Is Three Times The Charm? Buying A New Chrysler Town & Country
Carissa Rogers
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We Went to Buy a Used Mini-Van and a Brand New Chrysler Town & Country Followed Us Home!
We did it. We bought our THIRD Chrysler Town & Country last week.
First I need to back up and tell you about our family. There are 3 (very excited about our new van, as you can see) kids who are getting older—and, well… larger. And their friends are big now, too. Our oldest will have a license in a few months. And in just a few years she’ll be out of the house at college.
So Why Do We Still Need a Mini-Van You Might Ask?
Because we still take a lot of family road trips and we still have a lot of extra bodies in our vehicle at any given time. Simply? We need a People Mover with plenty of cargo, leg and luggage space. For a few more years… anyway.
We test drove several non-van type vehicles. Including a Chevrolet Tahoe, a Buick Enclave and a GMC Acadia Denali; all of these vehicles are fabulous and comfortable for both the grown-ups and kids. But the main thing driving us back to a mini-van is the standing room cargo space and gas mileage.
I have yet to see any non-van (and in my opinion the Chrysler Town & Country beats other vans as well) hold anywhere near as much stuff as my Chrysler can hold. With the ‘Stow & Go’ seats folded completely flat I’ve boxed up my whole kitchen and moved across town in it. We routinely lay a tarp down and haul yard debris to the dump. I can fit 2 or 3 large bikes inside my van with a kid or two still for a family bike ride down at the local green space.
We especially love traveling with the 60/40 split back row. We fold the 40 seat down and with the trunk area stuffed with luggage and pillows; the 40 area becomes the perfect spot for the family cooler filled with snacks and drinks. (The kid sitting next to the cooler has the best seat in the house!) And when we arrive at grandma’s house just pop the back seat back into place and we have room for all the extra cousins because we didn’t leave a seat at home.
Our Third Chrysler Town & Country
Partly we are happy to buy US cars. And partly we really like the value and added features in Chrysler vans. We first bought a new one in 2002 and later traded it in for a (new to us) used 2005 Chrysler Town & Country in 2007. We upgraded early specifically for the newly added ‘Stow & Go’ seating.
This time around we purchased the ‘Touring” model and we’re super excited to really test out all the latest features (CAN YOU SAY HANDSFREE BLUETOOTH FINALLY?). Chrysler introduced UConnect for their in vehicle entertainment and navigation package. The kids were ready for sliding door windows that roll down! A back up camera was high on my list as well as multiple USB ports, blind spot monitoring, a dang button to close the power rear liftgate (I REALLY wanted that!) and for pete’s sake… a place to put my purse!
Check out the center console on the new Chrysler Town & Country:
A Few Standard Items on the Town & Country That Are ‘Good n Crazy’ to Have:
- Heated mirrors
- Tire Pressure Monitoring (tells you which tire is low and by how much!)
- 3rd Row Tailgate Seats
- Single DVD Player (we were prepared to lose this feature since kids are older, but hey… if it’s standard?)
- Sliding Power Side Doors
- Keyless Entry
- Premium Fog Lamps (I’m amazed how well these work!)
SafetyTec Package Upgrade
Not standard but an upgrade we are raving about is the SafetyTec Package which includes ‘Smartbeam’ technology (automatically dimming your brights while driving), rain sensitive windshield wipers (SO Freaking Cool!) and a few other safety perks keeping my family safer. We also have an upgraded navigation and satellite radio system.
Touring Trim Level VS Higher Trim Levels
There are a few things missing in the Touring trim level (ours was a Limited before) but the two main things I’m going to miss are heated seats (we moved to Charlotte, but still… it’s cold in January!) and a power front passenger seat. It also does not come with a moonroof, a 2nd DVD screen, remote start and a few other upgrades, but I’m just not crying about those things. And yes we still have the leather interior.
What is the Best Day of the Year to Buy a New Vehicle?
Who knew? Turns out January 2nd is the last day of the fiscal year (at least that’s what our dealer told us). And they were UBER motivated to get this ‘old’ new van off their lot! Other great days to buy: September 30th when they are dying to get rid of their year-end models and Black Friday.
I don’t know if we really got the deal of the year. But we were able to negotiate pretty hard on our trade in for one thing. (The dealer nearly doubled their initial trade-in offer price.) And with all the incentives etc… We believe we were thousands under invoice by the time it was all done and before our trade-in kicked in. However we were never shown the actual invoice so we don’t really know for sure what kind of a ‘deal’ we got?
Plus we happily bought the top level maintenance package. It has paid for itself twice before, and I fully expect it to do the same again on this one.
We purchased our new van at Stateline Chrysler/Jeep/Dodge in Fort Mill, SC, and the price includes two years of oil changes and a one-year free subscription to SiriusXM Radio.The base price before upgrades was $30,620—after upgrades $34,405, and this was before incentives and end-of-the-year deals. The bottom line? We paid much less than the MSRP!
Disclosure: This is not a sponsored post. We purchased this vehicle and our thoughts and opinions are our own.