Pacificia Hybrid Minivan

In the US, it's basically the only option for a hybrid more-than-5-seater. And because of that it falls into the trap of being a hybrid and reviewed as such. Many people I am sure will/have bought it because it is the only choice. Others won't touch it because it is a Chrysler. If Toyota brought over the Alpha or + with 7 seats, I know it would sell like hotcakes.

Personally I won't touch anything from the US-3 with a 10 foot pole if I planned to own it past warranty.

 

OK....
So I don't like Dodges in particular, but I also abhor the fanboy tribalism that surrounds many of the labels out there.....so:
Chrysler Pacifica Reviews | Chrysler Pacifica Price, Photos, and Specs | Car and Driver

Observations as a 'car person'....

(1) Car and Driver has about the same taste in automobiles as any red-blooded American Junior High School male football team, and they picked this "car" as one of their 10-best.
That's fairly solid!

(B) The only person that hates minivans MORE than any red-blooded American Junior High School male football team, would be almost any American female between 19 and......say 50. This is because minivans have largely been replaced by "cross-overs" which is like dressing a minivan up to look like an SUV.....only with a substantial MPG hit.
The reason why they do this has very little to do with anything other than few people under 40 want to be saddled with a matronly-looking 'soccer-mom-vehicle' while relatively few people over 40 need a vehicle with 7-pax capability that Americans can actually drive and park.
My point?
You can probably get a deal on one of these from a Dodge dealer who is saddled with one when it does not sell.

III.) 7 PAX....EPA combined: 84 MPGe/32 mpg...real-world practical EV range (33)...AND.....real-world practical 0-60 acceleration potential (7.6 seconds.) which is a very interesting blend of something that's still minivan on the outside, but might approach a rare blend of practicality while being fun-to-drive on the inside. $7500 tax kickback can make the street price approachable for families.
Potential for HOV dodgers to gain 'special stickers.'

d.) Like the Prius G4............it's not ugly on the inside......

 

Some of it is definitely tribalism but I think a lot of it is just that's the way it has been for them and their customers are OK with it. I've had very smart coworkers proclaim how good their giant GMC Yukon's are, it lasted 80k miles before the transmission needed to be replaced... Or another coworker with a big Ford pickup, engine blew up under warranty thankfully and he wasn't mad at all. It just happens. If either of those happened to my Toyota's I'd be through the roof.

But for me it is all the little things that are just design decisions. Not necessarily right or wrong, just decisions. I rent a ton of vehicles since we travel a lot so I get to drive about as much as those car reviewers except on the real roads not just fast around a track. I hate the giant headrests in all American vehicles. I can't stand them. The rear windows are super small today to keep the profiles sporty and the pillars large, then don't block them with giant headrests. I now remove them completely from the rear seats and put them in the trunk before i even drive off the rental lot. That would drive me crazy if I owned it. The radio that stays on when the car is off until the door opens, also drives me crazy. Headlights with that big stupid rotary switch on the dash and not with a steering wheel stalk, grinds my gears. The HVAC control that blows cold engine air on you when you want heat and hot outside air on you when you want AC instead of the Japanese approach of preconditioning the air and then opening the vents slowly. Even though you say max-heat the car ignores you until it can give you heat, I like that. The gas flap door that just opens up and doesn't lock flush with the car and get opened with a lever from the inside. Lots of those little things. I am sure this listed is completely reversed for some people. Like I said not wrong, just different enough and I know what I like and don't like. I have no problem with pretty much any of the Japanese vehicles or German vehicles. Haven't been in a US-3 car that I enjoyed. As a rental, they work fine. Never would own one though, I'd be driven mad (or even more so).

We did own a Chrysler Town and Country. Took it across country many times. It lasted to about 106K miles before the transmission exploded, literally throwing shards of metal all across the road. Our friend had the Grand Caravan which is basically the same thing and her engine went out around 70k miles, much more city driving than ours which was mostly cross-country driving. Both were bought new. Ours was very well maintained, I'd assume the same of hers. That was the first American car we purchased and the last.

 

Waymo will buy many

http://www.autonews.com/article/20180531/RETAIL01/180539962/fca-waymo-chrysler-pacifica-hybrid-fleet

Intended as autonomous, so caveat pedester.

 

i have owned enough dodge/chryslers to know better. but who knows? it is expensive, of that there is no doubt.

 

All the posts from the 1st gen PiP owners and the current Prime owners say this is a terrible idea! The default of EV versus the default of HEV, nomatter what you choose, you'll be wrong. Hopefully there is an option somewhere to change.

 

there has been a recall, which may account for the slow sales along with the price.

not sure how many there are on the lots.

even though it's a plug in, you cannot choose to drive ev for short trips.

 

yes, there's no switch. computers decide everything. they thought it would be too confusing for consumers.
i think if you buy a plug in, and you plug it in, you probably want ev driving.

 

I actually am in northeast PA now and visited with the best man in my wedding while here.

He just got a Honda Odyssey in April and was considering the Pacifica after I’ve shared the hybrid benefits we’ve gotten from our 2010 and the RX450h. Since he has 4 kids, the Pacifica made sense.

He shared why he got the Odyssey:

• The sales staff knew nothing about the Pacifica
• I had him prepped with questions before going to the dealer, and he was more knowledgeable than they were
• They kept pushing him toward the Journey or Durango
• When he sat in the drivers seat, the materials felt and looked “cheap”
• He left without test driving and stopped at the Honda dealer next door and got an Odyssey

So in this one experience, the dealer did nothing to help sell a Pacifica.

What would be the reasons your friends would be considering the Pacifica plug in?

Hope that helps.

 

This thread is incomplete without whining about Toyota not-exported models:

http://www.hybridcars.com/toyotas-estima-and-alphard-hybrid-minivans-off-limits-for-us/

 

A post like that, passive-aggressive towards Toyota, deserves way more than two likes. But I forgive you all.

 

I believe it defaults to EV mode and uses up the grid charge first, but no idea on how easy it is to get the car to fire up the ICE. Should be better than the PiP in that regard. The only other thing I know about it is that the middle seats can't be folded away as in the ICE model; that's where the battery is.

I thought there was thread on it here. Perhaps it just came up in other threads. @hill test drove one recently. My quick take away from his comments; the interior matches the price tag and the seats were of high comfort.

Those are all smaller than American market minivans.

Just want say that the head rests are because of stricter whiplash protection standards in the US. For cost reasons, Canada likely gets the same equipment where its regulations don't require it. Some were importing for their Sonic the low profile rear head rests the European Aveo is equipped with.

 

i thought there was a pacifica thread as well.

 

What’s the fun in pointing to solutions.

See what competitive banter would have been avoided?

We were even able to get @tochatihu 2 more likes.

 

he doesn't come here to be liked.

 

But he WANTS to be.

Or he’s trolling for more anyway in #16 above .