CAR GAZING
A sheep in Wolfsburg clothing
Volkswagen Routan a lightly disguised Chrysler minivan
By Derek Price
As long as Volkswagen exists, any time the company tries to build something that vaguely resembles a van, it's going to be compared to one thing: the old Microbus.
It doesn't matter that the Microbus was an awful monstrosity of a vehicle, a morbidly obese Beetle that sounded like a World War I biplane, drove like an ant through honey and was styled exactly like an Acme brick.
None of that means anything, simply because it was the ultimate hippiemobile and looked cute with flowers painted on the side. So everyone is in love with it.
That's why I had such high hopes for the new Routan, Volkswagen's latest minivan. In theory, at least, it follows in the footsteps of the lovable old Microbus with its quirky German styling and its unusual but practical interior.
But does the theory match reality?
Not really.
The Routan is actually a Chrysler minivan that's been re-styled as a Volkswagen, which is a good and bad thing. On the bright side, it doesn't have the weirdness that a Volkswagen-designed product would surely have. The air conditioning controls make sense, for example, and it's built for big American families with big American kids.
That's a huge plus.
At the same time – since you're really driving a Chrysler – you've got to wonder why this vehicle even exists. Volkswagen says the suspension is tuned for better handling, which I'll admit is an improvement over the Chrysler's squishy setup, but it's still a boring minivan at its core. No suspension tuning can fix that.
It's also committed an unforgivable sin. It omits Chrysler's "Stow N' Go" seating.
That seating setup, which lets the buckets fold flat into the floor almost like magic, is a reason some people pick the Chrysler and Dodge minivans over their Toyota and Honda competitors. It's an ingenious feature, not to mention a good marketing hook.
The Volkswagen lacks it. And that's a shame, even if the second-row seats in the VW are more comfy than the origami seats in the Chrysler.
The Routan offers the same engines as Chrysler and Dodge, too, so a 3.6-liter V6 is standard. The base engine makes 197 horsepower, while a bigger 4.0-liter V6 makes 253 horses.
What sets it apart is simply its styling, and Volkswagen does a good job of that inside and out. Its body takes on the familiar VW face in front, looking sleek and European, certainly an improvement over both the Chrysler and Dodge fascias. And inside, Volkswagen uses nicer materials and has more interesting styling than the American counterparts.
It's also just as practical and family-friendly as you'd expect a minivan to be, with available features like power sliding doors, DVD screens that drop down from the ceiling, power folding third-row seats, and no less than 13 cup holders positioned around the cabin.
Still, when you're driving the Routan, you don't notice what it is.
You notice what it's not.
It's not a Chrysler, and it's definitely not a Microbus.
(Derek Price is a newspaper editor and freelance writer living in Texas.)
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