Chrysler hopes features, styling sells minivans

updated 12:34 p.m. ET Aug. 3, 2007

CARLSBAD, Calif. - Hoping to lure customers back to minivans by rocketing people-haulers out of the Betamax era and into the brave new iPhone world, Chrysler Group has loaded the next generation of its trademark vehicles with modern technology and a seating arrangement that lets families hang out around a virtual “kitchen table” on the road.

The centerpiece of the redesigned 2008 Dodge Caravan and Chrysler Town & Country is a second-row seat that can spin 180 degrees to face backward. Nicknamed “Swivel n’ Go” after the carmaker’s popular “Stow n’ Go” flat-fold seats, the new seats create space for a one-legged, plastic-topped table that lets passengers eat, do homework or pile things up the way they would in the house.

But the minivans, which hit showrooms later this month, are crammed with an array of new features that smooth away any remnant of the old fuddy-duddy mom-mobile.

Pinpointed overhead LEDs provide bright, targeted illumination more akin to airplane reading lights than the old halo lamps. A convex “conversation mirror” drops down above the rearview to give the driver a full view of what’s going on in back, while the middle console slides nearly 2 feet backward and forward, allowing people riding in the front seats to ferry items — snacks, headphones, whatever — to the rear without blind backward tosses or uncomfortable twisting.

The minivans also boast a unique multiple-output entertainment system designed to eliminate the forced compromises of earlier days — “Shrek,” anyone? — by channeling different options to passengers riding in separate parts of the car. That means the youngest kids in the middle can watch Nickelodeon on satellite while their parents get Sirius radio in the front and older siblings scan music on a built-in 20-gigabyte hard drive or watch R-rated DVDs in the back seat.

Meanwhile, the original Stow n’ Go technology has been upgraded so that the third-row seats fold down automatically into a hatch with the push of a button. They can also be somersaulted backward to create cushioned seating for tailgates.

“I’ve got twin 5-year-old boys, so in my case it’s more of a pig pen on wheels,” said Mark Trostle, chief designer. “But everything here has been thought about extensively.”

Gone is the rounded, pod-like exterior of earlier models; banished is the wobbly “minivan” feel on the road. The new models are boxier and more imposing than their predecessors, with a new suspension that gives a confident ride.

The minivan’s designers repeatedly employ words such as “tailored” and “rich” to describe the Town & Country models, targeted at wealthier parents or at new retirees looking for an upgraded way to cart around grandkids. The Dodge equivalents, meanwhile, are “sinister” — not a word usually associated with minivans.

“It’s tough, it’s angry, it’s in your face,” said Trostle, who said the new Caravans echo the look of the successful Magnum car.

Chrysler, in the midst of its corporate breakup from DaimlerChrysler AG and sale to private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management LP, is depending on the new line to help it stay ahead of encroaching competition in the minivan market from Honda Motor Co. and Toyota Motor Corp., especially now that General Motors Corp. and Ford Motor Co. have halted minivan production.

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