Chrysler hopes features, styling sells minivans

“There isn’t a bigger launch for Chrysler this decade than this minivan,” said Erich Merkle, vice president of forecasting for auto consulting company IRN Inc. in Grand Rapids, Mich. “In my opinion, the product is really good. Chrysler really does minivans well.”

Minivan sales rose quickly when Chrysler introduced them in 1983 as a 1984 model. Annual sales crossed 900,000 in 1990 and peaked at 1.37 million in 2000. But since then, the vehicle has started to fall out of favor, especially with the introduction of car-based crossovers that can carry as many people.

Sales dropped to 970,708 last year, and through July, 477,662 were sold, a 22 percent decrease from the first seven months of 2006.

The carmaker says it believes the new models provide a level of convenience and value that consumers won’t find in sport-utility vehicles or in newer crossovers.

“There is no substitute for a minivan,” said Rick Kukucka, a marketing director for Chrysler.

Still, Chrysler Group isn’t taking chances. In July, the company announced it would offer lifetime repairs on the engines, transmissions and drive systems of most cars sold in the U.S.

That came two weeks after an announcement that sticker prices on the new minivans would drop by an average of $2,000, with more optional features becoming standard. The size of the price reduction will vary with options and models, with the base model Dodge Grand Caravan SE priced at $22,470, $1,950 below the current sticker price of $24,420, and the Chrysler Town & Country LX dropping $3,585, from $26,775 to $23,190.

The lowest-priced 2007 Toyota Sienna has a suggested retail price of $24,155, while the cheapest Honda Odyssey this year is $25,645, according to the companies’ Web sites. Neither company will have new models in 2008.

But analysts say those price cuts just bring sticker prices in line with existing incentive offers, and it’s not clear whether the new, manual-only swivel seats are an innovation drivers can’t live without. The 90-pound seats are heavy, and — in part because of federal safety regulations — are awkward to turn. One senior executive joked that he hoped he’d be able to make the swivel work as he demonstrated the feature to reporters.

“I don’t know that it has the convenience factor that they want consumers to believe,” said Aaron Bragman, a research analyst for Global Insight, an economic research and consulting company. “Stow-and-go was a real convenience innovation, because you could fold all the seats flat, but I don’t know that consumers are going to be willing to pay extra for seats that spin around.”

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