The Aspen is Chrysler's first entry into the SUV market place and it does this by way of a shared body on frame construction with its Damiler-Benz stable-mate, the Dodge Durango.
The Aspen is decidedly up scale from its smaller brother at Chrysler, the crossover Pacifica, but maintains the family resemblance with its wide grille topped by the distinctive Chrysler winged logo and by the front to back hood ridges a seen on the Crossfire and Sebring.
Designed to impress, everything about the Aspen says, "BIG". Full length running boards span the distance between substantially flared wheel-arches filled with the standard 18-inch or optional 20-inch chrome clad cast aluminum wheels shod with massive all-terrain, all-season tires.
Our Limited Aspen came through with the larger of two optional V8s the 5.7 liter Hemi that puts out 335 horse power and 370 foot pounds of torque. Chrysler attempts to mitigate the thirsty nature of the big V8 with its MDS System that shifts from 8 cylinders to 4 during cruising and light acceleration. A column mounted shift lever controls the standard 5-speed automatic transmission regardless which engine you choose. If you opt for the towing package like the one that came on our test vehicle you'll also get 3.92 rear axle gearing. And as would be expected to bring all this inertia of motion to rest, the Aspen comes with large, 13-inch 4-wheel disc brakes with ABS and stability control.
Up front passengers are treated to leather and wood trim with all the options expected in an upscale SUV such as multiple power options, high end audio and navigation and communication systems. Second row passengers enjoy the roof mounted DVD player though their individual headsets. Passengers in all three rows benefit from state of the art air bags.
Seating throughout seems infinitely variable in order to provide the best possible configuration of up to 8 passengers and 102 cubic feet of cargo space.
MSRP for the base Aspen Limited 4x4 is $33,520 but our test Aspen tipped the scales at an even $43,000. The EPA estimates fuel mileage around town for this big SUV at 14 MPG and 19 on the highway.
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