When the first-generation Chrysler minivans arrived back in 1984, they revived Chrysler like a defibrillator hit from the heavens. They came on the heels of the K-cars, the success of which allowed the early payback of more than—cue Dr. Evil voice—one billion dollars in federal loans, but the front-wheel-drive minivans proved to be the cash cows Chrysler needed to keep the payroll flowing. Shepherded into production by then CEO Lee Iacocca and fellow Ford expat Hal Sperlich, more than 200,000 minivans were sold in the first year, and Iacocca never missed an opportunity to gloat publicly about the success.
Fast-forward three decades, and the company, now partnered with Fiat under the FCA banner, has lost ground in the minivan segment. Changing the name from Town & Country to Pacifica suggests FCA is looking for a fresh start, because while Mercedes-Benz and Cerberus were playing hot potato with Chrysler, the Honda Odyssey and the Toyota Sienna forged ahead and stole a lot of the minivan thunder. (Ford left the segment in 2004 and General Motors not long after; neither could ever knock Chrysler off its perch.) While FCA’s trucks, SUVs, and performance models may be profitable, the company desperately needs a class-leading vehicle that doesn’t trade on retro imagery or the pretense of an outdoorsy lifestyle to appeal to buyers. That’s where the Pacifica comes in.
Take the Tour
We’ve already tested a 2017 Pacifica Limited, the top-tier trim that carries a decidedly top-tier base price of $43,490. Now we’ve snagged a mid-level Touring-L trim with a more family-friendly starting point of $35,490. Residing smack in the middle of the lineup, it sits above the LX and the Touring but below the Touring-L Plus and Limited trims.
Refreshingly, the Touring-L comes with many of the latest safety, comfort, and assist features as standard. Remote start, a backup camera, blind-spot and cross-path detection, heated front seats, an eight-way power-adjustable driver’s seat with four-way lumbar support, and three-zone automatic climate control are among the goodies included. Our test example carried just two options. The first was the eight-passenger seating option ($495), which adds a center seat to the second-row buckets; full Stow ’n Go functionality is preserved for the outside seats, while the center seat is easily removed and folds to provide an armrest/drink holder when not in use. The other add-on was the $895 Premium Audio Group (referred to as Customer Preferred package 25L in dealer-speak), which includes a 13-speaker Alpine audio system with a 506-watt amplifier, an 8.4-inch “navigation ready” touchscreen display that replaces the standard 5.0-inch unit, active noise cancellation, a third-row USB port, and GPS antenna input, among other niceties. Only the top Limited trim has standard navigation. The Touring-L Plus has it as a $695 option, and the “navigation ready” 8.4-inch Uconnect setup in our Touring-L and lesser trims requires dealer-installed equipment and/or software to enable nav. Chrysler isn’t alone in the practice of making consumers pony up for higher trim levels in order to get factory navigation as standard. Honda, for instance, requires Odyssey buyers to step up to the second-from-the-top EX-L with Navi trim (base price of $39,100 for 2016) to get the technology.
Dirty Bits
A quick refresher on the Pacifica’s mechanical dirty bits (as opposed to the bits soiled by Cheerios and muddy sneakers): Built on an all-new platform with a transversely mounted 3.6-liter V-6 mated to a ZF nine-speed automatic transmission, it steers by means of an electrically assisted rack-and-pinion setup. Wearing 17-inch 235/65 Yokohama Avid S34RV tires, this Touring-L trim Pacifica exhibits the same “nimble for a van” behavior as the Limited we tested earlier. There’s a nice center valley sensation in the steering for effortless highway travel, and turn-in is impressive—again, for a van. When things get really frisky, the wheel quickly loses interest, although with only 0.78 g of maximum cornering grip on tap, it’s not like the conversation was going to get overly risqué anyway. More impressive is the Pacifica’s compliant ride. Traveling stretches of broken pavement reveals well-tuned damping and a rattle-free interior, despite our best efforts to inflict pain on the chassis. Attacking freeway on-ramps is hardly the Pacifica’s forte, but should you attempt such behavior, know that the body remains reasonably stable and your unsuspecting passengers will be gripped with fear long before it begins to lose its hold on the road.
The least new part of the Pacifica is the Pentastar V-6. Producing 287 horsepower and 262 lb-ft of torque, it has its work cut out for it in moving this 4473-pound van. Thankfully, the ZF-supplied transmission has nine speeds to ease the burden. Together, the pair propelled the Pacifica to 60 mph in 7.6 seconds and through the quarter-mile in 15.9 seconds. Going against current trends, the throttle is calibrated for gentle tip-in, which should help ensure that all Big Gulps remain firmly moored in their cupholders. If we have any complaints regarding the powertrain, it’s the transmission’s tendency to hop between gears at low speeds. With nine ratios from which to choose, we expect things to get busy occasionally, but it’s the mild clunk we experienced when rolling in and out of the throttle at speeds below 30 mph that’s disconcerting. That said, we did manage 22 mpg during the Pacifica’s stay with us, nailing the EPA’s combined estimate on the nose. Interestingly, that’s the exact same fuel-economy number we recorded in our test of the 2015 Honda Odyssey Touring Elite. And, on our highway fuel-economy loop, run at a steady 75 mph, the Pacifica achieved an impressive 30 mpg, 2 mpg better than its EPA highway rating.
Feature Faves
As for brand-specific features, we really dig the roof rails. They tuck away longitudinally when not in use, so they’re not always creating extra wind noise and reducing fuel economy, but they can be unscrewed quickly by hand and reattached in transverse orientation when needed. Opinions on the Stow ’n Go second-row seats are split: While some prized the convenience, others found the seats too low, a little flat, and thin on padding. These people would rather have the comfort and room of a standard bench and deal with removing it when the occasional need arises to haul major cargo. An interior noise level of 70 decibels at a 70-mph cruise permits easy highway conversation, which, given the quality of the sounds emanating from the above-average audio system, surely will be lost on children who haven’t removed their headphones in years.
Yet we noticed a few places where the attention to detail trails off. The interior trim on the front doors and the lower portion of the sliding doors just sort of stops without a seam or binding for a clean finish, and the plastic in the left rear of the van, where the portable air compressor is located, feels flimsy. That’s right: Our Pacifica Touring-L came with an air compressor, but the space-saver spare would cost an additional $295. Limited trims have an onboard vacuum cleaner in the space where the compressor—and the tire, if you spring for it—otherwise lives.
Following all the standard rules of minivandom, the Pacifica excels as a transporter of humans. It remains to be seen if the model is capable of capturing lightning in a bottle as successfully as the original Chrysler minivan, but it does advance the breed.
http://www.caranddriver.com/reviews/2017-chrysler-pacifica-touring-l-test-review
Fast-forward three decades, and the company, now partnered with Fiat under the FCA banner, has lost ground in the minivan segment. Changing the name from Town & Country to Pacifica suggests FCA is looking for a fresh start, because while Mercedes-Benz and Cerberus were playing hot potato with Chrysler, the Honda Odyssey and the Toyota Sienna forged ahead and stole a lot of the minivan thunder. (Ford left the segment in 2004 and General Motors not long after; neither could ever knock Chrysler off its perch.) While FCA’s trucks, SUVs, and performance models may be profitable, the company desperately needs a class-leading vehicle that doesn’t trade on retro imagery or the pretense of an outdoorsy lifestyle to appeal to buyers. That’s where the Pacifica comes in.
Take the Tour
We’ve already tested a 2017 Pacifica Limited, the top-tier trim that carries a decidedly top-tier base price of $43,490. Now we’ve snagged a mid-level Touring-L trim with a more family-friendly starting point of $35,490. Residing smack in the middle of the lineup, it sits above the LX and the Touring but below the Touring-L Plus and Limited trims.
Refreshingly, the Touring-L comes with many of the latest safety, comfort, and assist features as standard. Remote start, a backup camera, blind-spot and cross-path detection, heated front seats, an eight-way power-adjustable driver’s seat with four-way lumbar support, and three-zone automatic climate control are among the goodies included. Our test example carried just two options. The first was the eight-passenger seating option ($495), which adds a center seat to the second-row buckets; full Stow ’n Go functionality is preserved for the outside seats, while the center seat is easily removed and folds to provide an armrest/drink holder when not in use. The other add-on was the $895 Premium Audio Group (referred to as Customer Preferred package 25L in dealer-speak), which includes a 13-speaker Alpine audio system with a 506-watt amplifier, an 8.4-inch “navigation ready” touchscreen display that replaces the standard 5.0-inch unit, active noise cancellation, a third-row USB port, and GPS antenna input, among other niceties. Only the top Limited trim has standard navigation. The Touring-L Plus has it as a $695 option, and the “navigation ready” 8.4-inch Uconnect setup in our Touring-L and lesser trims requires dealer-installed equipment and/or software to enable nav. Chrysler isn’t alone in the practice of making consumers pony up for higher trim levels in order to get factory navigation as standard. Honda, for instance, requires Odyssey buyers to step up to the second-from-the-top EX-L with Navi trim (base price of $39,100 for 2016) to get the technology.
Dirty Bits
A quick refresher on the Pacifica’s mechanical dirty bits (as opposed to the bits soiled by Cheerios and muddy sneakers): Built on an all-new platform with a transversely mounted 3.6-liter V-6 mated to a ZF nine-speed automatic transmission, it steers by means of an electrically assisted rack-and-pinion setup. Wearing 17-inch 235/65 Yokohama Avid S34RV tires, this Touring-L trim Pacifica exhibits the same “nimble for a van” behavior as the Limited we tested earlier. There’s a nice center valley sensation in the steering for effortless highway travel, and turn-in is impressive—again, for a van. When things get really frisky, the wheel quickly loses interest, although with only 0.78 g of maximum cornering grip on tap, it’s not like the conversation was going to get overly risqué anyway. More impressive is the Pacifica’s compliant ride. Traveling stretches of broken pavement reveals well-tuned damping and a rattle-free interior, despite our best efforts to inflict pain on the chassis. Attacking freeway on-ramps is hardly the Pacifica’s forte, but should you attempt such behavior, know that the body remains reasonably stable and your unsuspecting passengers will be gripped with fear long before it begins to lose its hold on the road.
The least new part of the Pacifica is the Pentastar V-6. Producing 287 horsepower and 262 lb-ft of torque, it has its work cut out for it in moving this 4473-pound van. Thankfully, the ZF-supplied transmission has nine speeds to ease the burden. Together, the pair propelled the Pacifica to 60 mph in 7.6 seconds and through the quarter-mile in 15.9 seconds. Going against current trends, the throttle is calibrated for gentle tip-in, which should help ensure that all Big Gulps remain firmly moored in their cupholders. If we have any complaints regarding the powertrain, it’s the transmission’s tendency to hop between gears at low speeds. With nine ratios from which to choose, we expect things to get busy occasionally, but it’s the mild clunk we experienced when rolling in and out of the throttle at speeds below 30 mph that’s disconcerting. That said, we did manage 22 mpg during the Pacifica’s stay with us, nailing the EPA’s combined estimate on the nose. Interestingly, that’s the exact same fuel-economy number we recorded in our test of the 2015 Honda Odyssey Touring Elite. And, on our highway fuel-economy loop, run at a steady 75 mph, the Pacifica achieved an impressive 30 mpg, 2 mpg better than its EPA highway rating.
Feature Faves
As for brand-specific features, we really dig the roof rails. They tuck away longitudinally when not in use, so they’re not always creating extra wind noise and reducing fuel economy, but they can be unscrewed quickly by hand and reattached in transverse orientation when needed. Opinions on the Stow ’n Go second-row seats are split: While some prized the convenience, others found the seats too low, a little flat, and thin on padding. These people would rather have the comfort and room of a standard bench and deal with removing it when the occasional need arises to haul major cargo. An interior noise level of 70 decibels at a 70-mph cruise permits easy highway conversation, which, given the quality of the sounds emanating from the above-average audio system, surely will be lost on children who haven’t removed their headphones in years.
Yet we noticed a few places where the attention to detail trails off. The interior trim on the front doors and the lower portion of the sliding doors just sort of stops without a seam or binding for a clean finish, and the plastic in the left rear of the van, where the portable air compressor is located, feels flimsy. That’s right: Our Pacifica Touring-L came with an air compressor, but the space-saver spare would cost an additional $295. Limited trims have an onboard vacuum cleaner in the space where the compressor—and the tire, if you spring for it—otherwise lives.
Following all the standard rules of minivandom, the Pacifica excels as a transporter of humans. It remains to be seen if the model is capable of capturing lightning in a bottle as successfully as the original Chrysler minivan, but it does advance the breed.
http://www.caranddriver.com/reviews/2017-chrysler-pacifica-touring-l-test-review
