the rear seaters mean Mom and Dad can have a conversation while the little nippers watched their 11,000th episode of “Phineas and Ferb.” Add three-zone automatic climate control and everyone's happy.

And performance? By minivan standards this thing is a veritable hot rod. Remember, I said by minivan standards. While most minivans just try to get enough power to get on the freeway and then safely into the number 2 or 3 lane to block traffic, the Town & Country is actually, almost, fun to drive -- by minivan standards. In two improvised runs on an empty six-lane arterial road I got a 0-60 of 8.0 seconds while brake-torquing it at launch. Granted, few soccer-mom minivan owners are going to brake-torque at launch, but you never know.

There's plenty of room in the back, for kids, adults and about most things you'd need to haul around

The 3.6-liter V6 offers the most power and torque in the minivan class: 283 hp and 260 lb-ft of torque. Granted, the competitors Honda Odyssey, Toyota Sienna and Nissan Quest came within 35, 17 and 23 hp of the Chrysler, respectively, so it wasn't like they were left completely in the dust. But strapped into this bad boy you can still blow away the other moms at Montessori drop-off.

Mileage seems to be a big shopping point for minivan buyers and the Chrysler gets 17/25/20 mpg from the EPA. We got a lot less than that. In one 257.8-mile tankful at the hands of Mr. Rong the T&C returned 14.6 mpg. When I did 71 miles of half freeway/half stop-and-go slogging I got 13.8 and, apart from two full-throttle launches to 60 mph, I wasn't hot rodding it. Your mileage would almost certainly be better.

Minivans, like pickups and Porsches, can be ordered in a number of trim levels. So when you're comparing one to another you have to be sure you're comparing their apples to your oranges. The Town & Country starts off pretty well-loaded, with that three-zone climate, power-sliding doors on both sides, second-row 9-inch flip-down screen, eight-way power front seats and the Stow 'N' Go seating. So the starting price for a Town & Country is still going to be a little high, $40,990. Our Limited trim was $43,755. You can get a far less well-equipped version of this from Dodge starting in the very low $20s. The Nissan Quest and Toyota Sienna all start at under $30k, too. But for the full luxo cruiser T&C you pay more because it's so loaded. If it had a pop-top camper like the Eurovan, I might be tempted to trade.


ASSOCIATE WEST COAST EDITOR BLAKE Z. RONG: I don't always get minivans in my glamorous, glitzy press-car rotation, but when I do, I make the most out of it. The day I picked it up I drove four friends to a trendy art gallery opening on Melrose, possibly the finest cool/uncool balance since Steve Urkel's Isetta. The next day, I helped a friend move an unwieldy IKEA bookshelf. The day after that, I drove some more friends, this time for a hike around Mulholland Drive. (Fortunately, nobody became carsick.) If I hadn't switched with Vaughn, I would have taken up soccer just as an excuse to join the carpool lane.

Ask a small child to draw a minivan, and his crayon-pushed imagination will draw a two-box shape eerily similar to the Dodge/Chrysler twins. The exterior is, and let's put it nicely, “nostalgic.” It is straight-up minivan-blockiness, now that the Hummer H2 has sadly departed to that used car lot in the sky.

The T&C has a luxurious view directly within a 20-degree arc of the driver's eyes. Gauges are jewel-like in their design, attractive and easy to read, nestled in front of a hunk of steering wheel wood trim the approximate diameter of a Louisville Slugger. Plus, there's an analog clock in the middle of the dashboard: What luxury! What style!

The rest of the minivan doesn't hold up as nicely. For a new vehicle, the fit and finish on this van is atrocious -- the start/stop button was dangling from its hole, as if someone had tried to yank it out. Neither the chrome bezel nor the navigation unit fit properly in their dashboard cubbies. The seatbelt trim on the pillars was loose; I pushed it back in with my bare hands, to hide evidence of any wrongdoing. (You're welcome, Chrysler lawyers.) Dashboard-mounted shifters are in vogue for minivans, yet the Chrysler's -- entirely devoid of markings -- looks like it was squished between the gauges and the center console merely because Chrysler's designers forgot to put it in somewhere.

The 3.6-liter packs a punch for a minivan, delivering 283 hp and 260 lb-ft of torque

Why not a column shifter? It'd be in the same ergonomic place, with the added advantage of bringing forth a wave of nostalgia for addled baby boomers who grew up with a three on the tree from the Dodge Dart Super Sixes of their youth.

Stow 'N' Go in the third row is electric now, and you can flip the seats every which way, even facing reverse for tailgate parties. (Weight limits are in effect, however.) You can either stash the second-row captains' chairs into the floor, or you can do what I did and hoist them up and into the seats, where they'll bang around if not tied around the front-seat headrests with a nylon strap. I say, bring back the Mobile Director. The second-row table that marked previous Dodge/Chrysler minivans was always the coolest feature. If you have kids, they're likely inclined to agree. If you're in a soccer carpool, you might agree as well.

2013 Chrysler Town & Country Limited

Base Price: $39,995

As-Tested Price: $43,775

Drivetrain: 3.6-liter V6; FWD, six-speed automatic

Output: 283 hp @ 6,400 rpm, 260 lb-ft @ 4,400 rpm

Curb Weight: 4,652 lb

Fuel Economy (EPA City/Highway/Combined): 17/25/20 mpg

AW Observed Fuel Economy: 14.6 mpg

Options: Customer Preferred Package including power sunroof, power folding third-row seat, load leveling and height control, dual rear overhead consoles, easy-clean floor mats ($1,795); removable second-row fixed bucket seats ($320); Chrysler Uconnect ($650)