Pacifica Pinnacle is an upscale hauler
The Chrysler Pacifica and I have something in common: a hometown.
On this page, both minivan and writer are products of Windsor Ont. As a kid, I used to marvel at these vast parking lots of minivans beneath the EC Row expressway en route to visit relatives. It was the biggest parking lot I'd ever seen, full of Chryslerbuilt vans. Passing by the last of these lots meant we were about six minutes from Nonna's for supper. Travelling by Chrysler-built minivan, of course.
The first of these was an unnamed '87 Grand Caravan, and later, a 1994 the family nicknamed tugboat. I grew up in those vans. I used to walk my dog beside the factory that built them, likely on more than one occasion while a friend or family member was working on a shift inside of it.
Today, after a million kilometers spent testing hundreds of different cars around the world, there's still no machine with as many strong memories as that big old family van. The license plate “923 FLA”, said my dad, referred to ‘Fat Lazy Ass.” He loved that van.
We all loved that van — but not quite enough to keep on driving minivans anymore, once we no longer had to.
Enter the 2021 Chrysler Pacifica Pinnacle — and a major 2021 model-year update that, beneath its skin, has one goal in mind: further reach into the upscale people-mover universe, which is big enough business that my loaded-tothe-gills tester carries a pricetag pushing $66,000.
The major news for 2021 is that you can now have your Pacifica with two very important things, at the same time: two rows of seating that collapse into the floor, and an intelligent AWD system that's always at the ready and requires zero driver bandwidth.
That's a big deal, because for years, you could have one or the other, but not both. There's only so much space underneath a minivan floor, meaning there just wasn't enough room.
Enter the Pacifica's biggest and most obscure update for 2021: the floor-pan. After an extensive and meticulous redesign of the Pacifica, the engineers found a way to optimize the packaging of the floor, storage bins, fuel tank, exhaust and suspension — slightly widening the floor and finagling everything around inside of supercomputer design after design until, finally — they found a way to fit everything in, while adding a driveshaft and rear drive axle to the mix as well.
So unlike good old Tugboat with her ‘curse-and-swear' seat removal and open-differential front-drive traction in the snow, the Pacifica Pinnacle is an AWD-equipped minivan available with two rows of Stow-n-Go seating. That's 30 seconds to go from easily-accessible people mover to rolling cargo space, and with a full-time AWD system packed into the mix.
Standard models get stowable seats in both rear rows, enabling a switch from people-mover to cargo van faster than virtually anything else on wheels. The Pinnacle comes with special luxury second-row seats that don't stow into the floor and is targeted toward a shopper seeking permanent luxury seating for four, with both a massive cargo hold and a powerdeployable third seating row further back.
Whether you're looking to set your family up with the most luxurious travel machine possible, to treat your passengers to the highestlevel of luxury possible or to impress clients who travel in your vehicle, Pinnacle packs no less than the very latest in Chrysler's connectivity, safety, convenience and luxury feature content.
Think of it as a rolling, highly-connected, extremeversatility social lounge for friends and family, and you're in the right ballpark. How's it drive?
If it's been some years since you've driven a minivan, the first thing you'll likely notice is the Pacifica's reflexes in low-speed, around-town driving. The steering is light and fast here, the turning circle is smaller than you think, and the transmission's snappy first gear adds a pleasing responsiveness. So, in low-speed, around-town situations, it feels like a smaller machine than it is.
Pacifica Pinnacle rides exactly the way it looks like it rides: big, long, and soft. For comfortable highway cruising and socializing, you're nicely set up.
The powertrain is smooth, calculated and refined. Chrysler's 3.6 litre V6 generates 287 horsepower that light-footed drivers will rarely hear, and the transmission and throttle control smooth out your inputs nicely, without feeling numb. Add in the little strategic feathering to the throttle to the throttle during heavy and full-throttle upshifts, and you've got some smooth propulsion at the ready. Even at full throttle and max revs, the engine's pleasing tone is hardly loud enough to warrant pausing a conversation.
The steering is light and smooth, and very responsive at low speeds – making it easy to whiz through traffic or parking lots. The transmission's first gear is nice and deep, adding similarly pleasing response to low-speed, around-town driving. Specifically, the responsive steering and throttle mean this big heavy machine doesn't feel so much like one in a lot of the situations where you expect it to.
Rough roads show off one of Pacifica Pinnacle's biggest strengths — and weaknesses — all at once.
The ride is nicely done here: isolated nicely, controlled properly, and able to take some abuse from potholes and frost heaves in quick succession with virtually no drop in ride comfort, and no increase in suspension noise. It feels soft, but tough and nicely tuned to take a bit of a beating without too much fuss.
The trouble is, the Pacifica is like a great big drum: an open chamber with vibrations tumbling through the air inside. So, on very rough road surfaces, expect more resonance, and more of that hollow, echo-chamber sound. It's one of the trade-offs of having a big open space on wheels. Though ride comfort is nicely done here, you do have quieter-riding options if you'll frequent rougher roads.
And while my tester will set a standard as an industry benchmark for luxury and feature content, its nearly $67,000 asking price does open the door on a wide range of other three-row family haulers you might want to check out as well — though the roominess and flexibility of the Pacifica will be pretty much impossible to beat.
It's always nice to have choices, and if you're set on a minivan for its unbeatable combination of space and flexibility, this one's the ultimate.