Test Drive: 2015 Chrysler Town & Country Limited Platinum

Chrysler’s Town & Country came late to the minivan party, debuting in 1990 – a full six years after its Dodge Caravan and Plymouth Voyager siblings. Even then, legend says, the Chrysler version was created only because the company had an oversupply of pre-manufactured Caravan/Voyager body shells on hand that it needed to repurpose prior to the second-generation van’s debut in 1991.

It’s ironic then that in 2016, with Plymouth folded up and Dodge expected to drop its Grand Caravan and focus on more performance-oriented vehicles, Chrysler’s Town & Country will become the only game in town for domestic minivans.

With Plymouth folded up and Dodge expected to drop its Grand Caravan and focus on more performance-oriented vehicles, Chrysler’s Town & Country will become the only game in town for domestic minivans.One has to imagine the changeover will come with a significant restructuring of the Town & Country model lineup, because currently the nameplate stands as the upmarket (and to my eye better-looking) minivan choice, leaving all the value vans in Dodge’s stable: Where the Dodge Grand Caravan CVP (Canada Value Package) starts at $21,590 destination fees included, the least expensive Town & Country is the Touring, which starts at a listed $36,390 with destination. On its website, Chrysler plays up this difference, billing the Town & Country as “Canada’s ultimate luxury minivan.”

To help me experience the truly ultimate in luxury minivan coddling, Chrysler set me up for a week in its range-topping Town & Country Limited Platinum, fully loaded with all the most desirable options.

As minivans go, it’s certainly hard to argue the result: With 30 years experience building minivans (the Dodge Caravan debuted in 1984), Fiat-Chrysler has refined and tweaked the design to provide an abundance of useful features and family-friendly functionality, and the Town & Country Limited Platinum dresses it all up in some pretty fine duds.

Complementing its True Blue Pearl Coat paint and polished 17-inch alloy wheels, my test van featured a two-tone grey and black interior colour scheme with soft Nappa leather upholstery, Stow ‘n Go second row seating, and handy power-operated Tailgate Seats in the third row (these can tilt over backwards allowing you to relax in comfort while facing out of the open tailgate). The front seats are roomy and comfortable, and while the second-row seats are a bit narrow-backed in order to facilitate stowing them, they’re still decently comfortable and offer plenty of headroom and legroom. In the third row things get a little tighter, especially in terms of foot room (you can’t get your toes under the second-row seats), but even at 5’11” I found the third row adequate for short trips.

2015 Chrysler Town & Country Limited, dashboard. Click image to enlarge

Chrysler has clearly expended effort to ensure that the Town & Country’s interior has a look and feel befitting its “ultimate luxury minivan” boast, with a fat leather-and-wood steering wheel, soft-touch front door uppers and inserts, a trés chic analog dashboard clock, ebony woodgrain-effect trim, and plenty of brushed metal and chrome accents. But there’s no disguising the family-van bones underneath the luxury, and hard plastics are in abundance throughout the cabin, making up the front door lowers, the rear door panels (including uppers), the dash, and the console. Everything looks good and fits together properly, however, so the choice of materials isn’t really an issue for the most part. A couple of exceptions include the engine start button, which feels flimsy and added on (it appears to be mounted on a stalk, and wobbles around rather disconcertingly) and the rubber-coated armrests for the second-row seats, which could do with upholstering to match the seats.

Storage is one department where Chrysler’s minivans truly shine, and the Town & Country Limited doesn’t disappoint. The centre console is capacious and well thought-out, with plenty of hidden space for all of life’s accoutrements. It would be nice if there was a way to make the console move quickly and easily out of the way in case you want clamber into the back of the van, but I guess you can’t have you cake and eat it too. (You also have to be careful about putting pocket change on top of the roll-out cubby covers, because if you then foolishly open the cubby, the change disappears inside the console never to be seen again).

My wife was thoroughly impressed with the big underfloor bins available when the Stow ‘n Go seats aren’t stowed. If the Town & Country was the Millennium Falcon from Star Wars you could hide the kids under the floor and smuggle them onto the Death Star. For longer trips there are cupholders galore and small cubbies even for the third-row occupants. Cargo space behind the third row is a reasonable 934 litres, and this jumps to 2,359L with the third row folded, and 4,072L with the second-row seats also stowed.

2015 Chrysler Town & Country Limited seating, cargo area. Click image to enlarge

Under the hood, the Town & Country gets Chrysler’s proven 3.6L Pentastar V6, which cranks out 283 hp and 260 lb-ft of torque. Hooked up to a standard-equipment six-speed automatic transmission it’ll easily squawk the front tires off the line and will whisk the van to 100 km/h in about eight seconds. If you’re planning on towing a trailer, the Town & Country boasts an impressive 1,633 kg (3,600 lb) towing capacity and comes with standard trailer sway control.

On the road I found the drivetrain amply willing if a perhaps little unrefined. This isn’t a case of noise, vibration of harshness – the V6 is a nice-sounding engine with a muted, mellow roar during heavy acceleration, and overall noise levels in the van are quite low. The lack of refinement is more to do with the slightly abrupt, rubbery manner in which everything operates: The throttle tip-in is distinctly front-end loaded, so the van feels powerful but takes a deft touch to launch smoothly, and the brakes bite with equal enthusiasm when it comes time to stop. The transmission also tends to lurch a little on shifts, and my test van’s power delivery was less than smooth when backing slowly up a steep hill into a parking spot.

Fuel economy using the new five-cycle test method is rated at 14.1/ 9.5 L/100 km (city/highway), and I got reasonably close to these numbers myself, using a little more than 15 L/100km in the city and about 10 L/100km on the highway for an overall average of 12.7 L/100km.

2015 Chrysler Town & Country Limited cargo area configurations. Click image to enlarge

In terms of ride and handling the Town & Country is both comfortable and well-controlled, with a decently solid-feeling structure. The steering is a bit vague feeling, but it’s nicely weighted and the van tracks well, goes where it’s pointed with a minimum of fuss, and hangs on surprisingly well if you decide to push it a little through the corners. Safety-wise the Town & County gets electronic stability control with trailer sway control, four-wheel antilock disc brakes, tire pressure monitoring, active head restraints, and a comprehensive array of air bags, and while the Dodge/Chrysler minivan twins (and the Nissan Quest as well) were recently called out by the IIHS for poor performance in the challenging new small-overlap front crash test, they achieved good ratings in all other tests.

In addition to the Nappa leather upholstery, standard kit with the Limited Platinum trim includes three-zone automatic climate control, heated front and second-row seats, heated steering wheel, ambient surround interior lighting, keyless entry, pushbutton start, power sliding doors and tailgate, power windows (including power quarter vented windows), built-in rear window sunshades, universal garage door opener, automatic headlights, rain-sensing wipers, 115V power outlet, rearview camera, rear parking sensor system, blind spot detection system, cross traffic alert, and a nine-speaker touchscreen UConnect infotainment system with satellite radio, Bluetooth connectivity and remote USB port. I suppose I should comment on the infotainment system, but mostly I found it unremarkable – it sounds decent enough but perhaps lacks a little punch up front, and the interface is good once you get used to it, although it took me a while to figure out that the sound control menu is accessed not via the touchscreen but via a button marked “Audio”.

On top of all its standard equipment my test van had $5,220 worth of optional gear including a power sunroof ($1,395), towing package ($700), navigation package ($475), dual DVD/Bluray entertainment system with second- and third-row screens ($2,000), and the previously mentioned power folding third-row seat (well worth having at $650). All in all, it’s a list of equipment worthy of a luxury sedan and sure to keep the kids happy on even the longest road trips. So if the total as-tested price came to, say $42,000, I’d end this review here, saying that the Chrysler Town & Country Limited Platinum is well worth consideration, representing “a well thought-out and practical family minivan with a nice touch of luxury.”

2015 Chrysler Town & Country Limited engine bay, driver’s seat, gauges, centre stack. Click image to enlarge

But that’s not exactly how the Town & Country prices out. Instead, if you went by its Monroney sticker, my loaded test van topped out at a lofty $55,610 including the $1,695 destination fee, and at that price it competes against an interesting array of family vehicles including, for instance, the Scion FR-S. Paired with a decently-equipped Dodge Grand Caravan SE Plus (which includes the Stow ‘n Go seats) this combination of vehicles will keep both you and the kids happy for a grand total of $51,750 including all destination fees, leaving a few thousand dollars left over for the additional insurance and tires. Or you could spend just a bit more and get a Ford Fusion sedan paired with a base Toyota Sienna minivan for a grand total of $56,479 destination in. Or whatever other combination you can dream up.

Without calling Chrysler’s sticker prices purely fictional, however, the actual price you’ll pay for a van equipped the same as my test van should be a good deal less than the stickered price. Using Chrysler’s website to build an identical van shows a current total MSRP of $47,610 with all the same options and including destination fees. So while you could still perhaps opt for a Mazda5 paired with a Kia Forte Koup instead (for a combined total of $46,670 including destination), at that price the Town & Country Limited Platinum really does represent a well thought-out and practical minivan with a nice touch of luxury.

2015 Chrysler Town & Country Limited. Click image to enlarge

Pricing: 2015 Chrysler Town & Country Limited Platinum
Base Price: $48,695
Options: $5,220 (sunroof, towing package, navigation, DVD entertainment system, power rear seats)
Freight: $1,695
A/C Tax: $100
Price as Tested: $55,710

Competitors:
Dodge Grand Caravan
Infiniti QX60
Honda Odyssey
Kia Sedona
Mazda5
Nissan Quest
Toyota Sienna