Tales Of 3 Vans

Chrysler Town and Country

Yesterday I took a little tour of the car dealers along US 90. I saw three different vans that were all very nice. In the past I have owned Ford - Chevy - Chrysler - and Honda vans. It is hard to pick a favorite - they all had many nice features. 

On this trip I looked at Chrysler - Mercedes - and Honda vans. 

The red one above is a Chrysler Town and Country made in Canada. This one was well equipped at $31,000. By far the neatest feature is the Stow and Go seats. The van seats 7 people - but effortlessly all the back seats fold into the floor - leaving a big flat space for hauling or camping. 

Stow and Go seating is a great feature

Just down the street a few doors from Chrysler is the Mercedes garage. They have been making a van in Europe for 5 years called the Vito. In American they named it Metris. The Metris  is a little larger than the other minivans - one might call it a midivan. It has a turbo 208HP gas engine that drives the rear wheels thru a 7 speed automatic transmission. It looks and smells very much like a Mercedes with its leather seats. Unfortunately - all seats must be lifted out and removed to give you a flat floor. The Metris will set you back $41,000 to $45,000 with its long list of choices.Too bad they do not have a Stow and Go seat option. 

Mercedes Metris

Metris leather interior

Finally - just another mile or two down the road is the Honda shop. I have had a Honda Odyssey before - a 2004 - and I must say it was the smoothest highway touring car I can recall. Its 250 HP V6 is bulletproof - and 28 MPG on the highway is a normal. The Honda pictured below was the top of the line - Touring Elite. It had a sticker of $45,000! But there were many on the lot for $33,000 - nicely equipped. 

Honda Odyssey is the number one van in America

This version was juiced up to $45,000

All 3 vans offer tons of options - including rear cameras - sunroofs - DVD players - lane sensors - GPS - parking sensors - and alloy wheels. 

They all seemed to be high quality. The best feature among them all - is the Stow and Go seating of the Chrysler. Being able to haul 8 people - and then just flip a couple levers - turn it into a cargo van is nice. Chrysler has announced that 2016 will be the last year for this wonderful little van. 

The rock solid Mercedes chassis - engine - transmission - rear wheel drive were impressive. And that big tri-star on the nose would impress the neighbors :-)