2025 Chrysler Pacifica Review: Extraordinarily OK

Want to hear a fun fact? The Pacifica minivan is the only vehicle Chrysler sells in 2025. Sure, there’s also the Voyager, but let’s be real—that’s just a cut-rate Pacifica with fewer options. If you go to Chrysler’s website and click the “Vehicles” dropdown box, you’ll see just three different versions of the same minivan. It’s too sad to even laugh at. 

But it does point to something positive for Chrysler. Despite its inability to sell anything else well enough to keep around, customers still keep coming back for the Pacifica. This generation debuted in 2016 (which certifiably feels like a lifetime ago) and yet customers still put their money down for it. There must be a good reason for it, so we decided to ask Chrysler if we could spend some time with one to see what’s up. 

And after spending a week with one, I can see why so many people like the Pacifica. But even the newest plug-in hybrid version is starting to show its aging cracks. And those cracks might cause customers to start spending their money elsewhere. 

The Basics

The PHEV system adds efficiency and all-electric driving to the familiar recipe, but in the process, it sacrifices one of the Chrysler minivan formula’s main ingredients to do so—second-row “Stow ‘N Go” seating. Originating from the days when this car was better known as the Dodge Caravan, Stow ‘N Go was always the Pacifica’s calling card, having the enormously practical ability to fold the second and third-row seats flat into the floor. This hybrid version can still do this but only for the third row.  

If you’ve seen a Chrysler Pacifica before, this one isn’t much different. It got a facelift in 2021 which gave it a different face, taillights, and wheels, but style-wise, the minivan really hasn’t changed much since. And because it’s such a popular minivan, it just blends into the sea of other Pacificas. True story: While leaving a store with my family, we were all standing outside the car trying to unlock and open the doors for several minutes before realizing it wasn’t our car. It was the same color as my test car but pre-facelift, had different trim, and wore different wheels. Didn’t matter. All Pacificas look so damn similar that none of us noticed their differences for an alarming amount of time. Sorry, parking lot stranger. 

The inside is nice if you aren’t in the front row. While the Sepia quilted Nappa leather seats in all three rows wowed the people who saw them, no one was wowed once they started touching things. There are far too many cheap, scratchy plastics, creaky trim pieces, and misaligned interior panels for $61,685 as-tested. Even at the $41,340 starting price, its interior quality is unacceptable. A Hyundai Tuscon starts under 30 grand and feels like a Mercedes E-Class in comparison. And that’s not mentioning the Fisher Price gauges, the infotainment screen that wouldn’t always boot up right away, and the python-thick steering wheel whose leather felt like it came from a dollar store chain wallet. 

Driving the Chrysler Pacifica

Thankfully, the powertrain does save some of its familiar face. With Chrysler’s dependable 3.6-liter Pentastar V6, paired with two electric motors and a CVT, the hybrid Pacifica makes 260 combined horsepower and 230 lb-ft of combined torque. It might not sound like a lot but it’s plenty, giving the three-row kid-hauler enough punch to feel light on its feet. However, it’s best when the battery has some juice, otherwise the engine and CVT start to feel sluggish. Keep the battery juiced up, though, and it feels great off the line. 

In auto journalist circles, the Chrysler Pacifica is surprisingly well-liked. It’s often used to haul camera gear and people to race tracks for photo and video shoots. And since we’ll drive the wheels off anything on a track, there have been many a hot lap taken behind the wheel of a Pacifica, just for shits and giggles. So I’ve heard great things about the seemingly immortal minivan. When I finally got the chance to drive one, though, I was disappointed at its extraordinary OK-ness. It’s almost impressively mediocre. 

Sure, it has decently meaty steering that’s more accurate than what Johnny Soccer Dad is going to need. But that steering is also pretty rubber-bandy and artificial feeling, so it isn’t awesome. Then there’s the ride, which is mostly good but brittle over harsher bumps. Anyone who’s driven with a spouse, kids, and/or parents before knows that a brittle ride provides nothing but complaints about your driving and questions about why you didn’t avoid potholes. Or maybe that’s just Italian families. Perhaps the standard Pacifica, without the heavy burden of batteries and electric motors, is softer. Or maybe wheels smaller than this tester’s 18s and a thicker tire sidewall would help. Either way, I thought the ride was overly stiff for a family van. The Pacifica isn’t bad to drive, it just isn’t special, either.

Oh, and it might have the worst brakes of anything I’ve ever driven. They’re vague, squishy, and completely unpredictable. Ick.

The Highs and Lows

As a van, though, it’s great. There’s loads of second and third-row legroom, the sliding doors are easy to use, there are plenty of cubby spaces, and getting into the third row is simple with second-row captain’s chairs. The seating position is relatively tall, and outward visibility is great. But, then again, much of the same can be said for almost any minivan. So no extra brownie points for Chrysler. 

But I also really like the “FamCam,” which has cameras in the rear of the headliner that can display what the backseat kids are up to, right in the infotainment screen. It’s a great way to see if a toddler has fallen asleep or if your troublemaking seven-year-old is up to no good. Neat little features like that will have parents coming back to showrooms. 

However, the hybrid version’s lack of second-row Stow ‘n Go seating really does hurt it. While the third row can still fold flat into the floor, other minivans can do that, too. Without it in the second row, the Pacific Hybrid is only as practical as most other minivans, many of which feel newer, more premium feeling, and are nicer to drive, such as the Kia Carnival Hybrid (review coming soon). I also had a hard time getting over the plastic-fantastic interior for something as expensive as a BMW 5 Series. It feels like a Dodge Avenger with more seats inside. Double ick. 

Chrysler Pacifica Features, Options, and Competition

Being green ain’t cheap. If you want the moral superiority that comes with driving a plug-in hybrid minivan through the school drop-off lane, you’re going to have to pay a minimum $52,750 at the Chrysler dealership. For that money, you better not like color or options because you get neither. White and black are the only available paint colors, black is the only seating choice, and there aren’t many options or packages to choose from. You can get the $4,225 Uconnect Family Theater package, which adds screens and whatnot to the second row. But that’s all the fun you can have. 

Step up to the much pricier Pinnacle trim and it comes with a lot more. Heated and ventilated front seats, a 360-degree surround-view camera, a dual-panoramic sunroof, and a 20-speaker Harman Kardon sound system all come with the $61,145 price tag. Paints are still optional extras, though, so my tester’s Fathom Blue cost 495 bucks. 

Here’s where things get tricky for the Pacifica. While there aren’t many minivans left on the market, most of them are pretty damn good. The Toyota Sienna and Honda Odyssey are still a fetching prospects all these years later, as is the new Kia Carnival. And the Volkswagen ID.Buzz is a bit more expensive but it’s all electric and looks much, much cooler. The Chrysler Pacifica became incredibly popular by being a handsome, practical, no-nonsense minivan during a time when the minivan was going out of style. In the years since, though, the competition seems to have caught up on Chrysler’s practicality while adding more style and fun to the mix. 

Fuel Economy

Fuel economy in the Pacifica Hybrid boils down to whether you can charge it at night. If you can keep the battery juiced up enough, the hybrid van averages just over 30 mpg, as I did at first. But since my home charger is on the fritz, I wasn’t plugging it in at night. And when the Pentastar is working alone for most of your driving, that efficiency drops quite a bit. I went from 31-ish to around 26-ish mpg over the course of a few days. The engine will recharge the battery but not enough to make an efficiency difference. That’s not terrible, considering its competition, especially since that’s still better than what the V6-powered Honda Odyssey gets. Still, if you don’t have a charger to keep its battery full every day, it might not be worth the extra cost over the pure V6 Pacifica. 

Value and Verdict

In isolation, the 2025 Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid seems like a fine car that does everything it needs to. But when you look at its price and competition, it’s hard to look back. The Kia Carnival Hybrid is priced almost identically, comes with more cabin tech, has similar practicality, looks better, and is nicer to drive. It also isn’t as quiet, comfy, or smooth as the Honda Odyssey, which is still impressing despite being just as old as the Pacifica. And the Chrysler’s case only gets worse when you use the frustrating Uconnect system or feel its budget interior. 

I was genuinely excited to drive the Pacifica. I’d heard so many good things. When I saw the interior, I was impressed. It looked snazzy, with its lounge-like leather seats and cute second-row pillows. Then I got in, poked around, and drove it. And I’m disappointed to say that, while not terrible, it is kinda underwhelming.