2017 Chrysler Town and Country Rear Doors Will Be Totally Hands Free
The redesigned 2017 Chrysler Town & Country is getting numerous upgrades, including foot-operated rear doors.
For the first time, the van’s side sliding doors and rear liftgate will have optional Open ‘n Go foot activation, allowing users to open the doors automatically when the key fob is present and a foot or other object is passed by a sensor located below the doors. Along with the foot-operated rear doors, the new Town & Country will get USB charging ports on each of the three rows of seating as well as an optional built-in vacuum cleaner just like the Honda Odyssey.
The 700C Concept (seen above), which was revealed at the 2012 Detroit Auto Show, will heavily influence the styling of the new minivan.
Now expected to arrive as a 2017 model year, the new Town & Country will get an upgraded version of the brand’s 3.6-liter Pentastar V6 engine along with a nine-speed automatic transmission. The current Town & Country with a six-speed automatic transmission returns 17 mpg in the city and 25 mpg on the highway.
SEE ALSO: 2017 Chrysler Town & Country to go All-Wheel Drive
Although details on the Pentastar V6 engine upgrades are being kept quiet for the time being, we do know that the minivan will get an all-wheel drive variant that uses an electrically-powered rear axle for additional traction when required. Expected to arrive later this year is a plug-in hybrid variant.
[Source: Automotive News]
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Jason Siu began his career in automotive journalism in 2003 with Modified Magazine, a property previously held by VerticalScope. As the West Coast Editor, he played a pivotal role while also extending his expertise to Modified Luxury & Exotics and Modified Mustangs. Beyond his editorial work, Jason authored two notable Cartech books. His tenure at AutoGuide.com saw him immersed in the daily news cycle, yet his passion for hands-on evaluation led him to focus on testing and product reviews, offering well-rounded recommendations to AutoGuide readers. Currently, as the Content Director for VerticalScope, Jason spearheads the content strategy for an array of online publications, a role that has him at the helm of ensuring quality and consistency across the board.
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A vacuum cleaner? Why not a coffee maker, granite counter tops and baseboard heat as well?
I hope that interior's nowhere near finished. American cars used to have the crappiest interiors in the industry in the 90s, with the Dodge Stratus and Ford Taurus being some of the worst. But over the past 10 years or so, Ford (starting with the Fusion) and, since they were bought out by Fiat, especially Chrysler have started making some of the best quality interiors that (reasonable middle class amounts of) money can buy, on par with VW or Toyota. The interior in that picture though, even the parts that they've left uncovered, reminds me of a 1994 Chrysler Voyager more than a 2015 Town & Country. They've done a lot of work to rebuild their worst-in-industry reputation for quality, value, and reliability, so that had better not be the auto show ready model, or 15 years of work will all go down the drain. The amount of gray plastic, and fake leather that looks just like it, just hurts my eyes. Tearing up and fake stitching plastic to make it look like leather is one of the most painfully obvious things you can do to decimate quality. If I had no idea what leather looked like, I'd still be able to tell half of that is fake. It would look better if they just gave up the pretentiousness and didn't even try to make the plastic and vinyl look like anything else, like Mazda and Honda do.