Chrysler Town and Country

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Originally Posted By: jimbrewer
Might try a grand caravan. Very competitively priced.


The T&C is my goto vehicle when I do business travel. I usually have at least 3 staff members and their gear. Good on pickup on the Pentastar, very luxurious interior (the night lights are awesome) and comfortable to ride in.

Out of the last three months trips, one time I got a Caravan. It was very different, even down to the shifting of the transmission. IMHO, the price difference is worth stepping up to a T&C.
 
Had the chance to rent the T&C/Caravan as well as the Sienna several times earlier this year. I would have thought the Chryslers were OK if I hadn't had the Sienna a few times. IMO the transmission on the Chryslers was abysmal - slow to upshift, too fast to downshift, clunky, just everything awful about automatic transmissions all in one place. The Sienna on the other hand was fairly transparent in operation, the hallmark of a good automatic. For all the hype about the Pentastar there is no meaningful difference in the performance of the two models. 250-ish hp is 250-ish hp.

That and the rear seat folding is a 1 lever operation in the Sienna vs. 3 or 4 strap pulls in the Chrysler
grin.gif


jeff
 
Originally Posted By: 2002 Maxima SE
Originally Posted By: jimbrewer
Might try a grand caravan. Very competitively priced.


Out of the last three months trips, one time I got a Caravan. It was very different, even down to the shifting of the transmission..


That's odd, because there is zero difference in drivetrain between the two.
 
Don't the Caravan's have a "learning" type tranny? Would this affect performance from one driver to the next, especially if comparing an aggressive driver vs. a granny style driver?
 
Originally Posted By: JTK
Originally Posted By: 2002 Maxima SE
Originally Posted By: jimbrewer
Might try a grand caravan. Very competitively priced.


Out of the last three months trips, one time I got a Caravan. It was very different, even down to the shifting of the transmission..


That's odd, because there is zero difference in drivetrain between the two.



The transmission shift programming between the two is the same?
 
Last edited:
Originally Posted By: JHZR2
It certainly wasn't powerful. Just like a lot lighter. And I'm sure if I floored the Chrysler, it would accelerate much stronger. I guess the thing that gets me is driving with a Lightfoot it really downshifts and upshift quite a bit as if it doesn't have enough to stay in gear. And again as I said it's pretty darn heavy. We would get 23 mpg all day long in the Previa.

A new end of your discount is what I would probably be looking for. This year or next year or some other time. I don't like the idea of some imbecile driving a vehicle that I planned on for a long time even if it was only for a few thousand miles. That is unless I get a substantial discount to a new vehicle were purposely am looking for a very used model very cheap.

I'm sure there is a lot of tuning done for mileage and for normal driving, as it does have 280hp. If it had a linear throttle and the same shift points as your old Previa, it might be hard to keep the front tires from lighting up at every stoplight. I remember our 89 G. Caravan with 140hp 3.0L V6 would one wheel peel enough to smell the tire...
 
Originally Posted By: greenjp
Had the chance to rent the T&C/Caravan as well as the Sienna several times earlier this year. I would have thought the Chryslers were OK if I hadn't had the Sienna a few times. IMO the transmission on the Chryslers was abysmal - slow to upshift, too fast to downshift, clunky, just everything awful about automatic transmissions all in one place. The Sienna on the other hand was fairly transparent in operation, the hallmark of a good automatic. For all the hype about the Pentastar there is no meaningful difference in the performance of the two models. 250-ish hp is 250-ish hp.

That and the rear seat folding is a 1 lever operation in the Sienna vs. 3 or 4 strap pulls in the Chrysler
grin.gif


jeff


Interesting. I noticed that the AT shifts a lot... But it is a 6 speed, and that's part of how they get efficiency.

After I filled a low tire, I put on another hundred miles or so, and averaged over 28 MPG.

Do the sienna's seats stow completely flat and in the trunk well the way the stow and go seats do? The second row stow and go in the T&C also made large storage below the floor to use if the seats are up...

We will drive an odyssey and a sienna. But in the end its all about the deal. There was nothing bad about the road noise or comfort in the T&C that would justify to me to go with another make... So there would have to be some pretty compelling other advantages. For the Sienna, MPGs certainly aren't an advantage. The odyssey it may be, since I may be able to get higher than 28 MPG EPA.
 
Originally Posted By: rjundi
This is the van to buy used. We are looking waiting for the cream puff to come around. I found some no kids older folks ones in incredible shape but we still held off. We have 3 kids and candidates for sure for one of these now.

They are nice vans with incredible depreciation. Don't be sucker for new on these ones for sure. Some of them though seem more clunky at 50k mark we found vs Honda/Toyota equivalents but the used price builds in thousands for maintenance/repairs.


Good point but Im not seeing the deals. Some sites say $10-13k depreciation year one for the T&C and Caravan, but Im not seeing that in used prices at Chrysler CPO/CarMax/Autolenders/other one owner used car "certified" type places.

Im seeing maybe $4k depreciation for 1-3 years and 30k miles. I was offered a 2015 stickering at $32k for $28k from the local Chrysler dealer.

A used 2013 with 31k is only $24k from the places I mention. Even on ebay, "buy it now" prices are in the $20k+ ranges.

So I dunno how depreciation is really playing in. As a reference, pricing is similar for the sienna/odyssey, though maybe not equipped the same...
 
Brand new base Touring 2014's (sticker $32,200) were offered here in Illinois for $24,995 starting in July, 2014.
 
Originally Posted By: mrsilv04
Brand new base Touring 2014's (sticker $32,200) were offered here in Illinois for $24,995 starting in July, 2014.


Not saying I thought it was a good deal
smile.gif


I thought I had heard similar numbers too...

Now need a source to go back to the dealer. Looking at Edmunds, truecar, etc., seems to indicate that the quote they gave me was "a great price"... LOL.
 
Originally Posted By: JHZR2

We will drive an odyssey and a sienna. But in the end its all about the deal. There was nothing bad about the road noise or comfort in the T&C that would justify to me to go with another make... So there would have to be some pretty compelling other advantages. For the Sienna, MPGs certainly aren't an advantage. The odyssey it may be, since I may be able to get higher than 28 MPG EPA.


No love for the Kia Sedona?

Any reason you removed it from your shortlist?

Just asking.
 
Its a brand new model but I don't see a compelling benefit to it. The last generation stayed around too long, so this one is like a half generation behind the others, and even if it is up to date, its MPGs and performance characteristics don't stand up to my expectations of a "next gen" minivan... i.e. th next gen Chryslers will likely include a hybrid, and the others will likely also have other tricks up their sleeve.

Im also not seeing a price point advantageous to the Koreans and their inferior depreciation rates...

Maybe Im wrong, happy to be...
 
The new Chrysler vans look nice. I haven't driven one yet, but they look nice. We've owned two of the 4th generation vans (a 2003 and a 2007). In short, we paid less than other brands for our vans, and I think we got less, both in refinement and in reliability. Refinement can be subjective, especially in a large people-mover, but reliability was very objective, and ours were middling-to-poor. The dealerships were poor as well. We traded the '03 with 80k miles for the '07 with 20 miles (brand new). We sold the '07 with just over 40k miles. It was a bad experience.

I trust they are better today. The Pentastar engine is fantastic, at least in my experience. I've never been a fan of Chrysler's transmission programming, so I'm not sure that I'd be happy with one. Maybe if it had paddle shifters so that I could override the computer. You may be seeing that in the clunkiness you described. Ours never got smoother as time went on. Maybe the newer units would.
 
Originally Posted By: JHZR2

..I'm seeing maybe $4k depreciation for 1-3 years and 30k miles. I was offered a 2015 stickering at $32k for $28k from the local Chrysler dealer..


That's about what I see in my area as well. Long gone are the days of picking up a 1-3yr/old previous rental or whatnot for half the original MSRP.

Like said above, Siennas and Odys are better vans in terms of function, fit and interior, but you're going to pay quite a bit more for that.

I absolutely HATE the 3rd row Stow N Go on our 2013 DGC, compared to the simple setup our 2008 Odyssey had. To me, the second row Stow N go is an awkward bugger too, but it's nice when you need it. We rarely use the 2nd row stowed. I keep a box of stuff in the floor storage that's all got to come out. Husky liners have to come out..
 
Originally Posted By: JHZR2
Interesting. I noticed that the AT shifts a lot... But it is a 6 speed, and that's part of how they get efficiency.

After I filled a low tire, I put on another hundred miles or so, and averaged over 28 MPG.

Do the sienna's seats stow completely flat and in the trunk well the way the stow and go seats do? The second row stow and go in the T&C also made large storage below the floor to use if the seats are up...

We will drive an odyssey and a sienna. But in the end its all about the deal. There was nothing bad about the road noise or comfort in the T&C that would justify to me to go with another make... So there would have to be some pretty compelling other advantages. For the Sienna, MPGs certainly aren't an advantage. The odyssey it may be, since I may be able to get higher than 28 MPG EPA.

The Sienna has a 6 speed too, so it's not the # of gears but rather the way it's programmed to work. As a committed manual transmission guy an automatic as bad as the T&Cs renders the vehicle a complete non-starter.

The 3rd row seat on the Sienna folds down and gives a flat floor, we did this routinely as we were carrying several people's suitcases, Pelican cases of equipment, etc. We never did fold down the middle row. The room and layout of both vans are similar in the back. Just a nicer mechanism in the Toyota.

jeff
 
Originally Posted By: JHZR2
Its a brand new model but I don't see a compelling benefit to it. The last generation stayed around too long, so this one is like a half generation behind the others, and even if it is up to date, its MPGs and performance characteristics don't stand up to my expectations of a "next gen" minivan... i.e. th next gen Chryslers will likely include a hybrid, and the others will likely also have other tricks up their sleeve.

Im also not seeing a price point advantageous to the Koreans and their inferior depreciation rates...

Maybe Im wrong, happy to be...


All good reasons, wrong or right you can be, it does not matter.

I always wondered why the first hybrid cars were not vans? The extra torque at 0 rpm and the cruising by gravity should bring a lot of benefits to this category of vehicles.

The Honda Odyssey is already impressive for fuel economy, it would have been really great with an hybrid drivetrain... and there is space for batteries in the floor.
 
It just so happened that I had a t&c rental this week; didn't do it on purpose (I had rented an economy car). Drove it a lot.

I drove it enough to do multiple tanks of fuel. On gas, I averaged 27mpg. On E85, I averaged 22 mpg.

I may not have updated that the last one we had, once I aired up the tires, got over 28 mph average with six people in it.

Interestingly, this second one ran hotter. Coolant was constantly in the 202-208 F range, while the last one was generally in the 192-197 range, with a seldom excursion over 200. The shifting of this one was also vastly different. It only had 1100 miles when I picked it up.
 
Originally Posted By: rjundi
Around here massive depreciation for the T&C's:

sample:
http://lannanmazdacars.com/html/index.php?id=178641-1038


Yeah I've seen a few on eBay that were around $20k, but all were fleet vehicles, replaced windshields, etc. in other words, strikes against. When they are turned in leases, they aren't depreciating like that.
 
Originally Posted By: JHZR2


Im also not seeing a price point advantageous to the Koreans and their inferior depreciation rates...

Maybe Im wrong, happy to be...


If you are buying new, yes. But if you find a nice used one the depreciation factor is your friend.
 
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