Need Input - Pacifica Minivan
 

I need to employ the brain trust. I am looking for a CPO minivan for my daughter.

She has a 6 yo, 3 yo and 8 mo old twins. I had leased her a '19 Escape and obviously it is no longer viable. I purchased the Escape at a great price and I'm up 3.5 k on trade-in
value.

I am looking at '19-21 CPO Chrysler Pacificas. I wanted a Honda Odyssey but they are about 10k more. I cannot afford to buy a new vehicle, so use it is.

I am looking for opinions on reliability from anyone who may own one here on the BBS.

Please offer opinions if you have any knowledge of these minivans.

Cheers,
Mike

Mike - While I have no direct experience with the Pacificas I can offer my opinion of mini vans. Our history with kid haulers goes like this:

Taurus wagon>Chevy Astro>Pontiac Transport>Honda Odyssey

The Honda was the best of them all. I would recommend you stretch for a slightly older Honda rather than getting a newer Chrysler.

Congrats on the twins, we have twin 16 mo grandsons whose parents refuse to drive mini vans even though they are the best option IMO, for hauling little ones and all their stuff.

I had a Honda Odyssey, loved it ! Comfortable, roomy, good gas mileage, plenty of power with the V6.

What’s the max warranty coverage you can get on a CPO Pacifica?

For the same year of both...wasn't the Pacifica stickered quite a bit higher?

My cousins family has an older Odyssey and with close to 200K miles, he says it's been trouble free.

No expert on the matter but based on some limited research I would buy a slightly older odyssey or sienna. Also if you consider the japanese vans have some resale even when heavily used the overall cost of ownership difference isnt that much.

we have a 13 odyssey ex-L bought with 30k miles in 2018 from carmax for 24k. It has been a pretty good vehicle but not perfect, currently at 120k miles.

Let me think what I have done to it: New alternator recently, new cooling fan recently, serpantine belt tensioner, timing belt tensioner, tie rod ends on one side though my wife may have hit a curb. I also had to do the timing belt service at around 100k.

Did these items myself parts are pretty reasonable and mostly easy to work on. Probably not unreasonable for a 120k mile vehicle that sits and idles a ton in carpool pick up lanes.

Utility and useability have been phenomenal, superbly engineered vehicle from that stand point.

Just bought a 2023 Odyssey. We’ve owned several minivans over the years and this Odyssey is our 4th. Well worth a few extra bucks. Our aging St. Bernard requires a minivan. Won’t repeat all the above, but there’s a reason it’s almost unanimous.

Be aware they make that car (Pacifica) in a hybrid version.
My son just bought one that was 4 states away from his home in SoCal.
(DIL loves it - it replaced her ho-hum Sante Fe)

Yep. If she does all her driving on the battery before it runs out, she'll be getting the equivalent of like 80mpg.

We had a 2018 Pacifica that we leased for - little over 3 years and put 50,000.

The only issue we had with it was an auxiliary battery that caused the auto start/stop to quit working. Some of you may say thats a feature not a flaw but I can’t stand idiot lights so I had it fixed by an independent.

The fit and finish isn’t great, you’ll probably find misaligned trim on every example you look for but it was comfortable, the transmission synced well with the engine such that it never felt sluggish.

The biggest upside to these in my opinion is the fold and stow seats that you can only get with a Chrysler product. We didn’t stow the seats often but the underfloor storage was great for things like tie downs, storage for a blanket or two, extra jackets, etc. the normal things in the trunk of most family vehicles that you end up moving around every time you want to out something back there.


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Maybe Mrs. Noah is hard on cars. Maybe we got one built on an off-day at the factory. But our 2010 Odyssey has just been a ho-hum experience. It's roomy and comfortable. Gas mileage stinks at 16 mpg city, but it is what it is for a 4000+ lb vehicle with a 3.5L V6 and 250 HP. We bought it CPO at about 27K miles, and now it has about 117K miles.

Problems:
1. Alternator has died twice.
2. That little sensor that detects when the rear door is open/closed died, so could not remotely open the door. That sensor is there to detect when the door is open to prevent accidental opening of the fuel filler door while the rear sliding door is open. I just disconnected the sensor.
3. Power steering rack leaks.
4. AC compressor died.

Not horrible experiences, but not trouble-free, either.

It's either Honda or Toyota. No experience with Pacificas although I am told they have more features like TV screens and such.

I have a 2011 Toyota Sienna with 215K mostly trouble-free miles. Alternator finally conked out last month. Drive shaft boots and control arm bushings last year. Other than that, regular maintenance on tires, oil, brakes, etc.

Correct. You’ll get more bells and whistles with the Chrysler vans at the same price point.


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The stow and go are game changers. really.

Also the Pacifica comes in All Wheel Drive.

16 mpg!? Ours is 13 and I think next gen but I think the power trains are very similar. we avg 27-28 on road trips and 23 ish in town. I legit wonder if something is broken or the cylinder deactivation isnt activating.

I have rented a Pacifica 4-5x to drive with my GF and 3 labradoodles to NC and back to Reno over the last few years to take care of step dad and mom.. I love them. They have all the creature comforts , lot's of room. Love the way the seats all fold flat.. The ONLY negative I can say is they are a bit twitchy above say 90 MPH ( when you're driving 2500 miles in 3 days speed limits are only a suggestion :-) Oh and if you're driving the speed limits around 70 mph expect 25-26 MPG on hwy and at 90-95 that will fall to 22 MPG

Going to look at a 2019 Pacifica Touring with 24k for 28k. The car is a CPO off lease. The car looks very clean.
I have a 2019 Escape with 13k miles, they'll give me 21k for it.
There is a CPO '20 Odyssey with 24k miles for 36500. It's out of my budget, too bad.

Cheers

Need Input - Pacifica Minivan
 

As a reference, last August, rather than turn in our lease, we sold it back to the dealer. It was a Touring L with 50k on it and we got $26k for it. Lease buy out was $18.5k.

If i recall correctly, the L trim added power passenger seat, heated rear seats, steering wheel and the rear entertainment center. The rear entertainment went unused as the kids preferred their phones.


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My experience is dated, but my family bought a Chrysler minivan when our kids got too big for our economy car. That van is the reason I now buy Japanese or German cars with no apologies. I will never buy a Chrysler product again. They are cheaper than the equivalent Honda or Toyota for a reason. After the Chrysler imploded on us 3 years and 36,000 miles after we bought it, we made due with Toyota Camrys until we could afford a Honda Odyssey. It's as though the two vans weren't even the same category of vehicle.

Don't bother paying CPO money for a Honda or Toyota. You won't need the extra warranty. If you do buy the Chrysler, pay extra for the CPO and buy the longest extended warranty they'll sell you.

A 5 year old Toyota or Honda will be more reliable than a new Chrysler every time.

Getting her a Chrysler is NOT doing her any favours.