A low floor makes getting in and out through the side doors easy. Caesar, our 160-pound English mastiff puppy, requires a ramp to get into an SUV; but he stepped easily and without hesitation through the side door of the Town & Country. Judging by his expression, this is one of his favorite vehicles.

Access through the rear hatch is a bit higher, however. Caesar prefers a ramp to get in that way. Loading groceries is no problem, though. Plastic grocery bags can be looped onto special hooks on the backs of the rear seats. There's a fair amount of cargo space behind the third row, which is not true of the Voyager and other standard-length vans. An adjustable cargo organizer (optional on front-drive LX, LXi, and Limited) fits on the floor behind the rear seat and provides a bin for six grocery bags, handy for keeping things from sliding around in.

We found the second-row bucket seats and third-row split bench easy to remove. All or any one of the four seats can be popped out and rolled away in three quick steps, providing a wide variety of seating and cargo configurations. Reinstalling them takes a little more practice, as you need to learn how to line them up before snapping them into place. Each seat is heavy enough that care should be exercised when lifting it off the garage floor. The seats can also be folded down to form a continuous load floor for 4x8-foot sheets of plywood and other large items.

Many other features add day-to-day convenience. A time delay switch leaves the headlights on while you walk from the van to your door. Auxiliary outlets, two up front and one amidships, provide convenient power for gadgets. Four serious coat hooks make picking up the dry cleaning a more elegant chore; few manufacturers do coat hooks this well. Three dome lights illuminate the cabin well. An available overhead console houses power switches for the rear hatch and sliding doors, along with compass and outside temperature readouts. The rear quarter windows, as well as the front door windows, are power operated. Dark tinting on the side windows provides privacy.

A center console houses a cellular phone holder, power outlet, storage tray, light, tissue holder, and a map holder. The console is removable and can be placed between either the front or middle seats. The organizer inside the console seemed a bit high on the bogusity scale.

Small buttons make the audio system a challenge to learn and use while driving, and the column shifter blocks the driver's view of the volume knob and seek button. Steering wheel audio controls are available on selected models and should eliminate this problem. A new feature for 2003 is the availability of Sirius satellite radio.

Cruise control buttons are conveniently located on the steering wheel. Heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) controls are functional, but rudimentary, on the LX, with his and hers sliders for temperature control. Automatic temperature controls on LXi and Limited models are nicer. A separate knob controls the rear fan, a great feature for kids and pets on hot days. Handsome and straightforward analog instruments use black-on-white graphics that reverse at night. An electronic odometer doubles as the trip meter when a button is pressed. Turn signal indicators and warning lights reside in a thin hooded panel above the instruments.

Lots of glass means good visibility all around, though the thick A-pillars hamper front three-quarter vision. Rearward visibility is greatly enhanced by the big side mirrors, though third-row headrests block the rear-view mirror somewhat.