Had the opportunity to carpool with another one-kid family to a parking-starved section of town this weekend. Perfect opportunity to put the DGC through its family-hauling paces. After cinching two child safety seats into the captain's chairs and a quick Rochambeau tourney to see who would sit in the third row (moms won!), the gang (four parents, two almost-3-year-olds) headed out. The kids were quite happy in their car seats (they could actually reach across the aisle and grab each other's fingers), but the dads complained about the tight squeeze between the captain's chairs on the way to their final destination of the third row seat. (For reference, the space between those captain's chairs is about the length of my hand.)
Up front, I was happy with my ability to handle many of my passengers' needs without having to leave the driver seat, thanks to the various control buttons at my disposal. "Are these little windows back here? Can I get them opened while we wait?" called my husband from the third-row as we waited for our friends. Sure thing (thanks, Rear Vent Window Button on the driver's armrest). "Can we get some air back here?" he called again after we were on our way. Yes, you can (thank you, Rear Climate Control button). When we arrived at our first stop (and every subsequent stop), three quick stabs at buttons above the rearview mirror opened both rear sliding doors and the rear hatch so kids could be unbuckled and supplies could be retrieved before anyone even had to ask.
It's still creaking and dribbling Bonneville sand water out of many crannies after a trip to the car wash, but this weekend, the Grand Caravan was my useful companion.
Bryn MacKinnon, Senior Editor, Edmunds.com @ 21,913 miles
carfreak8394 says:
07:26 PM, 12/ 9/08
Awesome Recaro seat! Ha.
the_big_al says:
08:46 PM, 12/ 9/08
We used one of these vans, albeit the previous gen this weekend to go to the Redwoods and to Crater Lake. It hauled 6 adults and 1 infant in relative comfort. I'll be honest. I didn't notice the clinky plastic or the rattly door panels or the sub-par interior materials. What I did notice was the uncomfortable drivers seat and the odd climate control, but other than that it was a pretty good people hauler. I won't fault it's ease of ingress and egress. The rear seats flipped forward to better access to the rear which was easier than squeezing between the captains chairs.
I didn't think I would ever see myself owning one of these things, but after this past weekend I can't see a bad thing about their utility and image can be damned. Who cares if it looks like a bread box? Sure it would be nice to have the fantastically supple interior of a Mercedes and the fit and finish of an Audi, but with kids who really cares??
Having said all that, I would care however if the reliability wasn't there and I couldn't depend on it day in and day out, which is one are that I think this particular model suffers.
mozzz77788 says:
09:40 PM, 12/ 9/08
I actually love this Van, oddly enough. Last spring break we took it from Alabama to South Carolina, and it rode nicely and had all these nice touches, despite the cheap plastic everywhere. The convenience features are great!