Recommend me a new minivan!

Shawn1112

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Jeff don’t buy a dodge or Chrysler product they depreciate very fast and you trade in your vehicles every 3-4 years. Spend a little more and buy a Honda or Toyota and it’s a much better minivan.
IDK, even though your the "expert". My last 3-4 cars yes I lost money on trade ins within 12-18 months. But not as bad as your making it sound and your a ford nut swinger so take that for what its worth. Ive had a couple Pacificas for rentals and thought they were bad ass for the few days I had them.
 
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Jeffs FRC

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So even the 21 Oddesey is getting a facelift and some small improvements. The standard safety suite on the Honda has everything and comes standard on even the base LX, and like Toyota, every 21 Oddesey will have LED headlights. The Chrysler safety package is like a $1k option until you get to the Limited $50k trim. LED headlights also only available on the ‘20 Limited. Not sure what becomes standard with the ‘21 Pacificas, but I’ll do some searching.
 

Jeffs FRC

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After doing some quick reading, the ‘21 Pacifica also has the safety package as standard along with LED lights on all trims. All these vans will be equipped the same it seems...lol. Any ‘21 Pacifica can be optioned with awd as well. If it’s not too much more it would be a nice option to have around here for the 2 times a year we get hammered with snow.
 
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Blood on Blood

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After doing some quick reading, the ‘21 Pacifica also has the safety package as standard along with LED lights on all trims. All these vans will be equipped the same it seems...lol. Any ‘21 Pacifica can be optioned with awd as well. If it’s not too much more it would be a nice option to have around here for the 2 times a year we get hammered with snow.

Sounds as though you need to test drive the Toyota, Honda and Chrysler offerings.

At least you know 2 of the 3 have the AWD option (if important to you).
 
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LikeABauce302

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If you like the Pacifica, just get an extended warranty. You can usually haggle on the price of the extended warranty or you can shop around and buy an OEM extended warranty after the fact. After a quick search, I found Chrysler Warranty Direct sells factory extended warranties at the lowest prices. http://www.chryslerwarrantydirect.com/

I did that with my Escape. I think I paid around $1,400 for a 100,000 mile bumper to bumper warranty from Flood Ford.
 
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Jeffs FRC

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If you like the Pacifica, just get an extended warranty. You can usually haggle on the price of the extended warranty or you can shop around and buy an OEM extended warranty after the fact. After a quick search, I found Chrysler Warranty Direct sells factory extended warranties at the lowest prices. http://www.chryslerwarrantydirect.com/

I did that with my Escape. I think I paid around $1,400 for a 100,000 mile bumper to bumper warranty from Flood Ford.
Yea that’s what I did with the Explorer because I don’t trust the Ecoboost.
2 kids and now need a minivan?!?! We're on 4 in the Explorer!!
Your kids are out of car seats right? That makes a huge difference.
 
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CMNTMXR57

GM, Holden & Chrysler Mini-Van nut swinger
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Again, if you want full unequaled seating/cargo functionality, get the Chrysler. If you want limited seating/cargo functionality, get the others.

Some points to ponder;

1) Children don't give two shits about seat comfort. When they're infants, they are in a bucket seat, which has a fixed base in your seat. When they're older, they aren't big enough and don't sit still long enough to care.

2) People argue "I'd never use it like that." Bullshit!!! Ours get used like a family hauler/cargo hauler all the time.

I just took this now. On our way home, it was my wife, our two kids, our black lab and myself. When we got home, we made the necessary seating adjustments and loaded the van with this to send it back;
20200802_194200.jpg

20200802_194341.jpg

And then or course, I always post this of my 2007... Less than 5 minutes to go from all seats up, to my lawn tractor stuffed in

A8FnjIW.jpg
 
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Jeffs FRC

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Again, if you want full unequaled seating/cargo functionality, get the Chrysler. If you want limited seating/cargo functionality, get the others.

Some points to ponder;

1) Children don't give two shits about seat comfort. When they're infants, they are in a bucket seat, which has a fixed base in your seat. When they're older, they aren't big enough and don't sit still long enough to care.

2) People argue "I'd never use it like that." Bullshit!!! Ours get used like a family hauler/cargo hauler all the time.

I just took this now. On our way home, it was my wife, our two kids, our black lab and myself. When we got home, we made the necessary seating adjustments and loaded the van with this to send it back;
View attachment 63866

View attachment 63867

And then or course, I always post this of my 2007... Less than 5 minutes to go from all seats up, to my lawn tractor stuffed in

A8FnjIW.jpg
Totally agree with you I n the Chrysler being the most versatile of the bunch. I think all three I’m considering, the back bench folds into the floor. The Honda can completely remove the middle seats. Toyota middle seats can’t be removed. The tech on all three for ‘21 seem to be on par model for model.

Mine are 10, 7, 5, and 3. 7 and 5 year olds are in boosters, 3 year old is still in a car seat. But we had 2 in car seats and 2 in boosters at one point.
Honestly don’t know how you did it. Just our one kid makes the passenger fairly uncomfortable with how far the front seat needs to move up when the baby seat is facing rearward. Want to take a couple extra adults with when there’s a baby seat in the middle row? Not comfy at all! I’m not saying it can’t be done, there’s just a much better option.

I’m glad I didn’t rush out and buy anything yet and did some reading on the 21’s. They all are getting huge improvements in standard equipment.
 

CMNTMXR57

GM, Holden & Chrysler Mini-Van nut swinger
Sep 12, 2008
26,162
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Elgin
Totally agree with you I n the Chrysler being the most versatile of the bunch. I think all three I’m considering, the back bench folds into the floor. The Honda can completely remove the middle seats. Toyota middle seats can’t be removed. The tech on all three for ‘21 seem to be on par model for model.

Yup. All of them the rears fold in to the floor. Chrysler is the only one that has the second row that does. Also when those second row seats are up, the bin in the floor that the seats fold in to, is one huge covered trunk.

One other feature of the third row seats in our Chrysler's and older Honda's also had this, not sure about the new ones, is the seat flips back to become a "tailgate" seat. Meaning it flips back so you can sit feet out of the back.

blog_tgate_bench.jpg
 

frank

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Sister in law has a Pacifica, 4 kids and two in baby seats still they like the Pacifica due to storage and seat configuration.

also mini vans don’t always have the best resale just as the pre-owner market knows the vans are beat from families using them.


this Pacifica is the hotness

As for mopar quality we had a ‘18 Durango gt up until July of this year, one warranty repair which was cosmetic ( exhaust tailpipe) and I replaced one 3157 light bulb as I didnt want to have wait for it to be replaced at the dealer. I was impressed with the fit and finish and lack of dealer visits.
 

Jeffs FRC

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Bump, so we went and looked at a Pacifica hybrid Limited Red S edition last night. Loved everything about it except the damn halogen lights. Did a bunch of research and it seems like a set of GTR Ultra 2 replacement led bulbs will do the trick. Anyways they have it advertised for 10.5k off sticker and I’m pretty sure I can do better than that. Plus it’s a plug in hybrid and will get me a $7,500 tax credit.

We didn’t even haggle last night because I was so bummed with the headlights. Think we might go back and try to make a deal though now that I found that some aftermarket bulbs will fix it.
17CAD2FE-D24E-4CD7-B750-3E67EEC71E5F.jpeg
 

Jeffs FRC

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