The IT Nerd

Thanks for hanging in for the last part of the review. If you recall part 5, I didn’t fully get to test out the entertainment system because I couldn’t find the remote control or headsets. But thanks to Dodge, I was able to get the minivan for a few hours to test them out.

First of of all, this minivan has three screens, two for the second and third rows and one that doubles as the navigation system. Inside the roof mounted screens is the remote control:

And between the two screens are compartments for the wireless headsets:

You’ll note that they’re powered by two AA batteries:

And there are controls on the other side:

Now, there are two DVD players in this van. You can route the video to the individual screens as seen in this picture:

Now here’s where things get cool. The headsets have a switch where you can choose the audio that you wish to listen to. The sound quality is good, not stunning, but not bad. One thing that we note is that I have reason to believe that these headsets use some sort if infra-red transmission system. I’m basing that on the first picture which has 8 purple dots in it which is typical of an IR system. If you block these in some way, you get either static on the headsets or no audio at all. That isn’t an issue when the minivan is in motion as everyone is likely to be seated, but it is likely to be an issue if people move around the minivan at a rest stop or something.

Here’s the bottom line, this is easy to use, easy to set up, and works quite well.

What are my final thoughts? While I don’t have a use for a 7 seat minivan with two DVD players and two LCD screens among other things, I can see how this is a great vehicle. The features inside this minivan have been well thought through and you can see why Dodge continues to sell a minivan rather than abandon that market like others have. Now I’ll admit that some people wouldn’t be caught dead in a minivan, but I say this. if you need to seat seven people and you need enough toys to make sure your kids never say “are we there yet?” You need to take a very serious look at the Dodge Grand Caravan Crew Plus and you’re doing yourself a dis-service if you don’t. It’s a versatile and extremely useful vehicle. As I drove it, it was almost $47K. But if that’s too much money for you, Dodge has models that start at just under $20K. If the Crew Plus isn’t enough minivan for you, there’s always the RT trim level. So there’s something for everyone.

Oh, and for the record, I for one would be caught dead in this minivan.

Special thanks to Dodge for giving me extra time in the minivan.

This entry was posted on December 13, 2012 at 10:30 pm and is filed under Products with tags Dodge. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.