2008 Chrysler Town & Country
With rear-seat DVD players now a family-car necessity, Chrysler wisely made a special effort to put its new minivans on the leading edge of in-car entertainment. The DVD player features two large, eight-inch diagonal screens that can play two different videos or two different media. In addition to videos, Chrysler offers Sirius satellite TV, with three channels of kid fare (Nickelodeon, Disney Channel, and Cartoon Network). Up front, you can get Chrysler's MyGig hard drive, onto which one can download 20 gigabytes of music. And, yes, Mom and Dad can listen to their own tunes (or satellite radio, or CDs) while the kids remain transfixed by their electronic screens.
The full features assault continues in many lesser ways as well, with Chrysler picking up items first seen on competitors, such as roll-down windows in the sliding doors, a convex inside mirror, and side-window sunshades. The interior surfaces, particularly in the Town & Country, aren't as depressingly cheap as some of the company's recent efforts. Overall, the new minivans make modest strides in refinement and design but significant upgrades in family-friendly features. At a time when Chrysler's corporate ownership is in flux, it's nice to see this once-again-American manufacturer return to form as an innovator in the segment it created.