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An open letter to Norv Turner, coach of the 0-7 Washington Redskins:

Dear Coach,

Take your team to Michigan, and then to Missouri. Not to play a game. Take your players to learn. About winning. You remember winning? It’s beating the odds, outsmarting the competition, hanging in there when all seems lost.

In Michigan, spend time in Auburn Hills with Chrysler Corp.’s minivan development group. In Missouri, stop at Fenton, where Chrysler production workers, who make far less money than your players, bust their butts assembling the world’s best minivan, the Chrysler Town & Country.

Many of those Chrysler people are the same folks who were written off by American consumers 20 years ago, when Chrysler almost went bankrupt. They were supposed to be losers who couldn’t make anything right. The difference between them and the Redskins is that they didn’t quit under pressure.

Their 1999 Town & Country Limited minivan is proof. It is surrounded by very competent rivals. Yet it’s still ahead of the pack in terms of exterior and interior styling, overall utility, road performance and passenger comfort, and arguably in safety, though Ford Motor Co., with some federal backing, touts its Windstar as being the safest minivan available.

This wasn’t supposed to be. Critics said Chrysler’s minivans would go bust after 1984, their first full year on the market. Just a fad, a save-the-company gimmick, critics said. But Chrysler’s minivan sales grew. Competitors took notice and introduced versions of their own. Critics figured Chrysler would get smooshed by the onslaught of rival minis. But Chrysler’s designers rose to the occasion, reinventing the minivan in the process.

Look at the new Town & Country. It has a distinctive shape — sloping nose with a wide-mouthed, winged grille; narrow headlamps, slightly bulging side panels and a modestly curved rear.

Sliding doors are standard on both sides of the front-wheel-drive Town & Country, making it easy to enter and exit. And the rear door, the hatch, is equipped with a lift handle that allows you to wrap an entire hand around it, making it easy to pull down and close.

The interior is smart. Behind the rear seats, for example, is a series of sturdy plastic hooks designed to carry shopping bags, reducing the possibility of their contents spilling on the floor during travel. And the heating and cooling vents for the middle and rear of the cabin are installed along the perimeter of the Town & Country’s ceiling, saving head space for passengers in those seats.

There is a passionate attempt here to get the basics right. Take the Town & Country’s seats. In the past, they were an absolute chore to remove. Two people still are needed to take out the rearmost seats, which are heavy. But rollers at the bottom of those seats now ease the pain of the job. The center bucket seats are less problematical. They can be unlatched and removed through the side doors by one person.

You want a runner? The To wn & Country can do the job with no discernible downshifting, thanks to its 3.8-liter V-6 engine, which can produce 180 horsepower at 4,400 rpm and 240 pound-feet of torque at 3,200 rpm. An electronically controlled four-speed automatic transmission is standard.

Chrysler still owns about 46 percent of the minivan market in the United States, which is pretty good, considering that every major automaker now sells minivans. But the Town & Country is indisputably the only genuine luxury minivan for sale. It ain’t cheap. But neither are the Redskins’ players. Difference is, the Town & Country gives people what they pay for.

1999 Chrysler Town & Country

Complaints: Chrysler should find some way to make the Town & Country’s middle and rear seats lighter without compromising their safety or comfort.

Praise: You can’t stick the Town & Country into any one category. It’s not a soccer- mom mobile; nor is it in any other way necessarily married with childre n. It maybe the perfect compromise between a full-size sport-utility vehicle and a luxury sedan. As such, it appeals to many audiences.

Major option: An all-wheel-drive Town & Country with four-speed automatic transmission is available.

Head-turning quotient: The best-looking minivan on the market.

Ride, acceleration and handling: Triple aces in heavily and lightly loaded modes. Even does well in the corners at legal highway speeds. Excellent braking. Brakes include power front disks/rear drums with antilock standard.

Safety: Traction control, designed to reduce wheel spin, is standard.

Capacities: Seats seven people. Maximum cargo volume is 162.9 cubic feet. Can be equipped to tow 2,000 pounds. Fuel capacity is 20 gallons (regular unleaded gasoline okay).

Mileage: Not great. About 17 miles per gallon, combined heavily and lightly loaded modes, city-highway driving. Estimated range on usable volume of one tank of fuel is 329 miles.

Price: Base price is $33,665. Dealer’s invoice on base model is $33,075. Price as tested is $34,600, including $355 in options and a $580 destination charge.

Purse-strings note: Compare with Ford Windstar, Pontiac Trans Port (Montana version); Oldsmobile Silhouette Premier; Toyota Sienna XLE; 1999 Honda Odyssey.