Video: VW Routan vs Town & Country (2008 Show)

I want to show you some of the features of this van and how it differs from the Chrysler Town and Country. Volkswagen made some styling changes on this van. You can see it has Volkswagen's characteristic front grill and headlight design, which gives this van a pretty slick appearance. It also has large nineteen inch wheels. This is one of the higher trim levels, so those won't be the base wheels, but you can see what this van can have on the upper end. And also around back that made some styling changes with the taillights. On the whole it's a pretty stylish looking van. If you can say that about a minivan. The Routan is going to be available with two V6 engines. There's a base 3.8 liter V6 and an upper-level four liter V6. These are the same engines Chrysler uses in their van. So there's really no difference there. You can see here, there's a rear flipping third row seat, just like the Chrysler vans have and it can be power operated. One thing that differentiates the two is that the Routan doesn't have stow and go second row seats. And they did that because they wanted to have a bigger captain's chair to be more comfortable. Stow and go seats aren't the most comfortable for long drives, but these captain chairs should offer more comfort. One of the biggest differences between the Chrysler vans and the Routan here is interior design. Volkswagen's giving it its own look and feel, but you can also see there's also some Chrysler, bits and pieces still hanging around in the middle. There's a myGIG system just like vans can have. Steering wheel's very similar too, but on the whole, the material quality is higher than the Chrysler's offer. We've covered the Routan. Now here's the Chrysler Town and Country. I'm going to take you through it and show you some of its features. Even though they share platforms, the Chrysler Town and Country has its own look. Its got a more upright grill, different headlights. And that carries around to the back where the tail lights are different too. You can see here, the Chrysler Town and Country's stow and go seats. These seats are pretty interesting because they can fold right into the floor, but they can do that because they're pretty small. You can see how it sits low to the ground, and they're smaller overall that doesn't translate into the best comfort for adults, but it does give these seats and edge up in terms of cargo flexibility. I'm in a Town and Country Limited here, and it also has up scaled materials like the Routan. And you don't have to look hard to see similarities in terms of buttons and switches that are used between the two models. You can also see that this Town and Country also has a myGIG audio system and the steering wheel is pretty much the same. A lot of the controls down here also the same. So the main difference you get with the Routan is a more refined dashboard and just a little different look, but all in all, when you compare high level trim levels of the two, they're pretty similar. And I'm sure you're curious about price. Well, Volkswagen hasn't announced pricing yet for the Routan. But they say it should start about $25,000 for the base model. That's about $3,000 less than a similarly equipped Town and Country. And it's going to make the Routan that much more attractive. <v Narrator>For additional information on this car or any other go to cars.com and our blog Kicking Tires.