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| The 2017 Chrysler Pacifica. |
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| 2017 Chrysler Pacifica. |
More likely, it is because you watch television:
That's comedian Jim Gaffigan, who has done a series of these spots, the aim of which is to make the Pacifica either hip, attractive to dads or at least acceptable in ways other minivans are not to most people in their child-bearing years.
The good news is that in the new Pacifica, Chrysler has the product to back it up. The design is fresh and appealing, the 3.6-liter 24-valve V6 engine and nine-speed automatic transmission combine to earn an EPA fuel economy estimate of 18 city/28 highway, there is a hybrid version on the way and Chrysler has looked at every traditional strength of the minivan and thought of ways to make it more contemporary and elegant.
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| 2017 Chrysler Pacifica interior. |
Our test vehicle was the Touring, one up from the base LX (you can compare all five models here--ed.). It's still very well equipped at a very reasonable base price of $30,495. So well equipped, in fact, that the lone extra-cost option on the one we drove was the power liftgate, which cost $495. With $995 destination charge, the as-tested price came to $31,985.
There is no question that Chrysler has raised the bar for minivans in terms of design, features and desirability. It will be interesting to see how Toyota and Honda, as well as lower-volume minivan makers like Kia, respond.
