If you woke up today hoping to read a minivan review, then it’s your lucky day. We know that sliding doors and third-row seating aren’t the most exciting traits, but the minivan needs love, too. In fact, the entire minivan segment was all but ignored for nearly a decade as automakers responded to our fevered clamoring for more sport utility vehicles and crossovers. The good news is the minivan is back, and every option in the segment has been completely redesigned or updated within the past two years, including theChrysler Town & Country.

Chrysler is, of course, the company that invented the modern minivan. But while Team Pentastar can lay claim to being the segment’s father, many soccer moms and dads have long since migrated to the Honda Odyssey and Toyota Sienna. In fact, while the Town and Country emerged as last year’s best-selling minivan, it won’t repeat that feat this year. Its sales so far this year are behind both the Odyssey and Sienna, the latter of which may be the new best-selling minivan if the Dodge Grand Caravan doesn’t finish up strong.

Why has the Town and Country slipped? The competition’s fresher designs and higher build quality are at the top of the list of reasons. To dig a littler deeper, we got an adequately equipped base model 2011 Town & Country Touring to see if Chrysler’s redesigned mainstay is doing enough to regain its place at the top of the minivan hierarchy.

Save for some rather tastefully applied badging identifying the upscale Italian brand – and the removal of the TC’s chrome bodyside molding – we’re hard pressed to see much difference between the U.S. and Euro versions of the people mover, at least on the surface. Underhood, however, Lancia will be offering a 2.8-liter common rail turbodiesel that’s unavailable in the States.

While the diesel is only rated at a meager 163 horsepower, its 265 pound-feet of torque is more than thePentastar V6 gasoline engine, which is also an option overseas. Fiat says the diesel Voyager is good for 30 miles per gallon in the European combined cycle; the 283-horsepower Pentastar manages just 22 mpg in this application.

This would be the place where we would normally grumble about not getting the diesel version here in the U.S., but we’re not going to do that this time. After all, it’s just a Chrysler minivan. See the full press releaseafter the break.

The spawn of the Chrysler-Fiat merger has made its way to the English market, in the form of the 2012 Chrysler Delta and 2012 Chrysler Ypsilon. If they look familiar, that’s because these cars are cribbed directly from the Lancia range.

The Ypsilon is available with Fiat’s 0.9-liter TwinAir, which earned International Engine of the Year honors. If that’s too small, there’s a 1.2-liter four-pot and 1.3-liter turbodiesel available, as well. The Delta gets two different 1.4-liter options, including a 140-hp, 1.4-liter MultiAir four-cylinder. On top of the 1.4s, there are also 1.6- and 2.0-liter engines available.

Both cars have just gone on sale in the UK, and Chrysler hopes these reworked Italians will improve the brand’s meager share across Europe.

The new Ypsilon supermini is not the only Lancia model to wear Chrysler’s winged badge in Britain. Joining the Ypsilon’s voyage across the British channel is the Lancia Delta hatchback that went on sale today as a Chrysler with a starting price of £16,695 OTR.

The move is part of the Fiat-Chrysler alliance’s decision to market all Lancia models in the UK under the Chrysler brand name.

Chrysler is marketing the new Delta a C-segment model with D-segment interio space and features. The five-door model measures 4520mm in length and rides on a 2700mm long wheelbase.

It comes equipped with sliding rear seats that offer a boot space of 465 liters in their most forward position, and 380 liters when placed as far back as possible. With the rear seats folded down, the Delta offers 1190 litres of space on a continuous flat floor.

British buyers can able to choose from four trim levels (S, SE, SR and Limited), and four engines, including two petrols and a pair of diesels.

The petrol engine range comprises of the 1.4-liter T-Jet with 120HP and 206Nm (152 lb-ft) of peak torque that returns a combined 44.8mpg UK (37.3mpg US), and the 1.4-liter MultiAir delivering 140HP and 230Nm (170 lb-ft), with a combined fuel economy of 49.6mpg UK (41.3mpg US).

The more frugal diesel lineup includes the 1.6-liter Multijet with 120HP and 300Nm (222 lb-ft) that returns 60.1mpg UK combined (50mpg US), and the 2.0-liter Multijet with 165HP and 360Nm (266 lb-ft) returning 55.4mpg UK combined (46.1mpg US).

You may recall that GM’s European division Opel, will debut its own rebadged version of the Fiat Doblo called the Combo at next week’s Frankfurt Motor Show.

The Chrysler Group has not yet released photos nor specifications on the Ram-badged Doblo, but said the van will be imported from Turkey as it will be built by the Fiat Group’s Turkish joint-venture partner TOFAS.

The company added that TOFAS will invest over US$160 million for the necessary US and Canadian homologation and customer requirement modifications, with sales of Doblo to commence on this side of the Atlantic in early 2013.