2002 Chrysler Town and Country Limited, FWD review from North America

Purchased is solely because of the zero percent financing for five years.

Overall, the car has 48,000 miles in 4 years and no major mechanical problems.

Let’s start with the positive.

This van is really comfortable. Really a great drive. You do not get tired over a long distance drive, unless my daughter is screaming in the back seat. Seats are fantastic, leather is very nice. Child car seats fit very nicely. Removal and reinstallation are a snap.

Now, I will report what I do not like. This is a random list, as I think of it.

I have the wipers, it drives me nuts that the wipers operate toward each other, instead of with each other (I hope that makes sense.) The slowest intermittent setting is still too fast.

The van hydroplanes easily and the traction control is a joke.

The interior wind noise is ridiculous. You really need to speak up if you want to have a conversation with a second row passenger. You have to yell to a 3rd row passenger.

There are too many buttons on both the steering wheel and for the climate control. Too confusing. I’ve never heard of an “Auto High” and “Auto Low” setting for the climate fan speed. Automatic is supposed to automatically set the fan speed.

Auto side doors fail to close electrically about 2 out of 6 tries. The tailgate fails to open electrically about 50% of the time. It always fails when you're a carrying a baby and have a folded stroller ready to be put in the trunk. Both of these issues have been repaired and adjusted number of times by the dealer, with no improvement.

I really wish the heated seats worked well. These are far from European heated seats. The heat is marginal, at best. The heated seat switches, however, look very nice on the dash.

The 3rd row seats weigh a ton. We have the split 3rd row, and I do not ever bother to remove the seats because of the weight.

Make sure you have lots of spare bulbs for both the interior and exterior.

Speaking of bulbs, typical of Chrysler, the headlamps are pathetic. These “improved” headlamps are not bright enough on an unlit street. The headlamps are for show only.

The rear window washer just dribbles down the window. There is no stream. Not really effective.

My van does mostly city driving in bumper to bumper traffic. We get 14 MPG. The rare highway trip yields 19, at best.

As far as repairs, there was some rattle that was caused by some bent bracket under the car. First the dealer tried to tell us it was bad fuel. After I yelled a little and got my salesperson involved, they replaced the part, just before the warranty was over.

The battery left us stranded in a parking lot in the 3rd year.

I now have a piece of weather stripping that has torn. I’ll probably replace it myself.

Overall, the car will be paid up in exactly one more year. I will pray that it will hold up mechanically. I really like the 2007 Nissan.