2009 Chrysler Town and Country Review, Pictures and Specs

2009 Chrysler Town and Country Overview

The 2009 Chrysler Town and Country car which is priced at MSRP $26340- $36780 is very exciting and innovative like a mini van which is designed for the modern family transportation. These minivans are available in three trim levels viz. LX, Touring and Top line.  They have been designed particularly for families who offer more weightage to space and practicality. At times when automakers are moving away from the mini van segment, Chrysler has focused on improving its family-friendly offering in the hopes of drawing buyers away from new entries from the likes of Toyota, Honda etc.

Body Style:

The 2009 Chrysler Town and country Car is designed according to the 1980 styling roots outside with an amalgamation of modern and upscale touches inside. We would rate the new shape of this model as an average, as it is not overly pleasing but keeps away from complete boredom.

The exterior body styles for all the models are similar, but there are still some noticeable differences. The touring model has body-colored moldings, fog lights and 16-inch alloy wheels whereas the other models get chrome moldings and 17-inch wheels. We can say that the body is well styled in terms with minivan traditionalists with upright windshield, blocky headlights, and no-nonsense tail.

We found the interior body style has minimal changes in contrast to the 2008 version. The interiors are impressive and controls are plainly marked and work as expected, the gauges are also simple to locate and easy to read. The interiors have dollops of faux wood trim, chrome accents and an analog clock which brighten things up but overall they are quite plain, simple and functional.

Features

This minivan model has all the desirable features and makes it stand above its competitors. It sums up with all high tech and kid friendly features which makes it the most desirable family car. They are ideally designed keeping the requirements of the family in mind. It features under floor storage, multiple 12-volt outlets, grocery bag hooks behind the front seats, power sliding doors etc. which are the need for the family on go. The standard features that are included are 16-inch steel wheels, full power accessories, front and rear air-conditioning, cruise control, Stow ‘n Go second-row seating, stain-repellent cloth upholstery, a tilt steering wheel, a flip-down kiddy mirror and a CD/MP3 player. There are many optional features to choose from like rear seat entertainment system with two wireless headphones, satellite radio and a touch screen stereo interface with 30GB of digital music storage, live satellite TV for rear seats and 9-inch overhead dual DVD screens with swiveling third-row monitor. The features are perfect to keep the kids happy which would be another feather to their cap.

Another new feature that the Chrysler 2009 car includes is the rain-sensing windshield wipers; voice-recognition and Bluetooth hands-free cell phone connectivity. The standard and optional features that are available with this model are so exemplary that we would score a full ten on ten.

Performance

The 2009 Chrysler models are available in three different engine types with the options of .3-liter V6 good for 175 horsepower and 205 pound-feet of torque, if you wish to choose the powerful options you can choose the.8-liter V6 that produces 197 hp and 230 lb-ft of torque and a more modern 4.0-liter V6 making 251 hp and 259 lb-ft of torque. If you choose the 4.0 liter option it would propel from 0-60mph in 9 seconds which is rather quick. It has been
noted that the base model has four speed automatic whereas the both up level engines have six-speed automatics.

We found the fuel economy for the base model to be disappointing with its output at 17 mpg city/24 mpg combined and 19 mpg combined. The up level engines had different power outputs but still they offered the same fuel economy at 16 city/23 highway and 18 combined.

The overall comfort and performance is good and maintains a perfect balance between highway comfort and around town responsiveness. We found hat it delivered a natural and comfortable feel even at higher speeds and even the larger bumps were taken with greater poise. The brakes were also found to be very effective and equally impressive.

Quality

The main drawback that we could figure out in the 2009 Chrysler Town and country car was the interior quality. This model offer voluminous storage space and adequate passenger comfort. They can comfortably seat seven passengers as the seats are well designed to offer complete comfort even while traveling on long hauls. The seats are well equipped to fold into the floor to offer more storage space while traveling.

The storage is perfectly designed but the interiors are very disappointing. The materials quality are very cheap and do not match the level offered by its competitors. The interiors are well assembled but the hard plastic surfaces and low materials dominate the cabin which looses its exclusivity.

Safety

Safety is an important feature that is considered while buying family cars. The 2009 Chrysler Town and country car has taken all points in consideration and has safely passed all safety tests that were conducted. They have scored the highest possible scores from both NHTSA and the IIHS. They have scored five stars in in both the frontal offset and side impact tests. They include curtain side airbags which cover all seating rows, ABS, traction control,   and antiskid system. They also feature optional features such as sonar ParkSense, which sends an audible alarm when things are behind the van, and the Parkview rearview camera.

The only drawback that we noted was when both screens of dual DVD entertainment system are in use, the rear view gets compromised. Otherwise the visibility is very good in all directions.

Conclusion

We concluded that 2009 Chrysler Town and country car is a very good and useful family car taking care of the entertainment and safety of kids. They offer good storage space and can be ideally used for long hauls. The flexible seating arrangements are an added advantage.

The main drawbacks that we noted were substandard interiors, the Stow and GO seats were also not very comfortable.

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