A Chrysler Minivan Women Can Love -- Roomier, More Carlike Performance Passes Toughest Test: Parents

CARMEL, Calif. - Cynthia Ling spotted the teal blue minivan out of the corner of her eye as she jogged past River Elementary School on her daily run through the hilly coastal neighborhood. Her legs told her to keep going, but something in her head said, slow down.

"I thought that was a new Toyota," Ling said between gulps of air, "but then I saw it was a Chrysler and I said, `Whoa!' "

What caused her to stop in her tracks? A 1996 Dodge Grand Caravan, totally redesigned for the first time since Chrysler introduced the species more than a decade ago.

At last. A Chrysler minivan that women can love. For months, Chrysler has boasted that its next-generation minivans will leapfrog the competition, providing more comfort and convenience features with better carlike handling than any minivan on the road.

We decided to ask the real experts: parents who use their minivans day in, day out, to haul everything from kids to lumber.

Our first chance came earlier this month, when Chrysler was showing the new vans to automotive reporters from around the country. We borrowed one for the afternoon and took it to River Elementary just as the daily parade of minivans was assembling on the street outside.

There were Voyagers and Caravans, Villagers and Windstars, Astros, Previas and MPVs. There were even a couple of old VW buses pulling up out front.

What better environment to ask real minivan owners what they think about Chrysler's latest models, which go on sale this spring?

It didn't take long for curious parents to notice the roundly shaped van. "It's cute," said Lori Aiello, 36, mother of three boys, who parked her 1993 Plymouth Grand Voyager next to the new one. "It doesn't look huge - mine is so boxy."

But looks were not the most important thing to these seasoned minivan moms. They were far more concerned with the van's safety, flexibility and convenience.

Virtually every mother we talked to was impressed with the new optional sliding door on the driver's side, especially after trying it out a few times.

Even the bus drivers got in on the act. "Hey Barbara! Come here!" said bus driver Karen Brown, 37, a mother of two who last year traded her Chevy Astro van for a Ford Taurus station wagon.

"Feel the doors when they shut - they're not heavy like the other ones," she said to her friend and fellow bus driver, Barbara Hamlet.

"Yeah, that's nice," said Barbara, a tall woman who then climbed inside to check out the head-room.

Nancy Horwin, who was picking up daughter Hayley from school, liked how the dashboard controls curved toward the driver; they were easier to reach than in her 1988 Grand Voyager, which has a straight dashboard.

On the new van, Chrysler also managed to correct an annoying misalignment between the seat and the steering wheel. No more aching backs.

Horwin was especially pleased with the gliding action of the rear liftgate. Too often, she bumps her head on the liftgate of her current van.

Ling, the jogger, noticed how easily the liftgate closed, too. "Kid, bag of groceries, one arm - no problem," she said as she pretended to carry something in one arm.

Such initial gut reactions from minivan owners bode well for Chrysler, which is launching its new minivans into a field that's far more crowded than in the mid-1980s, when its boxy minivans accounted for more than half of all minivans sold in America.

Today's minivan shoppers have more choices, including the relatively new Ford Windstar, Mercury Villager, Nissan Quest and Honda Odyssey. Next year, General Motors will introduce a new family of vans to replace the long-nosed Silhouette, TransSport and Lumina minivans, and Toyota plans a new minivan based on the Camry for 1997.

Chrysler won't announce its minivan prices until later this month, but officials have hinted that they won't go up much beyond current stickers, even after adjusting for basic improvements and new standard equipment, such as antilock brakes. The likely price range: $17,000 for a base Plymouth Voyager to $32,000 for a loaded Chrysler Town & Country.

Lehman Brothers automotive analyst Joseph Phillippi said in a research report that Chrysler's 1996 minivan pricing scheme "may very possibly shock the industry."

The new minivans, which officially go on sale May 15, have significantly more space inside. To cram more stuff inside, the second- and third-row bench seats have wheels that snap down like an airplane's landing gear to make them easier to remove and store.

That's important to families like the Aiellos, who two weeks later were off to the Grand Canyon for a family vacation.

"When we go on a trip, we push the seat all the way up, and load it up," said Aiello.