Edmunds CarPool
Volkswagen took a bit of flack for rebadging and (slightly) retuning Chrysler's Town & Country minivan to come up with its Routan rather than manufacturing its own from scratch, especially given the German car company's history of making with innovative vans. …[But] there's one tech aspect of the vehicle that benefits from its platform sharing.
Chrysler offers one of the best stock rear seat entertainment (RSE) systems available, and carbon copy was included in a 2010 Routan SE I recently tested, renamed JoyBox. JoyBox include two 9-inch drop-down screens for the second- and third-row seats. And via the system's wireless headphones, rear-seat occupants can access any entertainment source the vehicle offers: DVD/CD, AM/FM/Sirius, music stored on a 30GB hard drive and A/V any device that can be plugged into the audio-only aux input on the head unit and two set of audio/video inputs next to the driver's-side sliding door. …
In the Routan, if [my two children] couldn't agree on which DVD to watch, at least my daughter was able to tune into her favorite FM or satellite radio stations and tune everyone else out by listening listen to teen-pop tunes. And my son could watch his shoot-'em-ups (bonus point if you can identify the flick in the photo above). Best of all, my wife and I could listen to our own music or, more likely, enjoy the chance to chat without being interrupted for a change.
As the former owner of a 1976 Westfalia and a 2001 Eurovan Camper (and someone who followed every bit of news about the aborted Microbus concept), I still think that VW's co-opting of Chrysler's minivan platform was a cop-out. But most automakers would do well to emulate Chrysler's RSE system, and I found it to be one of the Routan's most redeeming values.
