The 2024 Chrysler Pacifica's Latest Award Shows How it Continues to Raise the Bar in the Minivan Segment

The Chrysler Pacifica minivan has won more awards than any other minivan over the last seven years. This latest honor calls the 2024 Chrysler Pacifica the Best Minivan for Families. It is prestigious to be named to the U.S. News and World Report 2024 Best Cars for Families Awards. U.S. News & World Report evaluated 90 vehicles and named winners across nine categories.

“The 2024 Best Cars for Families winners offer a number of safety features and a comfortable ride for all passengers, making them ideal for daily commutes or family adventures,” said Liz Opsitnik, executive editor, U.S. News.

2024 Chrysler Pacifica Minivan Innovations

Chrysler Pacifica earned the vehicle’s first award from U.S News in the Best Minivan for Families category on the strength of family-friendly features. The Pacifica offers the most standard safety features in its segment. The Pacifica is available with all-wheel-drive (AWD) capability making it an all-weather vehicle. It still is the only van with Pacifica’s class-exclusive Stow ‘n Go seating which increases the cargo space dramatically. Chrysler created the minivan to simulate a living room on wheels and has continued to improve it over the years.

As I have reported previously, the Chrysler Pacifica was the first vehicle to offer the FamCAM interior camera, which offers a bird's-eye view of rear-facing child-seat occupants. The FamCam is now available in some other vehicles, but it truly is a lifesaver for parents who need to be able to monitor their baby in a rear facing baby seat. The FamCAM makes traveling safer for the baby and parents, no more swerving to make sure that the baby is safe and breathing. The FamCAM can allay a parent’s fears when the baby is crying, the parent can see that the little one has lost its pacifier or toy. Pacifica has innovated a number of infotainment advancements. It was the first with available Amazon Fire TV integrated into the Uconnect Theater System.

The Chrysler Pacifica Plug-In Hybrid was the first hybrid minivan. It delivers 82 miles per gallon equivalent (MPGe), an all-electric range of 32 miles and a total range of 520 miles. The Pacifica Plug-In Hybrid can also help charge the battery when braking or stopping using the built-in regenerative braking technology.

How U.S. News and World Report Rated the Vehicles

The 2024 Best Cars for Families award criteria looked at each vehicle’s overall rating from the U.S. News Best Car Rankings to determine quality. It incorporated safety data, predicted reliability ratings, passenger and cargo space. The editors also considered the availability of tech features such as in-car wireless internet, teen driver controls, automatic emergency braking, rear cross-traffic alert and hands-free cargo doors. The winners were selected based on the highest composite score in each of the nine vehicle categories.

For more information on the U.S. News & World Report 2024 Best Cars for Families awards, visit Cars.usnews.com/cars-trucks/best-cars-for-families.

Chrysler Photo

Mary Conway is a professional automotive journalist and has decades of experience specializing in automotive news analysis. She covered the Detroit Three for more than twenty years for the ABC affiliate, in Detroit. Her affection for the Motor City comes naturally. Her father ran a gas station while Mary was growing up, in Wisconsin.

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