Car Spot: 2004 Chrysler Pacifica

First joint project for the “merger of equals” …

This spot is sort of personal for me because I owned two of the original Chrysler Pacificas. No relation to the current minivan. We loved that car so much that when the first one wore out with more than 100,000 miles on it, we went and found another used one. I’ll get to the reasons why in a minute.

The Chrysler Pacifica was a mid-size crossover produced by Chrysler from 2003 to 2007, for model years 2004 to 2008, and was the first jointly engineered product of the 1998 DaimlerChrysler “merger of equals.” It was developed by Chrysler, incorporating some Daimler-Benz components in 30 months at a cost below $1 billion ($1.75 billion in 2025 dollars). Classified as a Crossover Utility Vehicle (CUV) it was inspired by the 1999 Chrysler Pacifica and 2000 Chrysler Citadel concept cars. Designed by a team led by Chrysler design director Joe Dehner, whose goal was to blend SUV, minivan, and car characteristics. The production model was introduced at the 2002 New York International Auto Show. Pacifica was marketed as a “sports-tourer”.

We loved the size, (I could get all my radio-control airplanes in it), and its performance. I used its “Autostick” all the time. That was Chrysler’s version of a manually controlled automatic transmission. And while there was a choice of engines during its four-year run. We ordered our 2008 and went for the biggest, of course, in the Touring Edition, the 4.0-liter V6 producing 255 hp, 265 lb-ft, of torque mated with a new six-speed automatic transmission, which gave us a respectable 0-60 mph time of 7.4 seconds.

Touted as the next “big thing” in the fledgling crossover market, Chrysler forecasted sales of 100,000 per year, but were way off because of stiff competition from luxury crossovers like the Lexus RX and BMW X5. Its best sales year was 2004 when it sold 97, 469. Sales dropped every year after that, with just 7,500 produced in 2008 for a total of 393,471. In the end, it was Chrysler’s poor mechanical reliability of the transmission and engine along with interior flaws, electrical glitches, low build quality, and its slow reaction to fix these problems that sunk Pacifica. Ours were great, each lasting 100,000+ miles so I guess we were lucky. I’m told that it was actually the folks in Germany who pulled the plug.

Oh, and that “Merger of Equals,” well, that ended about the same time as Pacifica production. This was a bad deal from the get-go. Actually, Chrysler had enough funds at the time and was in a position to buy Daimler. It ultimately failed because of cultural differences, i.e., Daimler calling the shots and not sharing any technology. The synergies that were touted never materialized. Great read on the merger? Check out Taken for a Ride by Bill Vlasic and Bradley A. Stertz. You can find it on Amazon, or maybe your local library.

Thanks for stopping by to check out my spot this week with a bit of a review. We have lots of others on our site, so go check them out. Come back next Sunday for another one of my spots, along with some of its history. Have a great rest of your weekend and a great week ahead.