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http://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/03/automobiles/wheels/chrysler-pacifica-minivan.html?_r=0
For years, automakers have been stumped by this question: How do you make a minivan seem cool?
Adam Silverleib, who has been selling Honda Odyssey minivans for more than 25 years at his dealership in Raynham, Mass., says it is not easy.
“There are not many people who come in and are just dying to buy an Odyssey,” Mr. Silverleib said. “They buy one because they have four kids and it’s the easiest way to get around, and they bite the bullet, even though they don’t want to be seen in a minivan.”
Now Chrysler, which invented the minivan in the 1980s, hopes it has the answer in the Pacifica, a new model that has just started to roll out of a plant in Windsor, Ontario.
The Pacifica, which replaces the venerable Town & Country minivan in the Chrysler lineup, has promising attributes, including improved fold-flat seats in the back and high-definition video screens for the children. Its sculptured design softens the most scorned characteristic of any minivan — the boring, boxy shape. A hybrid model, a first among minivans, will arrive this fall and should go about 80 miles on a gallon of gas, Chrysler said.
Beyond that, the Pacifica now has an unexpected, influential fan: Google. As part of its push to develop self-driving cars, the tech giant announced a partnership with Chrysler’s parent company, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, last month. Together they will install Google’s automated driving sensors and computers in about 100 specially modified Pacifica hybrids.
Could this give Detroit’s new minivan some Silicon Valley sheen? “Having this high-profile of Google technology going into the vehicle does give the vehicle a little more forward-looking image,” said Jessica Caldwell, an analyst at the auto researcher Edmunds.com. “I imagine, in the short term, it will get a bump in interest.”
Still, she said, “I don’t think the Google connection will obliterate the stigma attached to minivans.”
BUSINESS DRIVEN By TOM VOELK/DRIVEN 4:50
Driven | 2017 Chrysler Pacifica
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Driven | 2017 Chrysler Pacifica
With seats that fold into the floor, lots of available technology and a sharp design, the Pacifica offers a strong argument to reconsider the family van. By TOM VOELK/DRIVEN on Publish Date June 2, 2016. Photo by Tom Voelk. Watch in Times Video »
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Success is crucial for Fiat Chrysler. Its minivans are an important source of profit, with its Jeeps and Ram trucks. It cannot afford a misstep with the Pacifica because its small and midsize cars — the Dodge Dart, the Chrysler 200 and the Fiat line — have performed poorly. The company spent billions of dollars to develop those cars and retool plants to make them, but sales have been so sluggish that Fiat Chrysler plans to stop making the Dart and 200, and it is allowing dealers to close Fiat showrooms.
Even with Google’s help, the Pacifica faces an uphill climb, given the lowly standing minivans have in the automobile market. The minivan was created when Chrysler introduced the Dodge Caravan in 1983, just as many baby boomers were entering child-rearing years.
The minivan’s roominess and the ease of loading children and cargo through its sliding doors revolutionized family travel. Before long, minivans dotted suburban driveways across the country. In 2000, 1.37 million minivans, from more than 15 automotive brands, were sold in the United States — one-sixth of all new cars sold that year.
But by then, minivans had come to symbolize utilitarian drudgery, and Americans began migrating to sport utility vehicles, with their brawnier, more adventurous image. Sales of minivans have declined steadily since. Ford Motor and General Motors stopped making them.
In 2015, while total United States auto sales surged to a record high, minivan sales fell 9 percent to 507,217 vehicles, accounting for just 3 percent of the market.
Only six manufacturers still produce minivans. Fiat Chrysler’s main competition comes from Honda and Toyota. Nissan, Hyundai and Kia are smaller minivan players.
Pacifica’s price ranges from around $29,000 for a basic model to about $44,000 for a fully loaded version, about the same as large S.U.V.s with three rows of seats.
Photo
The introduction of the Dodge Caravan in 1983 met a need for a smaller, family-friendly van, which became known as a minivan. Credit FCA US
For car buyers like Nick Fohr, a hockey coach in Dexter, Mich., weighing a minivan against an S.U.V. is part of the math of a growing family.
With two young sons, Mr. Fohr and his wife decided they could no longer get by with her driving a Ford Focus. They really wanted an S.U.V., but last week they traded the Ford for an Odyssey.
“We looked at the space, the ease of getting the kids in and out, the DVD player,” he said. With a laugh, he added, “So far she likes it, but she’s getting a lot of grief from her friends for having a minivan.”
Bruce Velisek, director of product marketing for Chrysler vehicles, acknowledges that the company is taking a risk with the Pacifica. Chrysler is retiring the well-known Town & Country name, and going with the name it used for a slow-selling model that was on the market for just five years, from 2004 through 2008.
The automaker has also invested heavily in the new minivan. It improved fuel economy by making lightweight doors from aluminum and the liftgate from magnesium, added a noise canceling system to quiet the cabin, built in wireless connectivity for iPads and games and developed a nine-speed transmission.
But after years of declining minivan sales, the company is counting on getting a lift from demographics, Mr. Velisek said. The millennial generation, the 83 million Americans born between 1982 and 2000, according to some estimates, outnumbers the baby boomer generation and is now starting families. Mr. Velisek said the number of children 13 and younger is going to rise significantly between now and 2025.
“We think we can win back some people who migrated to S.U.V.s,” he said.
There is also the Google effect, something Barbara Rigney has already experienced. A psychologist in Ann Arbor, Mich., she bought a Pacifica in April, one of the first sold — it came with a bottle of Champagne. She liked the Pacifica’s looks, but her three sons and daughter, all 18 or older, were hoping she would pick something sporty
“They were kind of horrified when they saw I got another minivan,” she said. “But when they heard about the Google thing, they were like: ‘Oh, I get it. I see why you got that.’ ”
A version of this article appears in print on June 3, 2016, on page B1 of the New York edition with the headline: For Chrysler, an Uphill Climb to Make the Minivan Cool. Order Reprints| Today's Paper|Subscribe
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