2008 Chrysler Town and Country Touring 4dr Mini-van Reviews
The Motorcar Connection Expert Review
Editorial Manager
May 18, 2008
Likes
- Family-friendly interior features such as satellite Television set
- Flexible seating/cargo configurations
- Placidity ride
- Half dozen-speed automatic with optional Five-half-dozen engines
- Optional LED interior lights
Dislikes
- Plasticky interior
- Flimsy gear selector lever feel
- Smallish navigation screen
Buying tip
features & specs
4-Door Wgn LX
4-Door Wgn Express
4-Door Wgn Touring
If you're shopping for a practical family hauler, the Chrysler Town & Country needs to exist on your "must bulldoze" listing if only for the features information technology offers.
TheCarConnection.com's automotive experts researched reviews from the Spider web's nearly respected sites and combined these findings with our own to compile this conclusive appraisal of the 2008 Chrysler Town & State. This minivan is worthy of consideration fifty-fifty in the face up of potent competition from SUVs, crossovers, and (certainly) other minivans.
While Ford Motor Visitor and Full general Motors have abandoned the minivan market to concentrate on SUVs and crossovers, Honda, Toyota, Hyundai, and Kia still see the segment every bit a skilful place to find buyers. Chrysler thinks so too, and its 2008 Town & Country minivan is the company'south 5th-generation people mover and easily the company's best-e'er segment effort. Frankly, minivans may be the well-nigh practical way to transport lots of people and/or cargo. TheCarConnection.com finds the 1-box designs more sensible than nigh SUVs or crossovers considering those vehicles oftentimes sacrifice simplicity, room, and flexibility for style.
The Town & Country's new squared-off styling represents an edgy divergence from the Clorox-bottle shape of the previous generation. Particularly from the rear, the van'southward all-new boxy pattern looks as if it were artfully drawn with a rafter square. However, the nigh important features and refinements are found in the quiet interior, where Chrysler has packed more features than whatsoever competitor, including Sirius Satellite Telly, twin LCD monitors (second and third rows), and Hinge 'n Go seating.
The slab-sided outside works for the 2008 Chrysler Town & Land, but the existent magic is inside, where material choices should evidence functional and clothing well for years.
Minivans are not machines of high manner, although most reviews found the 2008 Chrysler Town & Land's new shape acceptable, if not completely pleasing. MotorTrend.com wrote, "These are not skillful looking vehicles…they scream 'office-showtime' from every boxy corner and character line." Cars.com noted, "They didn't become overboard trying to make information technology look like something other than a minivan." Car and Driver liked the "Chrysler 300-like grille, quad headlamps, and chrome accents."
The team at BusinessWeek doesn't agree, remarking, "it still looks like a minivan—which is to say, big and dumpy."
While most reviewers focused their interior comments on seating configurations and high-tech features, KBB.com did find that the 2008 Chrysler "Boondocks & Country combines wood-like and bright trim carrying a more than sophisticated persona."
TheCarConnection.com team eyeballed the 2008 Chrysler Town & Country with careful scrutiny. The athwart exterior is what it is. Practise keep in mind that the Boondocks & Land's interior is classier than the Contrivance Chiliad Caravan's, so if added composure is something you're looking for, stick with the Chrysler.
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No 911 and not a 'Vette, the 2008 Chrysler Boondocks & Country accelerates capably and handles predictably and securely.
During their minivan shoot-out between a 2008 Dodge Chiliad Caravan and a 2007 Honda Odyssey, Edmunds tested the Caravan equipped with the same 4.0-liter V-vi that's the top engine in the 2008 Chrysler Boondocks & Country, and it trounced the Honda. The Dodge "scoots to 60 mph in just eight.2 seconds. That's a full second quicker than the Odyssey and it makes the Chiliad Caravan SXT the quickest minivan nosotros've ever tested. Combine that with a swift 16.3 seconds at an 85-mph performance in the quarter-mile (safely alee of the Honda's 16.8 seconds at 83 mph run) and the big-engine Grand Caravan is the new rocket ship among minivans."
USAToday provides a adept overview of this van'due south engines: "The base of operations 3.iii-liter V-six is pepped upwardly and quieted. The optional 3.8-liter Five-vi no longer is and then coarse you're embarrassed to take information technology out in public. The high-terminate, four-liter, overhead-camshaft V-6 provides actress scoot previously missing from your minivan experience." Cars.com makes the point more directly: "Chrysler'south 4.0-liter V-half-dozen is potent — the marketers ought to brand it Hemi Lite."
Many reviewers concord with KBB.com, which says, "You lot might appreciate the Chrysler minivans' balance between highway condolement and effectually-town responsiveness. We also appreciated the new model's much-improved steering and braking response…Overall, we've constitute Chrysler's newest minivans much more satisfying from backside the wheel." AutoWeek says, "it handles nicely, with docile, carlike manners—fairly precise tracking, no wandering or floating," but adds that "information technology feels non much different mechanically from the previous generation."
TheCarConnection.com's experts spent a week and near 1,000 miles behind the bicycle of a 2008 Chrysler Town & Country Touring with the 3.8-liter V-6. Fitted with the six-speed automatic transmission, the combination provided more than adequate performance for this grade of vehicle. The engine is nearly silent at speed, and the refined intermission tuning lets the 2008 Chrysler Town & Land accept a confident fix when pushed hard into corners. The feeling was more like a buttoned-down, sporting sedan than a vii-passenger family unit conveyance. Not that one would encourage such beliefs, merely the 2008 Chrysler Boondocks & Country knows how to hustle.
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The 2008 Chrysler Town & Land shows interior quality is improving, but information technology is still a bit below that of the more expensive Honda Odyssey and Toyota Sienna.
When it comes to getting the job washed for families, editors across the Web agreed that the new 2008 Chrysler Town & Country (and the Dodge M Caravan) nailed the mission. BusinessWeek astutely noted, "What sells this van is its interior, notably the bachelor multimedia audio/video/navigation arrangement and handy seating options." Curiously, no reviews mentioned interior room, nearly likely because it's arable and obvious.
The 2008 Chrysler Town & Country excels in comfort in all iii rows of seating. Even the 3rd-row seat has ample headroom and bottom absorber length and bending for a 5'ten" adult. 1 point, if maximum comfort for the nigh people is disquisitional: TheCarConnection.com's editors recommend you cull the Swivel 'north Become seats, as the option's 2d-row chairs are more than comfy than the others offered.
Instead, testers focused on how the 2008 Chrysler Boondocks & Country's features helped it reach its goal of comfortably moving families and friends. Car and Driver observed, "The new minivan is as child-friendly as they come. We quite like the removable front end console that slides to the second row. The minivans also accept xiii loving cup holders and plenty of storage to hide a handbag. In that location is ambience lighting to help prepare the mood, every bit well as LED reading lamps like to those in airplanes. The interior shows well in the harsh light of day, with vast improvements to its perceived quality."
Without a doubtfulness, the 2008 Chrysler Town & Country has nearly closed the quality gap. Cars.com said it this style: "The interior quality is improve than Chrysler'due south usual fare, merely the automaker withal has some ground to brand upwards. The window switches feel luxo-European, and the faux wood and metal inlays are respectably subdued. There's an countless assortment of cheap plastic panels, though, and in many places they expect downright tacky." AutoWeek complained, "We did find the climate controls a little low, and the small-scale buttons required taking our eyes off the road longer than we liked. Overall, the interior has good looking plastics, though we noticed a handful of rattles and creaks."
TheCarConnection.com's editors felt the presence of plastic everywhere, merely nearly all visible pieces are proficient quality, and there is plenty variety in color and texture to continue upwards a degree of visual involvement without looking busy. Chrysler'south choice of materials should habiliment well over time, resisting the ravages that kids tin dish out on a vehicular interior that doubles as their mobile restaurant and playpen. The most serious knock against the 2008 Chrysler Town & State is its flimsy-feeling gearshift lever. It sprouts out of the dash at shoulder lever, and while it's easy enough to use, information technology felt and sounded cheap every time nosotros used it.
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The 2008 Chrysler Boondocks & Country is fully equipped to be a condom family hauler.
Safety is a leading priority for those shopping minivans. All the reviews nosotros studied pointed to the long listing of prophylactic features included on the 2008 Chrysler Boondocks & Country. USAToday said, "Intended as family machines, the new vans rightly have the array of numberless and electronic nannies you associate with safety for your loved ones."
Cars.com listed fundamental items: "Standard safety features include side pall airbags for all 3 seat rows, which too deploy in a rollover. There's also standard antilock brakes, traction control and an electronic stability system. There are two options to ease backing upward and parking: a sonar ParkSense aural organisation and the ParkView rearview camera." This latter uses the audio organisation's LCD screen in the heart stack to display a view of what'south behind you lot, and it is not bundled with the optional navigation system, and then it remains more than affordable. The 2008 Chrysler Town & Country also offers a seating option that includes integrated child booster seats.
TheCarConnection.com'due south team looked carefully at the 2008 Chrysler Boondocks & Land, and could identify only 1 cistron that kept this minivan from ranking a solid 10/x: the availability of all-wheel drive. We, however, recognize that for most buyers, AWD offers no do good, and there is a large development cost backside offering what would turn out to be a low-volume pick. Thus, we think Chrysler made the right choice (and spent its money wisely).
The 2008 Chrysler Town & Country offers everything a family could want within those squared-up walls.
Reviewers across the Spider web felt that there isn't some other minivan on the market that tin can match the Chrysler feature for feature. The 2008 Chrysler Town & Country is loaded with items that run across the needs of families on the go who can genuinely use the underfloor storage, multiple 12-volt outlets, grocery bag hooks behind the front seats, power sliding doors, and all its unique features.
Cars.com listed "Lots of kid-friendly features" and "Innovative storage solutions" for the 2008 Chrysler Boondocks & Country. Spot on. What'due south not to like about available Sirius Goggle box, dual-rear LCD monitors, several versions of the MyGIG entertainment system, and a second-row 115-volt outlet to keep game consoles running or laptops charged? Chrysler reintroduced the world to the minivan in 1983, and the company actually does know its stuff when it comes to including features that make a difference to families on a practical basis.
Car and Driver does some arithmetic and concludes, "The 2008 models accept 35 new or improved features, only equally compelling is pricing that comes in below 2007 stickers." Motor Trend adds, "Based on our drives in a range of preproduction 2008 units, Chrysler looks to have leaped directly dorsum to the forepart of the minivan pack. Astutely reworking its family favorite, the automaker has retained the good stuff (the innovative quick-fold Stow 'n Go seats unveiled for 2004), jettisoned the Achilles' heels (dated jellybean design, weak powertrains), and added a ton of desirable new features--all while trimming the lesser line."
While a shopper can get lost within the 2008 Chrysler Town & Country'south three trim levels (LX, Touring, and Limited), the choice groups, and private options, TheCarConnection.com recommends selecting your seating configuration start. USAToday described them succinctly: "Basic layout is a ii-passenger 2d-row bench seat with a three-passenger third row that folds into the floor. There's nether-floor storage in front of the 2d row. Optional Stow 'northward Go ($795 on Chryslers, $945 on Dodges) retains the disappearing third row, and allows yous to tuck the 2nd row under the floor for room enough to eat 4x8-foot sheets of building material. Swivel 'due north Become ($495) surrenders the second-row Stow 'north Go feature, merely retains nether-floor storage."
The final option (Swivel 'northward Become) enables 2nd-row passengers to confront rearward. Additionally, this choice includes a pedestal-mount table that tin exist secured in the floor between the 2d and third rows—a great characteristic when those in back desire to play a four-person game or share snacks. But beware, legroom gets tight when the chairs face each other. AutoWeek commented that the Swivel 'n Go tabular array "is very sturdy and locks in to place nicely."
Afterwards selecting your seating organization, continue the last sticker price in line by choosing options carefully. TheCarConnection.com thinks yous should too steer manner from options that you lot'll rarely employ, like the navigation system.
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Source: https://www.thecarconnection.com/overview/chrysler_town-country_2008
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