Dodge Grand Caravan and Chrysler Town & Country

Heidi Shepard tossed the keys to the 2001 Dodge Grand Caravan to her son and plopped down in the minivan’s back seat. From this vantage point, the 54-year-old mother of five and director of emergency nursing at Beaumont Hospital, Troy said she could give one of the most anticipated vehicles of the new model year a “true test.”

“Getting in was a little struggle without a running board,” Shepard said. “But overall, the seating was very comfortable and the ride was very smooth.” Mother knows best.

That’s why we asked members of The Detroit News women’s panel to help us evaluate DaimlerChrysler AG’s new minivans. A family-style test drive was our aim and our panel did not disappoint. The new minivans go on sale this month.

Even though not all of them were moms, the women were tough critics as they subjected the new minivans to a stringent reality check. Panelists were encouraged to let friends and family members get behind the wheel. Impressions were gathered from the women and more than 50 family members who got a close look at the new minivans. Overall reaction: Decidedly mixed.

Lisa Jackson, a single 25-year-old project resource specialist for a Southfield technical staffing firm, gushed over the people mover. Her evaluation form was filled with exclamation points and phrases like “seating was fabulous!” and “capacity was stupendous!”

“I am so shocked,” Jackson said. “I never thought I’d say this. This is a possibility for my next car – and I don’t even have kids. The ride was on a par with luxury cars I’ve rode in.”

But Carole Kody, the 37-year-old mother of 3-year-old triplets from Canton and owner of a new Ford Windstar minivan, wasn’t as sold. “The bottom line is this is a great van with some wonderful features,” Kody wrote in her diary. “But dollar for dollar, I like the extra options that came with my Windstar. I wouldn’t switch (sorry!).”

Panel members were introduced to the new Dodge and Chrysler minivans on a Friday afternoon by a team of female DaimlerChrysler executives led by Cindy Frey, minivan senior program manager. Frey demonstrated the minivan’s new features, such as the industry’s first power liftgate, a removable center console, a pop-up rear cargo organizer and 50/50 split rear seats that Frey said are easier to remove than those on previous models. DaimlerChrysler also increased the horsepower on its V-6 engines and offers $350 side air bags on the new minivans.

Then, each panelist got her own minivan to drive over a weekend. All the vehicles were pre-production units. The women kept diaries of how they used the minivans and completed evaluation forms. Although the 2001 Chrysler and Dodge minivans will range in price from below $20,000 to $38,000, the panel drove heavily equipped versions. Their minivans had a variety of options a nd ranged in price from $30,100 to $35,715.

The test-drive diaries chronicled a wide-ranging list of activities from playing golf to grocery shopping and attending church. Journal entries were striking in that the women had very little to say about the looks of the mildly restyled minivans. But they had plenty to say about their practical aspects.

Tonya Henderson’s Saturday afternoon in a $33,305 Dodge Grand Caravan ES with the $250 optional power liftgate included stopping at The Home Depot to buy 20 bags of landscaping rocks. Then the single mother from Westland took her 2-year-old daughter to McDonald’s.

“We went through the drive-through,” said Henderson, 35. “The van was easy to maneuver and fit perfectly at the pickup window. There was no need to unbuckle the seat belt or open the door like in most cars to retrieve my food and money.”

Henderson complained that while the rear seats were easy to unfasten, they were too heavy for her to lift out the minivan. She had to get help.

Elizabeth Hartkop Aiken, a mother of two and the 50-year-old co-host of Grosse Pointe cable TV’s Positively Positive show, drove a $30,225 Chrysler Town & Country LX to Ann Arbor to have dinner with her daughter, a University of Michigan student. When it started to rain, Aiken said she wished she was in her Nissan Pathfinder. “The Town & Country did not handle as well, or as securely, as an SUV,” Aiken said. She also griped that hard-to-open back windows and side windows that don’t open at all made for a claustrophobic feeling. And Aiken worried whether those windows were a safety issue – and that’s why she said she wouldn’t buy the minivan.

Finally, many of the women worried about value, especially as they’ve watched the prices of the minivans creep up since they were introduced in 1984.

Dawna Edwards, 48, vice-president and managing director of Detroit-based Alpha Capital Management, gave the $34,080 Grand Caravan Sport she drove high marks for styling and going beyond “the den mother’s image.” But after using the minivan to haul golf clubs and shopping bags from a visit to the Somerset Mall, the Grand Caravan’s price tag was on her mind. “It costs as much as the Mercedes and the Volvo I’m looking at,” Edwards said.