If only the Grand Voyager had been built 400 years ago, it would have been perfect for transporting men of the cloth in secrecy. While Chrysler has shouted reasonably loudly about its Stow and Go system offering the ultimate in seating flexibility, there's an added benefit which isn't made so clear.With the seats in use, there's a huge secret locker in the floor, offering some of the best security around for your valuables on the move. Alternatively, welcome to the only car on sale in the UK with an integral priest hole.The key to Stow and Go is a quintet of seats that can be folded flat into the floor, to save on pulled muscles; something that's guaranteed every time you try to remove a seat from an MPV. Opt for a conventional people carrier and to free up space you have to unhitch any of the rear seats and lift them out - something that's often much easier said than done.You've also got the added problem of not having the seats with you when you get to your destination - and you might want them on the way back. However, buy a Grand Voyager and all these issues become history.Purchase any Grand Voyager and Stow and Go is standard; there's not enough space in the shorter Voyager to offer the system. While the Grand Voyager is more costly than its smaller brother, it's worth the premium for the added space as well as the superbly flexible seating and generally higher equipment levels.As mentioned, the cubby holes in the floor into which the seats fold can also be used as spacious secret lockers for laptops and camera bags - as long as the seats aren't stowed of course.While Stow and Go works every bit as well as Chrysler claims, there are a couple of issues with the seating. The rearmost seats have no fore/aft adjustment, and with the middle row pushed forward as far as possible there's barely enough space for six-footers in the third row to be truly comfortable on a very long journey.Also, because the seats have to be low enough to fold into the floor, they aren't quite high enough for those in the second and third rows to get properly comfortable on a very long journey - even tall children may get rather fidgety. However, short of getting a minibus, the Grand Voyager must surely be the most spacious and flexible people carrier around, as it offers a decent amount of luggage space even with all the seats in use.Even with all seven seats occupied there's a claimed 750 litres of luggage space available. Drop the third row of seats and this rises to 1535 litres - and if you stow the middle line of chairs as well you've got an insane 4690 litres on offer. If that doesn't impress you, consider that the Renault Espace and Peugeot 807 have around 1500 litres less - and they're hardly tiddlers.With its 2.8-litre turbo diesel thrumming away up front, the Chrysler also hums along quite nicely, the standard four-speed auto box swapping ratios smoothly. The four-cylinder unit is pretty gruff when it's taken over 3000rpm though, and as the transmission changes down at the slightest sign of a bit of throttle, there's a good chance that you'll be in this territory more often than you'd think. While the car isn't swift as such, for so big a beast it's got a surprisingly decent turn of speed when you need it.To put the car through a proper test, five of us went to the west coast of Ireland for a week, with masses of luggage and a bike strapped to the back. Thinking that we'd probably need a roof box, the reality was that we had more space than we knew what to do with - accommodating two more adults would have been perfectly possible, if not especially comfortable for the 17-hour trip.With three sharing the driving, none of us found that the Chrysler was unwieldy, despite its generous proportions; even on narrow Irish lanes the car remained manageable.Something that the car didn't like so much was the undulating roads; being an American car the suspension is set too soft for European tastes. The result was a car that occasionally grounded, and wallowed about nearly as much as the ferry that took us across St George's Channel.However, English tarmac isn't so good at unsettling the car, although it can start pitching diagonally on unclassified roads - so if you live out in the sticks and you're going to travel fully laden you might want to take an extended test drive first.That's what the five of us did, covering 1600 miles in a week - and we discovered that you'd find it hard to buy a better all-round MPV. As for buying one with greater flexibility - no chance. Engine 2776 cc, 4 cylinders Power 150bhp @3800 rpm Torque 265ib/ft @2100 rpm Transmission 4 speed auto Fuel/CO2 28.9mpg / 225 g/km Acceleration 0-62mph: 12sec Top speed 112 mph Price From £30466.00 approx Release date 13/04/2004
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