A Balanced Product From The Minivan Masters

My wife and I have an interior design business, our accountant said we needed more deductions, and the need to haul bulky furnishings to our client's homes on a moments notice led us to shop for a new minivan. My wife likes her Camry, so she favored the Sienna. I favor Honda's, so the Odyssey was on the list. Neither of us were keen on domestic offerings because of painful ownership experiences in the past, but Dodge had the Stow-and-Go feature in their van. Since the primary role of our new van was going to be hauling it made the evaluation list. Our selection criteria were passenger-to-cargo conversion flexibility, performance, quality/comfort, and value, in order of priority.

To be honest I really wanted the Odyssey for its typically stellar Honda engineering and road manners, but the middle seats simply folded and had to be removed completely for a flat load floor behind the driver, so I reluctantly removed it from the list immediately. The middle seats in the Sienna were better in that they folded up against the front seats, but they still had to be removed for a load floor behind the driver. Still, there was Toyota reliability, so it stayed in the hunt. The Stow-and-Go feature on the Dodge was simply brilliant. After the MILD annoyance of moving the front seats forward, the floor hatches open up and seats fold and flip right into the floor. The entire process, even with a slow moving power driver's seat, takes one minute for both sides. Springs are cleverly incorporated into the seat design to counterbalance the weight of its folding components making it a one-handed operation to stow and deploy the seats. With all of the seats folded into the floor the seat floor latches become convenient tie-down hooks. Neat.

Still, there was the domestic reliability and build quality issue, so it got down to test drives for the Toyota and the Dodge. To get a feel for long-term quality, I deliberately drove used examples that were similarly optioned.

What happened next surprised me. The Toyota Sienna LE that I drove had 10,000 miles on it. It made good power, had a cushy ride, and was very quiet on smooth pavement. I got the sense, though, that I was in a very big vehicle. There was a lot of body lean in corners. It had a very modern five-speed automatic that shifted frequently (and perceptibly) on surface streets. Rough pavement brought out strange harmonics from the floor and a loud rattle in the right sliding door.

I went to the Dodge dealer expecting the worse, thinking that maybe going from a sedan to a van wasn't a good idea after all. Then I drove a Grand Caravan SE with 20,000 miles on it, and was amazed. It was incredibly tight. No harmonics and no rattles. The ride was firm but very well controlled, with no body lean. Steering was perfectly weighted and the van went exactly where it was pointed. The brakes had a good, easily modulated feel. From a driving comparison standpoint the Sienna was a Buick. The Caravan was a BMW.

When it came down to numbers, finding the option packages for the Sienna that would give me four-wheel disc brakes with ABS got a bit confusing, but I found a dealer that would get me an LE so equipped for $23,500. With the Dodge it was easier. All I needed was the SXT package which gave me everything but side curtain air bags, leather, and entertainment system options I didn't need. We're past the point where we have to keep kids entertained on a long trip. I found a Dodge dealer that was willing to fax me the deal, and what a deal it was. Besides a $300 over invoice price, there was a $3000 rebate and a $1000 lease incentive. There was no money out of pocket, and after adding the payments and residual together we had the van for $1500 LESS than the MSRP. It was a done deal before we got to the dealer.

Since many of the Epinion reviews of the Grand Caravan had been less than kind and completely at odds with our own experience, I thought it would be a good idea to defer a review until after we'd put some miles on it for a well rounded evaluation. Maybe I'd missed something, or my infatuation with the van was simply due to the fact that it was new. Well, after 10 months and 13,000 miles we have been in love with, and consistently amazed by this vehicle.

There is an elegant simplicity to the design. The Dodge looked like it was drawn by one designer who favored flowing, sweeping strokes with a pencil. Cut lines are resolved from end to end, and there are no battles between the flowing and blocky schools of design on one canvas that I see on other designs. The result is a van that looks tauter and smaller than it really is, and there is a payoff in efficiency. At 4200 pounds, the Grand Caravan is no lightweight, but it consistently gets 21 miles per gallon in combined driving in Los Angeles, and real-world driving in L.A. means lots of stop-and-go and speeds up to 80 mph. To put this in perspective, my 2002 four cylinder Nissan Altima with a 5-speed manual gets 26 miles per gallon, and I drive the van with only slightly less verve.

The inside of the Grand Caravan reflects the same design harmony. The dash is simple and business-like, with easily read gauges with teal numbers on a white background with bright red indicators. The numbers are back-lit, so there is a brief period at twilight when the gauges are difficult to read at a glance. The dash has a true black matte finish reminiscent of a quality German sedan, designed to disappear and not be a distraction to the driver, and it performs this function well. The faux carbon fiber trim around the center fascia looks good with a grey and black interior, but I will concede that it would look out of place against an earth-tone interior backdrop. Every conceivable detail has been thought out. A well just below the climate controls has a tacky rubber lining to keep things like cell phones from sliding around or flying out. There is a slide out dual cup holder below the well which seems flimsy at first glance, but is amazingly efficient in actual use. Everything from small Styrofoam cups to Big Gulps fit in it, and they don't rattle around. Two 12 volt receptacles are provided in front (one switched and one un-switched) and a switched receptacle is provided just behind the left side sliding door.

The climate controls are large and have a quality feel. The climate control system itself is marvelous. Driver and passenger have their own sliders for temperature and they work great in practice. My wife likes her side blistering hot, and I like mine cold. We have harmony. The rear air can be controlled from the dash or an independent set in the center of the headliner just behind the driver, which is easily reached by the middle seat passengers. Ventilation flow-through with the windows closed is excellent. The cabin warms up quickly when it's cold, and cools down quickly when it's hot. Ventilation ducts in the dash and headliner for the middle and rear seat passengers are perfectly placed. Pods for the headliner ducts include push-to-activate reading lamps, spring loaded grab-handles, and swing-out coat hangers that work well and are flush to the ceiling when not in use.

A word of advice. Never take an opinion on the comfort of a car seat based on a one-hour driving impression. It takes an entire day in a chair to evaluate the merits of a seat design. At first glance, the seats in the Grand Caravan look less opulent than their competition and are decidedly firm. The foam in the seats is apparently the same material used in the seats for the Space Shuttle, and I believe it. Our first outing was an unplanned family emergency in Billings. We left Los Angeles and drove all the way to Salt Lake City on the first day. I was ready to go the whole distance but my wife didn't want to go through Yellowstone at night. I have a bad back and I felt great. The seats are supportive in all the right places, and the 8-way power seat (standard on the SXT) will make anyone from the extremely short to extremely tall comfortable. Ditto for the middle Captains Chairs. The rear row bench is less comfortable, but someone as tall as me (I'm 6'5") could handle it for an hour or so. Kids would be fine back there.

As far as driving is concerned, my wife and I fight over the keys. Both of us have nice cars (2002 Altima and Camry) but we prefer to drive the Grand Caravan. All important controls fall immediately to hand, including the column mounted (I see this as no vice) shifter. Very little road noise intrudes. The ride is compliant but firm and it corners flat with little lean. Steering is perfectly weighted, and the 4-wheel disc brakes with ABS stop the van in a hurry with no drama whatsoever. The 4-speed transmission may be dated in an era of 5 and 6-speed autos, but it shifts positively, almost imperceptibly. It always kicks down to the right gear when you're in a hurry, but romping on it when you're going 40 yields lots of noise but little movement. I expect that the flaw in this speed range is due to an older designed engine without variable-valve timing linked to a four speed. At any other speed it works great. Oh, and you can "light up" the tires from a standing start. All you have to do is disengage the Traction Control and stomp on it. I felt stupid afterward for doing this, because hot-rod performance is not a van's mission.

Hauling is this van's mission, and at that task it has no peer. A week after we bought it for the business my wife called and asked if I could stop by a vendor's showroom and pick up a loveseat, two overstuffed armchairs, a coffee table, and two end tables? I was already driving the van at the time and had to smile. Had this been a Toyota or Honda I would have had to drive home and remove the middle seats before picking up the furniture. All I had to do was take one minute to flip the middle and rear seats into the floor, and all the furniture just fit. I've also hauled a 4 by 8 foot dining table (standing straight up), and can fit a professional 20 foot fiberglass two-section extension ladder inside the van with no problem.

Two things about the van bug me, and one thing struck me as annoyingly funny. First, the brake pads are very soft. While this makes for great stopping, a fine black brake dust dirties the wheels very quickly. If I skip a week washing the van it looks like the wheels haven't been washed in half a year. The second problem is the driver's side floor mat creeps and bunches up under the brake pedal. I am told that retaining clips were made available for 2007, but this dragon was slain by the Japanese competition five years ago. The annoyingly funny thing is the quintessentially American-car fuel gauge. It creeps until it gets to the half-full mark, and then plummets toward empty as if someone shot a hole in the fuel tank. I use the trip computer, and fill up at around 430 miles.

With current incentives, a Grand Caravan SXT comes loaded with power everything, dual front climate control, rear air, 4-wheel ABS disc brakes with Stability and Traction Control, nice aluminum wheels, an excellent stereo system, an overhead console with a trip computer, compass, and outside temperature gauge, and power dual sliders AND a power rear hatch, for around $22,500. Get one while you can. The next generation has that blocky, Humvee-inspired look with the apparent aerodynamics of a brick.