In essence, the Chrysler minivans drive, ride and handle like passenger cars. Good ones, at that. We found the Town & Country's suspension soft but well-controlled, its power steering precise, and its brakes--with standard ABS regardless of model--bring it to a safe halt with no fuss. There's some body roll when the road starts getting twisty, but nothing out of the ordinary for a minivan. In fact, we think the handling of these vans is just about the best in the category. And on certain models a heavy-duty suspension reduces roll without much degradation of ride quality.
We were also impressed by the near-absence of road and wind noise inside our test van's elegant cabin. Chrysler's hard work with aerodynamics and sound isolation pay major dividends here. The only other minivan that comes close to this level of quiet operation is the Ford Windstar.
Engine choices are at the heart of the T&C's good road manners. All the Town & Country models are powered by one of two V6 engines, a 158-hp 3.0-liter supplied by Mitsubishi in the basic LX version, and a 166-hp 3.8-liter that was standard in our LXi tester. Both are good, with a slight edge in performance, smoothness and load-hauling capability going to the larger unit.
Caravan and Voyager have standard 4-cyl. powerplants. Though improved over the previous 4-cyl. engine, these are a bit noisier, less able to cope with full loads or hills, and in base form are saddled with a 3-speed automatic transmission.
It's also worth noting that the all-wheel drive system available on long-wheelbase versions of these vans is not for off-road use, but adds an extra dimension of security during bad-weather driving. This is a full-time system that is totally transparent to the driver.
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