Driving a Living Room
Being a relatively young adult, I have only owned three cars thus far: a Dodge Neon, a Chrysler PT Cruiser, and a Chrysler Voyager. The latter two are currently in my garage. We’re currently looking to replace the Voyager. I’ve been digging the features of the new line of Chrysler minivans. I’ve always liked Chrysler cars, and have always felt that the other companies were copying their minivans—playing catch-up.
On Saturday, we test-drove a Toyota Sienna. I liked it. If I had been put in blind-folded, I might have thought it was a Chrysler. It’s roomy, comfortable, and while I wouldn’t consider any minivan to be the epitome of style, it wasn’t unattractive.
Then we went to the Chrysler dealership next door. What happened Chrysler? I’m extremely disappointed with the new model. It looks like the head designer for the Dodge trucks headed up the minivan team. It seems big, bulky, lumbering, chunky even. The original Caravan marketing used the name “Car-A-Van” to promote the fact that it felt more like a car than a large van. Truckavan would now be more appropriate.
The interior was worse. All of the lines were hard angles. Stylistically, it reminded me of a Thunderbird. The dashboard resembled a monument. There was very little change in texture or color. It was obvious that this was a stylistic choice made by the designers, although I can’t fathom why. Furthermore, it was crowded. The seats all seemed to be larger than necessary. I had been interested in the new “swivel seating”. It seemed like a good idea, but to actually swivel the seats, the front seats had to be pushed up out of the way.
When my wife made the comment that it just seemed big, the salesman said that they had approached the design with the idea of making it like your living room. I can understand using a living room as inspiration, but they got it all wrong. My living room is spacious, comfortable, warm, soft, and visually pleasing. The interior of the Town & Country was crowded, cold, hard, and stark. The one aspect of the living room they did successfully capture is that a living room is big.
I don’t want to drive my living room.