The 2005 Chrysler Town & Country Touring: Quietly the Best
By ALAN WELLIKOFF | Originally published in the New York Sun, March 4, 2005
Life
is a bit like the auto show: It always seems to be dazzling you with
sexy creations while more worthwhile offerings bide their time in the
waking-world equivalent of a third floor viewing area.
So it was with Chrysler's excellent but ho-hum-looking 2005 Town & Country minivan at a recent show we attended.
Of course, any minivan has a problem appearing sexy; if its sad association with shuttling suburbanites weren't enough, anything made in North America has to overcome the untouchable status (relative to imported competitors) given it by the America's coastal Brahmins.
These elites might consider buying a Chrysler for its link to Daimler Benz, but generations will have to pass before they'll ever forget the K-car. So, until then, pass the Honda Odyssey or Toyota Sienna, thank you very much.
To its credit, the Chrysler's minivans don't even try distracting America's oceanside gentry from the mesmerizing pull of overseas cargo-holds. The K-car platform is long gone, but when, earlier this year, minivan-pioneer DaimlerChrysler treated its current crop of vans (which are also sold as Dodge Caravans) to a $400 million mid-cycle revision, the fact of it didn't so much as scratch the consciousness of your average Bobo in waterview paradise.
And, really, why should it? After all, Chrysler has barely altered the Town & Country's appearance. Those for whom the revised minivan might hold an appeal must look for changes taking place within it. Here's what they'll find:
First, there are the new second- and third-row "Stow 'n Go" seats
that fold into wells located in the floor to free up the best-in-class
161 cubic feet of cargo space that the Chrysler affords. The wells
become covered storage bins once the seats are raised. Other Town &
Country upgrades include three-row, supplemental, side-curtain air bags
and the use of something called "Quiet Steel," in which high-tech
noise-baffling material gets sandwiched between two layers of the metal.
Chrysler claims that this reduces noise, harshness, and vibration,
particularly in the van's rear flooring. The refined vehicle also has
had expandable polyurethane foam injected into several of its platform
cavities.
Chrysler brand minivans fall into Base, LX, Touring, and Limited trim categories, with the base model coming on a 189-inch regular platform and the others on a 201-inch extended wheelbase. Each uses either a 3.3-liter or 3.8-liter V6. All Town & Country models have four speed automatic transmissions and newly available driver-side knee airbags. Fold-flat seats and anti-lock brakes are standard equipment on most of the long wheelbase models, while traction control remains as an option. All but the Limited model (in which it comes as standard equipment) have a newly optional array of curtain-side airbags to help protect both seating rows.
The test Town & Country was a Touring FWD, its three-letter suffix standing for front-wheel rather than four-wheel drive, as slow sales have prompted Chrysler to drop the latter as a minivan option. Nevertheless, in addition to the Stow 'n Go seats, the "butane blue" brat-hauler came with four-wheel disc brakes, a tire pressure monitor, and traction control - all part of a package that brought its price most of the way up to 33 grand.
Inside the Touring's leather trimmed interior, driver and passengers
felt set high within a roomy, smart looking, and moderately refined
cabin. Before the driver were set an easily read array of silver-faced
instruments. The dash's slightly driver-angled center portion contained
controls for an in-dash six-disc CD/DVD changer as well as for a
"3-Zone" climate system that provided settings for the driver and front-
and rear-seat occupants. Both sets were annoyingly complex.
Access to the rear passenger area was easily attained via power-sliding side doors that led to a seating area that was large, albeit slightly compromised by the structure of the Stow 'n Go seats. Once you folded these down, however, the 161-square feet of cargo area opened up was large enough to accommodate coastal-elite assumptions too big to comport with reality. No problem for your T&C Touring, though.
What's more, this cargo can be attained by means of a powered
rear-lift back that will automatically retreat once it encounters the
slightest resistance. Coastal elites ought to go for that in a big way.
We drove the Touring to the seaside, enjoying its road composure,
strong acceleration, and quiet passage. On the Eastern Shore, we coursed
the cobblestone streets of colonial-era towns, but no one in any
Starbucks we passed so much as looked up from their New York Review of
Books to regard the minivan as it rolled past. Most likely, they were
waiting with the Chesapeake interpretation of Gallic hauteur for a real Mercedes to go by. No matter. While it will never
merit model-and-turntable treatment at the Easton auto show, we
consider the Chrysler Town & Country to be among the best in its
class.
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| Competing for largest breasts at LA Auto Show |
So it was with Chrysler's excellent but ho-hum-looking 2005 Town & Country minivan at a recent show we attended.
Of course, any minivan has a problem appearing sexy; if its sad association with shuttling suburbanites weren't enough, anything made in North America has to overcome the untouchable status (relative to imported competitors) given it by the America's coastal Brahmins.
 |
| Westward looking: the 2005 Chrysler Town & Country Minivan |
These elites might consider buying a Chrysler for its link to Daimler Benz, but generations will have to pass before they'll ever forget the K-car. So, until then, pass the Honda Odyssey or Toyota Sienna, thank you very much.
To its credit, the Chrysler's minivans don't even try distracting America's oceanside gentry from the mesmerizing pull of overseas cargo-holds. The K-car platform is long gone, but when, earlier this year, minivan-pioneer DaimlerChrysler treated its current crop of vans (which are also sold as Dodge Caravans) to a $400 million mid-cycle revision, the fact of it didn't so much as scratch the consciousness of your average Bobo in waterview paradise.
And, really, why should it? After all, Chrysler has barely altered the Town & Country's appearance. Those for whom the revised minivan might hold an appeal must look for changes taking place within it. Here's what they'll find:
First, there are the new second- and third-row "Stow 'n Go" seats
that fold into wells located in the floor to free up the best-in-class
161 cubic feet of cargo space that the Chrysler affords. The wells
become covered storage bins once the seats are raised. Other Town &
Country upgrades include three-row, supplemental, side-curtain air bags
and the use of something called "Quiet Steel," in which high-tech
noise-baffling material gets sandwiched between two layers of the metal.
Chrysler claims that this reduces noise, harshness, and vibration,
particularly in the van's rear flooring. The refined vehicle also has
had expandable polyurethane foam injected into several of its platform
cavities.Chrysler brand minivans fall into Base, LX, Touring, and Limited trim categories, with the base model coming on a 189-inch regular platform and the others on a 201-inch extended wheelbase. Each uses either a 3.3-liter or 3.8-liter V6. All Town & Country models have four speed automatic transmissions and newly available driver-side knee airbags. Fold-flat seats and anti-lock brakes are standard equipment on most of the long wheelbase models, while traction control remains as an option. All but the Limited model (in which it comes as standard equipment) have a newly optional array of curtain-side airbags to help protect both seating rows.
The test Town & Country was a Touring FWD, its three-letter suffix standing for front-wheel rather than four-wheel drive, as slow sales have prompted Chrysler to drop the latter as a minivan option. Nevertheless, in addition to the Stow 'n Go seats, the "butane blue" brat-hauler came with four-wheel disc brakes, a tire pressure monitor, and traction control - all part of a package that brought its price most of the way up to 33 grand.
Access to the rear passenger area was easily attained via power-sliding side doors that led to a seating area that was large, albeit slightly compromised by the structure of the Stow 'n Go seats. Once you folded these down, however, the 161-square feet of cargo area opened up was large enough to accommodate coastal-elite assumptions too big to comport with reality. No problem for your T&C Touring, though.
 |
| Maryland coastal elite concentrations |
Chrysler's 2005 300C: Forward Look Without the Fins
By ALAN WELLIKOFF | Originally published in the New York Sun, March 11, 2005
Resembling something designed in a grand mal of space rapture, the '57 300C came in sport coupe and convertible form to stand at the pinnacle of Chrysler's mid-century "Forward Look" ethic. Never mind the role that its 392 cubic-inch Hemi engine played in taking the checkered flag at Daytona Beach's Flying Mile that year - from its Ghia-style grille to tailfins that cast shadows longer than the DEW line's - the '57 Chrysler 300C looked like a car that could do naught in a race but win it.
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| 1970 "fuselage design" Chrysler |
Many - perhaps you - will disagree. However, one point upon which we should all concur is the fact that the 2005 Chrysler 300 actually does go a long way towards re-inventing the American sedan.
For one thing, there's rear-wheel drive. The all-new 2005 300 is the first large rear-drive sedan to have emerged from Chrysler since they began to disappear during the 1980s as if by imperial (albeit not, we hasten to add, Chrysler Imperial) dictate. The new car replaces the company's front-drive LH line, which itself was a response to the several engineering arguments then made for front drive - including more efficient manufacturing costs and drive train packaging. However, such new technologies as seen in the 300C's traction control, electronic stability programs, and anti-lock brakes have negated several of front-drive's advantages. What's more, rear-drive is still a much better arrangement for the management of brute horsepower. In the 300C's case, some 340 horses emerge from its Hemi V8 to stampede the argument for its using a front-drive configuration.
The C represents the top tier in a 300 lineup that includes a base model powered by a 190-horsepower V6 and Touring model with a six tuned to deliver 250-hp. All 300s come with four-wheel disc brakes, but only the Touring and 300C models offer all-wheel-drive, antilock brakes, and traction and antiskid controls as options. All-wheel-drivers and V8s have a five-speed automatic transmission with a manual shift gate rather than a four-speed without one. However, when it comes to having Chrysler's Multi-Displacement System (which saves fuel by de-activating four cylinders as the sedan is either idling or cruising) and 18-inch wheels in place of 17s, the C stands alone.
Sitting alone in one of the test 300C's powered front seats, one gazes over the Bright Silver Metallic hood as it absorbs the grille's trailing edge in a graceful taper. The car was an AWD model, fitted with dark gray leather interior that housed front advanced multistage airbags, tortoiseshell trim, a cell phone storage unit, and heated front seats. A $2,000 navigation system, $900 power moon-roof, and Sirius satellite radio brought its price up to more than $36,000.
We drove the 300C out to some farm county marveling at the way its solid looks matched its equally solid handling and performance. Acceleration in the C still betrayed the fervid zeal its space race-inspired forebear, and, according to DaimlerChrysler, hit 60 mph in just over six seconds. Furthermore, the car's composed ride and balanced handling is partly due to its having become the beneficiary of a few significant mechanicals borrowed from parent company Mercedes. In this way, a five-link rear suspension, along with short- over long-arm front suspension (both borrowed from the Mercedes E Class and modified to fit the 300's longer wheel-base, wider track, and bigger wheels), provided excellent stability at highway speeds and remarkable adhesion through curves. Moreover, the car's traction and skid-control functions permitted it to perform with confidence on dangerously wet surfaces.
Other than for the curious styling exercise and a wish to dial in about ten percent better steering response, we'd say that Chrysler might have another car here for the ages.
Now, if only it weren't so obtuse about bringing back those tailfins ...
The 2005 Ford Escape Hybrid:
Gaia is like -- Everywhere
By ALAN WELLIKOFF | Originally published in the New York Sun, March 18, 2005
Of course, given the times, other luridly logo-ed events could eclipse news of a big gas hike. Even so, the driving public might not adapt to a spike in pump prices with the same equanimity as it did last season. On talk radio, callers might demand a September 11-style commission on the soaring price of a go-juice gallon. How did the government allow this to happen, inquiring readers will want to know. And how in good conscience can we escape it?
Think of it as parked at the intersection of the Sierra Club and the country club.
Available with front- and all-wheel drive (with no low-range gearing), the Hybrid arrives at the costlier end of the Escape lineup. As with all Escapes, it is a four-door sport-ute capable of carrying five passengers; and like the rest, it comes with a standard antilock braking system and newly optional head-protecting curtain-side airbags front and rear.
The test Escape was a titanium-green front-driver equipped with a pair of fog lamps and a set of 16-inch aluminum wheels. As is the case with all the new Escapes, Ford's stylists freshened their sport-ute's friendly, familiar, and Ford-like lines by having them look smartly machined with a router. An optional "Appearance Package," including specially painted cladding, helped bring the test truck's price to nearly $31,000.
Moor-bound, the Hybrid started out with far less of the electric 'golf cart' sense of immediacy we've experienced in other hybrids. Acceleration, while likely less spirited than in an Escape V6, nonetheless provided us with no sense of deprivation as it built to and maintained speed (we invite doubters to research Maryland Uniform Complaint and Citation # DC56416). Under hard acceleration, however, a rasping engine noise intruded to accompany the loud wind rush that the Escape produces at highway speeds while some rugged road surfaces caused the Hybrid to wallow unpleasantly as it recovered.
Throughout all this, our Hybrid averaged in the neighborhood of 30 miles a gallon. While this is a rate of fuel consumption falling below that of a Prius, it must be seen as something measured against the Hybrid's hauling and cargo capacity and all-wheel drive capability.
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| Patchouli-wearing waif, rust-encrusted Ford. |
The 2005 Ford Five Hundred: a Revival With Many Virtues
By ALAN WELLIKOFF | Originally published in the New York Sun on March 25, 2005.
The Galaxie 500 would go on to assume an XL designation, an example of the runaway badging that once brought us a Ford LTD Crown Victoria LX. No matter: Weighing a fender down with enough names to embarrass an Hungarian prince doesn't seem to obtain anymore. Instead, we get the old Ford 500 designation revived and spelled out as the new Five Hundred. Actually, in our case, we got a Ford Five Hundred Limited. Still, while a Ford sedan by any other name might smell as sweet, we can't remember when we liked one so much.
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| Pimped like an '80s Crown Vic (or an understudy in the Bratislava production of Prince Pikkó and Jutka Perzsi ), Hungarian Crown Prince Otto von Hapsburg had a shorter -- if nobler -- name |
Some of the reasons for this are easy to figure out once you know that Ford based the full-size Five Hundred sedan on a platform built by the company's Volvo subsidiary. And, to be sure, the American-made four-door is no less shy about displaying its European sense of style than your average Apache dancer. And while virtually nothing the company has built in the postwar period has been able to shake that peculiarly corn-fed Ford "look," the Five Hundred appears to have Audi and Passat bloodlines coursing through it.
High praise, indeed.
The Five Hundred's handsomely swept roofline and pleasingly compounded body curves comprise a smart shape that in size falls between the competing Chrysler 300 and Ford's own Crown Vic.
Sharing its basic design with the Mercury Montego and Ford's Freestyle crossover sport-utility, the Five Hundred's seats sit 4 inches above those of other sedans. It's as if, in this age when car models shape-shift faster than phone-internet-cable packages, the Five Hundred sedan is attempting a crossover into a crossover, which itself splits the difference between wagons and SUVs.
The car comes in base SE, midrange SEL and high-zoot Limited models, all equipped with front- or all-wheel-drive and all propelled by a 203-liter V6 linked to either a continuously variable transmission or standard six-speed automatic, depending on model and drive train. While anti-lock brakes and traction control come standard on the Five Hundred, it has no anti-skid system.
The tester was a front driving Limited model equipped with the six-speed automatic. In $26,000 high trim, it came with 18-inch spoked aluminum wheels and heated outside mirrors not standard on lower orders of the car. Inside, the wine-colored Limited had powered and heated front seats, was leather lined, and came with an optional safety package that included side-curtain airbags and a reverse-gear proximity sensor. The cabin's real story, however, lay in the enlivening sense of comfort its superior command position afforded. The Accord-like proportions of the Five Hundred's clear, accessible, and handsome dashboard enhance this happy state.
Yet even these virtues must take a back seat to the Five Hundred's back seat. Here sprawls an area feeling more like those found in Jaguars for all the limo-like head and legroom it provides. But wait, there's more! Just when you figure this expanse of rear seating has had to compromise trunk space, you pop the Five Hundred's short-deck lid to uncover what Ford claims is the largest trunk of any sedan, with an area cavernous enough to attract a colony of bats.
We took this prospective bat mobile on a shakedown that ran deep into exurban Gotham. Ford claims a 7.5-second zero-to-60 acceleration time for its front drive Five Hundreds, although its takeoff from a standing start sometimes exhibits lag. On the highway, the car allowed for moderate wind noise, while on back roads, its direct steering and four-wheel disc brakes made twisting turns easy to negotiate despite some minor tendencies toward body lean. These things aside, the Ford Five Hundred Limited imparted a feeling of smoothly powered and managed heft. Driving it, we enjoyed its capacity and poise. And while this platform may go on to become the basis for the new Crown Vic, there's no need for a Ford Five Hundred 500 or anything like that.
By ALAN WELLIKOFF | Originally published in the New York Sun, April 1, 2005
Freestyle. Sure, it's a name implying a certain versatility, but it's also one from which you can infer something of this vehicle's mercurial nature. Based on the same Volvo-developed platform as was the Ford Five Hundred, you can reasonably view the Freestyle as the Five Hundred's car-like station wagon. Looking at it, though, we see a midsize SUV; inside, it resembles a seven-passenger minivan. In fact, Mercury's minivan, the Monterey, also uses the Freestyle chassis.
The Freestyle's free style reflects the kind of automotive morphing for which the car industry came up with its "crossover" designation - although Ford might even see this term as too limiting.
Regardless, the vehicle is a version of that subset of SUVs known as crossovers.
Save maybe for its innovative use of a continuously variable transmission, there's little about Freestyle to save you from free-floating ennui. However, the Ford is roomy, competent, offers smooth handling, and was judged to be the safest vehicle in its class. As Ford's first crossover, it's the company's answer to the favorably reviewed Chrysler Pacifica.
Imagining the Freestyle as the station-wagon version of the Ford Five Hundred requires one to overcome the notion that the two vehicles should strongly resemble each another. Certainly, both have that peculiar cast of all-American exuberance that's graced nearly every Ford since wagons were woody and Volvos unidentifiable. However, in its styling, the Five Hundred calls upon more German influences than does the Freestyle, which instead sports a rising roofline that suggests the occurrence of an abomination between a Nissan Xterra and a Greyhound Scenicruiser somewhere in its past.
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| Freestyle or Doggie Style? Scenicruisers needn't mount Xterras to look like they've been caught in flagrante delicto. |
That said, the two Fords also share a great deal.
Like the Five Hundred, the Ford Freestyle's torque can emerge from a 203-horsepower V6 to course through either a front- or all-wheel-drive system while governed by the aforementioned CVT, with uses infinitely changeable drive ratios rather than the staged ones found in conventional trannies. Both also come in base SE, midrange SEL, and deluxe Limited trims permitting various arrangements of standard and optionally equipped tire sizes, airbag arrays, interior materials, and other features. In addition, both are roomy, but accelerate in a way that seems slower than their claimed zero-to-60 times state.
The test Freestyle was a midrange SEL with 17-inch aluminum wheels (versus the Limited's 18-inch versions), antilock brakes, fog lamps, and front-wheel drive. With a base price of just more than $26,000, it had the reverse-gear sensing system and such interior-based options as leather trimmed seating, a three-passenger second row bench, and both side air curtain and front side airbag arrays to bring its price to just more than $30,000.
Thus enhanced, the interior's utilitarian setting was set off by a simple and easily read dashboard, excellent command position, and easily accessed and comfortable front seats. This comfort also extended to the Freestyle's rear, where headroom and legroom abounded, and even the third row of seats seems adequate for occupancy by adults. Not only did the two back seat rows fold flat, but so did the SUV's front passenger seatback. This provided an unusually large amount of storage area that included a 9.5-foot conduit for lengthy cargo.
