The Dodge Grand Caravan has been a staple for Canadian families for around 30 years now and remains incredibly popular due to its price. With the Canada Value Package trim on lots at under $20,000, it’s the least expensive minivan by a healthy margin. But that price-point is achieved by providing little more than the basics in terms of features. If you’re looking to “ball out” a bit, Chrysler offers the Town & Country.

Designed to compete with the Honda Odyssey, Toyota Sienna and Kia Sedona, the Town & Country has had a tough time in head-to-head comparisons. One of the main reasons is the MSRP that’s attached. My tester was the “S” trim which has a base of $46,690 but with the list of installed options tops out at $52,200. That price puts it in line with the top trims of the others even though the overall quality is not on par. But the fact of the matter is that the Town & Country S retails for closer to $32,000 with applied incentives. At the “real price,” the package becomes much more compelling and the feature set trumps similarly priced trims from Honda and Toyota and lines up with a similar spec from Kia.

As standard, all Town & Country trims come with the essentials for family life such as power rear doors and liftgate. But what sets it apart from its competitors is that the first row of seating folds into the floor and because they’re captain’s chairs, they can be done individually to accommodate both people and large items. It’s the only minivan on the market with this feature and quickly turns your family hauler into a proper utility vehicle with massive cargo space. The downside is that the middle row seats offer little legroom and aren’t as comfortable as the competition, which was a pain in the ass for a couple of chaps I took up to Algonquin for a paddle.

If your kids (or childish adult friends) are “connected,” the Town & Country S comes with both a rear seat Bluray entertainment system and cable inputs to accommodate every shape and size of device. And for the iPad kids, USB ports are accessible to both middle and back rows. And as it turns out, the Spa channel, which is available on the built-in satellite radio, can be used to put unruly passengers to sleep.

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