The Suburban Dad Takes on the 2007 Chrysler Aspen

The Chrysler Aspen, a new cousin to the familiar Dodge Durango, should be perfect for the Suburban Family. It seats eight, has a big engine and really big tires, and comes with a ton of features. Despite its size, it was incredibly easy to steer and offered a smooth ride with strong acceleration (without a ton of engine noise), plus it came complete with an MP3 jack, so I could play my iPod. The interior plastic pieces didn’t all fit together perfectly, but the Cars.com guys told me this was a pre-production model — an early version the automaker rushes out for journalists to test. Reaction from the rest of the Suburban Family was mixed:

The Wife: "I'm not overly impressed." She will definitely be the hardest person to please in our family. She found the Aspen "kind of bland," saying the seats were supportive but that she didn't like the leather. In addition, she pointed out that the second row was situated very close behind the first row, leaving little leg room, even for her. "It's small — and I'm short! I wouldn't give up my minivan for this — yet. And at some point, I want to give up my minivan." She also noted the lack of a well in the back of the Aspen, wondering where she would put her groceries. There’s a problem when you can't find space in an SUV that's this big.

Teen Son: "I like it." Three words. That's more than I get from him in an entire day, sometimes, so Chrysler should take that as high praise.

Tweener Daughter: She would have liked this car better than our minivan on our vacation to upstate New York this summer, "because the [second row] bench seat gives me a little more room to stretch out."

9-Year-Old Son (on first glance): "AWE-some! That's an awesome car, Dad!" Since his best friend's family has a Durango, he was able to quickly show me how to lower the second-row seat to let others get into the third row. I may already be raising a Chrysler buyer.

Comments

[M3]

Nice differentiation from a Durango if that model is too "butch" for your liking. Just have to hope people don't remember the old Dodge Aspen of the seventies...

[TimG]

Nice improvement over the fugly Durango...But the Aspen is still a generation or two behind the Explorer in the interior, NVR, ride n handling, 2nd & 3rd row seats room, comfort, etc. Aspen does look better from the front end than the Explorer(not the Mountaineer) but that's about it. Put the Aspen next to a bland, boring Highlander or Pilot and it looks really nice though.

[Cody]

The interior looks kindof plain/cheap for an SUV this expensive. With SUV's being so much cheaper to build than sedans (much higher profit margins), you'd think they could spend a little more cash designing the interior...

[Guy Larsen]

Looks like the same interior as $14,000 Dodge Caliber.

[Angus]

"Teen son" is probably grateful he didn't have to ride around in a lame minivan for a change. Maybe next time you can bring home a sports car -- that'll get him talking...

[Karl]

I predict big fat rebates on this turd. Looks bland on the outside and cheap on the inside. Fully loaded at close to 40k!? Now that is REALLY funny.

[The Car Geek]

The above poster is spot on 100%! Add also to that list, terrible build quality, sloppy no feel handling and substandard structural design, and the Dodge durango has poor interior materials and did not even saw a dodge muffler. I do agree that a child could never be a basis a chrysler buyer... Good reaction though..