Chrysler’s ‘marvelous’ minivans face little domestic competition

No matter what happens with the possible sale or breakup of Chrysler, there is no doubt that the company’s marvelous minivans will live on.

That’s because whoever buys Chrysler, if indeed it is sold, will want to keep the company’s highly profitable minivan business.

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Chrysler Group’s minivans, such as its Dodge Grand Caravan minivan, are still the industry leaders.

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Clara Bosonetto Maerz's column is published weekdays on ajc.com.

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Chrysler invented the modern minivan with its 1983 introduction of the Dodge Caravan and Plymouth Voyager, and ever since, the company has dominated this segment in much the same way the Ford F-150 has dominated the full-size pickup class.

The Chrysler minivans, now called the Dodge Grand Caravan and Chrysler Town & Country, have been taken to an even higher level that competitors will find hard to match.

In fact, General Motors and Ford have given up on the minivan segment for lack of a product that can come close to the current models in the Chrysler LLC minivan lineup.

Sales of minivans have cooled somewhat since the arrival of SUVs and now crossover utility vehicles, but the segment is still strong, accounting for nearly a million units sold annually.

The only minivan competition Dodge and Chrysler face now is from the import-brand models, the Honda Odyssey, Toyota Sienna, Nissan Quest, Hyundai Entourage and Kia Sedona.

GM says its new family of large crossovers, which includes the Chevrolet Traverse, GMC Acadia, Saturn Outlook and Buick Enclave, are intended to compete against the minivan segment, but they lack the sliding passenger doors that most minivan consumers love.

While they are still minivans, the revised exterior styling of the Chrysler and Dodge models gives them more of a crossover look, while retaining the sliding passenger doors on each side that allow for quick and convenient access to the second and third rows. Power doors are available on both sides and can be operated from the key fob or using switches up front or on the door pillars on each side.

For 2009, the Chrysler and Dodge minivans come in five different models, with three different seating and storage systems and great new entertainment options, including live satellite TV.

The Chrysler Town & Country models are the base LX, midlevel Touring and top-of-the-line Limited, with prices ranging from $25,730 to $36,530 (plus $770 freight and options). The short-wheelbase models previously known as the Dodge Caravan and Chrysler Voyager have been dropped; all of the new vans are of the extended length.

Dodge versions come in base SE and uplevel SXT models, with base prices of $23,530 and $27,825, respectively.

For this report, we tested the 2009 Grand Caravan SE, which comes with the base 3.3-liter V-6 engine and a four-speed automatic transmission.

Standard on the SE model are the latest in Chrysler’s stow-and-go seats, which can be folded completely into the floor to create a flat cargo surface from the back of the front seats all the way to the tailgate.

But our tester came with the new Swivel ‘n’ Go seats, a $495 option. With this feature, the middle-row seats swivel to face the third row, and there is a stowable table that can be set up between the seats so the people in the back can play games or eat their snacks on it.