New or used 2018 Chrysler Pacifica?

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This place seems to have the best prices on the net for what you are looking for. You may give them a call and see if you can get exactly what you want.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/2019-Chrysler-Pacifica-Limited-FWD-V6-Van-Panoramic-Sunroof-DVD-Player/362502835948?hash=item5466da4eec:g:uY4AAOSwu~5b0~wv:rk:1:pf:0&vxp=mtr
 
New, if your going to keep it for a long time. If you are on a limited budget used. Vehicles are not an investment. With a new vehicle you can take care of it from day one and have a great warranty. Purchase whatever makes you happy. Life is too short. Be happy!

Gosh, I love the new car smell. Although I know it's gassing off chemicals, like formaldehyde. Learned that in the Firefighter Academy. If ur smelling it, ur ingesting it.
 
Originally Posted by czbrian
Go for a new hybrid. Not only do you get the $7,500 tax credit, you also get a $2,500 rebate from the state of Texas. It makes javascript:quickReply(4944897,1,0)getting the hybrid version likely cheaper than a similarly optioned non hybrid. The tax credit will be claimed on your 2018 tax return so if you buy now, you will reduce your balance due to the IRS in April next year (or get a refund check). On the Texas alternative fuel rebate, the state will cut you a check for $2,500 and it takes a few months to come in the mail. PM me if you want more info on filling out the rebate forms for the state. I've done it once before for my Volt and I'm about to do it again for my Outlander PHEV.


When does the tax credit expire?
 
So, I went and test drove the hybrid at a local dealer. Problem is the battery was dead (not a good thing, right??). So it was basically like driving a vehicle with a start/stop engine. It was very smooth on acceleration though, weird with no shifting. Not sure what I think about it though. It is a bit different at low speed handling. And when pulling into my garage, it did not want to creep forward like I want it to, it kept stopping. Not sure if it was because of the dead battery or what.

And the garage is where the problem arose. Previous owners of the house converted the front part of the garage (where the "laundry area" is) into an enclosed room. Actually one of the things we liked about the house not having to go into the hot garage to do laundry. This did take quite a bit of space from the length of the garage though.
As I said above, I have 214 inches from the wall to the garage door. Specs say van is 204 inches long. Well, not sure what the spec sheet was measuring, but I was about 2 inches inch from the front wall and the garage door handle cleared the bumper by maybe 1/2 inch.
Part of it is I measured the floor, the wall is out about 1 inch from the floor lip, and there is a little handle on the garage door that also sticks out an inch.
So basically while the van does "fit" in the garage, I do not trust my wife or my soon to be 16 year old (or really even myself) 100% to not hit the wall while parking it.
Plus it leaes no way to get to the other side of the garage without opening the garage door. with our '05 Grand Caravan, there was enough room in the front of the van to get by, but not with the Pacifica.

I was so upset when I saw this. I have spent about a month of general research and about a week of negotiating a deal, then this.
No idea what I am going to get now, but a mini van is out, and my wife really wants a 7 seater for some reason.
I personally really liked the Kia Sorento SXL, may need to look into that again.

Heck, I may just go buy a $1000 beater for my kid and be done with it.
 
Originally Posted by NormanBuntz
Saving a max of $6,000 and buying one with 20-30K miles is NOT the way to go. Go new!


+100. Especially since you plan on keeping it a long time. Look at it this way, there's 30k miles worth of wear on brakes, tires, shocks, fluids, etc. That alone is worth $2k in deferred maintenance, so really you're only saving maybe $4k. $4k to me is worth peace of mind on a new vehicle that I know hasn't been neutral dropped on a bachelor party road trip.
 
One thing to consider when pondering this questions is interest rates.

I usually buy used but on my latest purchase, used car rates were just too high and I could get 1.9% on a new vehicle. The interest saved made up any cost difference.
 
Originally Posted by blupupher
So, I went and test drove the hybrid at a local dealer. Problem is the battery was dead (not a good thing, right??). So it was basically like driving a vehicle with a start/stop engine. It was very smooth on acceleration though, weird with no shifting. Not sure what I think about it though. It is a bit different at low speed handling. And when pulling into my garage, it did not want to creep forward like I want it to, it kept stopping. Not sure if it was because of the dead battery or what.

And the garage is where the problem arose. Previous owners of the house converted the front part of the garage (where the "laundry area" is) into an enclosed room. Actually one of the things we liked about the house not having to go into the hot garage to do laundry. This did take quite a bit of space from the length of the garage though.
As I said above, I have 214 inches from the wall to the garage door. Specs say van is 204 inches long. Well, not sure what the spec sheet was measuring, but I was about 2 inches inch from the front wall and the garage door handle cleared the bumper by maybe 1/2 inch.
Part of it is I measured the floor, the wall is out about 1 inch from the floor lip, and there is a little handle on the garage door that also sticks out an inch.
So basically while the van does "fit" in the garage, I do not trust my wife or my soon to be 16 year old (or really even myself) 100% to not hit the wall while parking it.
Plus it leaes no way to get to the other side of the garage without opening the garage door. with our '05 Grand Caravan, there was enough room in the front of the van to get by, but not with the Pacifica.

I was so upset when I saw this. I have spent about a month of general research and about a week of negotiating a deal, then this.
No idea what I am going to get now, but a mini van is out, and my wife really wants a 7 seater for some reason.
I personally really liked the Kia Sorento SXL, may need to look into that again.

Heck, I may just go buy a $1000 beater for my kid and be done with it.



I have a 2017 Hyundai Santa Fe XL I bought new a year ago and it now has 20,000 miles on it and has been great. It has a third row-good for smaller children. I had a similar issue -I had to be careful with width dimensions-since it sits next to my 2018 Silverado in a narrow garage. As a matter of fact-I had to pass on the purchase of a 2019 RAM because the mirrors stuck out too much-and there was no answer from the dealership on changing out the towing mirrors to the standard ones. Here are the specs on the Santa Fe-it would fit your requirements-(the length is 193 inches).

https://www.thecarconnection.com/specifications/hyundai_santa-fe_2018_se-3-3l-auto
 
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Maybe there is a nice way to undo the laundry room modification. If it is a two car garage, maybe you could make the laundry room squarish on one side of the garage?
 
Nope, it is front and center. Only way to modify is to take the wall down, and that is not going got happen.
Big cost plus loss of convince and comfort of enclosed laundry.
 
Originally Posted by blupupher


And the garage is where the problem arose. Previous owners of the house converted the front part of the garage (where the "laundry area" is) into an enclosed room. Actually one of the things we liked about the house not having to go into the hot garage to do laundry. This did take quite a bit of space from the length of the garage though.
As I said above, I have 214 inches from the wall to the garage door. Specs say van is 204 inches long. Well, not sure what the spec sheet was measuring, but I was about 2 inches inch from the front wall and the garage door handle cleared the bumper by maybe 1/2 inch.
Part of it is I measured the floor, the wall is out about 1 inch from the floor lip, and there is a little handle on the garage door that also sticks out an inch.
So basically while the van does "fit" in the garage, I do not trust my wife or my soon to be 16 year old (or really even myself) 100% to not hit the wall while parking it.
Plus it leaves no way to get to the other side of the garage without opening the garage door. with our '05 Grand Caravan, there was enough room in the front of the van to get by, but not with the Pacifica.

What about adding some soft foam to the wall where the front of the van's bumper would touch the wall? Perhaps a series of parallel hot-water-pipe insulators? You could pull right in and compress the foam slightly without damaging the bumper cover. As back-up you could have the suspended tennis ball which would contact the windshield at a marked spot.

Could you also move the garage door handle so that it wouldn't eat up that extra 1" of room?

I know, kind of iffy - it sounds like you've got 2-1/2" of clearance now. Being able to drive up almost right up the wall (with the foam as suggested) would get you another perhaps 1-1/2", and relocating the garage door handle would give you another 1". That would give you a total of 2-1/2" + 1-1/2" + 1" for a total of 5" - not as much as you'd need to get to the other side with the door closed.

I assume your garage is equipped with an overhead door, in which case moving it farther out would really mean extending the garage. Could be done with side-hinged doors though.

Remember when minivans were actually mini? The 1st-gen Caravan and Voyager were built on the K-car platform. There were short-WB Astros and Aerostars as well, as well as all the shorter imports - Toyota Van and later Previa, 1st-gen Nissan Quest/Mercury Villager, 1st-gen Mazda MPV (929-based), 1st-gen Honda Odyssey (Accord-based), and of course the old VW bus.
 
Originally Posted by Number_35
Originally Posted by blupupher


And the garage is where the problem arose. Previous owners of the house converted the front part of the garage (where the "laundry area" is) into an enclosed room. Actually one of the things we liked about the house not having to go into the hot garage to do laundry. This did take quite a bit of space from the length of the garage though.
As I said above, I have 214 inches from the wall to the garage door. Specs say van is 204 inches long. Well, not sure what the spec sheet was measuring, but I was about 2 inches inch from the front wall and the garage door handle cleared the bumper by maybe 1/2 inch.
Part of it is I measured the floor, the wall is out about 1 inch from the floor lip, and there is a little handle on the garage door that also sticks out an inch.
So basically while the van does "fit" in the garage, I do not trust my wife or my soon to be 16 year old (or really even myself) 100% to not hit the wall while parking it.
Plus it leaves no way to get to the other side of the garage without opening the garage door. with our '05 Grand Caravan, there was enough room in the front of the van to get by, but not with the Pacifica.

What about adding some soft foam to the wall where the front of the van's bumper would touch the wall? Perhaps a series of parallel hot-water-pipe insulators? You could pull right in and compress the foam slightly without damaging the bumper cover. As back-up you could have the suspended tennis ball which would contact the windshield at a marked spot.

Could you also move the garage door handle so that it wouldn't eat up that extra 1" of room?

I know, kind of iffy - it sounds like you've got 2-1/2" of clearance now. Being able to drive up almost right up the wall (with the foam as suggested) would get you another perhaps 1-1/2", and relocating the garage door handle would give you another 1". That would give you a total of 2-1/2" + 1-1/2" + 1" for a total of 5" - not as much as you'd need to get to the other side with the door closed.

I assume your garage is equipped with an overhead door, in which case moving it farther out would really mean extending the garage. Could be done with side-hinged doors though.

Remember when minivans were actually mini? The 1st-gen Caravan and Voyager were built on the K-car platform. There were short-WB Astros and Aerostars as well, as well as all the shorter imports - Toyota Van and later Previa, 1st-gen Nissan Quest/Mercury Villager, 1st-gen Mazda MPV (929-based), 1st-gen Honda Odyssey (Accord-based), and of course the old VW bus.


He bought a Hyundai Santa Fe XL-7 passenger. Problem solved. It's on another thread here some where.
 
Congratulations on the Santa Fe - good choice!

My friend's interested in a hybrid Pacifica, but I'd like to see how they hold up over the long term. Good ergonomics and so on, but ...
 
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