2017 Chrysler Pacifica
Complaints about this year name gear far more often than the other years of this generation — 12% of them, about 4× the usual rate of 3.2%.
First year of a new generation. The Chrysler Pacifica was redesigned for 2017. A first year carries problems nobody has found yet, and they are found by the people who buy it — which is worth knowing before you become one of them.
NHTSA opened a defect investigation into this model year.
| Complaints filed | 1,572 |
|---|---|
| Median for this model | 201 |
| Involving a crash | 47 |
| Involving a fire | 14 |
| Recalls | 11 |
| NHTSA crash rating | 5/5 |
| EPA combined | 22 mpg |
What the complaints were about
- hard — 13.3% of this year's complaints, against 4.4% across the other years of this generation (3×). Owners wrote it as: hard, feels like, shifts, hard shifting.
- gear — 11.8% of this year's complaints, against 4.3% across the other years of this generation (2.7×).
- shifting — 7.6% of this year's complaints, against 1.6% across the other years of this generation (4.7×).
Words owners used for the same problem are counted together, so a fault written four different ways is measured once. Grouped by which complaints they appear in, not by a list anyone wrote in advance.
Also unusual this year
- gasket — 6% of complaints, 15× usual
- shifting — 8% of complaints, 7× usual
- hard — 11% of complaints, 3× usual
What owners wrote
This car has had so many issues in the 2 years that i have had it. Blown head gaskets, hard shifting, cruise control getting stuck in a high gear and not shifting. When fixing the head gasket it was apparent that it wasnt the first time being fixed. For such a…
TRANSMISSION SLIPPING THEN SHIFTING HARD INTO GEAR. THE TIME BETWEEN SHIFTS IS SEVERAL SECONDS MAKING PULLING OUT INTO TRAFFIC DIFFICULT AND DANGEROUS. THIS HAPPENS WHEN THE VEHICLE IS AT LOW SPEED UNDER LOW TO MODERATE ENGINE LOAD.
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.
Recalls for this year
- 18V395000 ELECTRICAL SYSTEM Fixed free of charge.
- 18V332000 ELECTRICAL SYSTEM Fixed free of charge.
- 19V348000 ELECTRICAL SYSTEM Fixed free of charge.
- 16V490000 SEAT BELTS Fixed free of charge.
- 17V482000 POWER TRAIN Fixed free of charge.
- 17V342000 SERVICE BRAKES, HYDRAULIC Fixed free of charge.
- 18V049000 ELECTRICAL SYSTEM Fixed free of charge.
- 17V542000 SEAT BELTS Fixed free of charge.
Showing 8 of 11. The rest are on NHTSA's site.
How this was worked out
Every year of the Chrysler Pacifica was compared against its own history rather than against other cars, which removes popularity and age from the answer — a common car draws more complaints at equal reliability, and an older one has had longer to accumulate them. A year is flagged when it drew at least 2.5× this model's median and at least 50 complaints.
This is a fault record, not a review. Nobody files a federal complaint to say the car was fine, so it shows what tends to go wrong — not whether owners liked it, and not whether it is a good car.
Source: NHTSA complaints, recalls and investigations, retrieved . Look this vehicle up directly on NHTSA's site to check anything here.
Own a 2017 Chrysler Pacifica? What happened to yours?
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