This is the van to get for families!

We bought our 2005 Dodge Grand Caravan in May of this year. We had planned on looking at the other makes with fold flat seats, but then Dodge brought out its 2005 model with both rows laying flat! We looked at the other makes, but Chrysler seemed to fit our needs and budget the best.

I have several back problems and find the front seats to be very comfortable (much more so than our 99 Gr. Caravan). The middle row seats are fine as well. The back seats are meant for smaller people and/or children. We have had no complaints from our kids about comfort back there (1 yr, 5 yr, and 10 yr) though. All the gadgets, buttons, etc, are easily accessible for the driver. The radio controls on the steering wheel are neat, but mostly my husband uses those.

I love the bins underneath the middle seats. I keep extra wipes, diapers, antibacterial wipes, etc in there. That way those things are not rolling around the interior of the van, getting stepped on, etc. We plan on using those to put our smaller luggage in for our trip next month.

With 3 kids, the ability to fold only part of the rear seat flat is a necessity! I usually keep the 40% flat and my oldest sits on the 60% seat. In the rear, there is a large "well" when the seats are upright. That area is great for paper grocery bags, etc so things don't roll all over as they did with the flat back area. When the 40% seat is folded, I keep the stroller on top of that pushed back towards the second-row seats. The seats are very easy to fold, unfold, etc.; a huge improvement on having to remove the seats! My older 2 children can fold the seats and I can, even with my back problems.

For families with 3 or more children, this is a great van! There have been times when we needed to fold the seat for whatever reason and were able to go ahead and buy what we wanted at the time rather than having to take the kids home and my husband driving back to pick up the large item.

I would not hesitate to recommend this van! We have just about 6K miles on it now.

Another thing we love on the model we bought is the hubcaps are not removable (not sure the official term for this). With our 99 and 95 Caravans, we lost several of the hubcaps over the years just due to them being made very cheaply and getting broken when banged back on after tire rotations, etc. Chrysler vans seem to be notorious for losing hubcaps.

We added on the power liftgate, which is great. The power dual entry doors are also very handy when your hands are full. I really didn't care if we had that feature or not (my husband really wanted it), but I am glad that we have that now as well!