Model years › Chrysler Pacifica

2006 Chrysler Pacifica

Complaints about this year name rusted far more often than the model's other years — 20% of them, about 50× the usual rate of 0.4%.

NHTSA opened a defect investigation into this model year.

What the complaints were about

• cradle — 25.9% of this year's complaints, against 0.9% across the model's other years (29.6×). Owners wrote it as: cradle, engine cradle, cradle rusted, vehicle unsafe.
• rusted — 22.3% of this year's complaints, against 3.2% across the model's other years (6.9×). Owners wrote it as: rusted, rusted through, rusted out, safe drive.
• subframe — 10.6% of this year's complaints, against 0% across the model's other years (53×).

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

• engine cradle — 19% of complaints, 48× usual
• frame — 12% of complaints, 31× usual
• mechanic — 24% of complaints, 5× usual

What owners wrote

WHILE DRIVING AT VARIOUS SPEEDS, THE VEHICLE WOULD DRIFT TO THE RIGHT. THE VEHICLE WAS TAKEN TO THE AN INDEPENDENT MECHANIC WHO DISCOVERED THAT THE FRONT SUBFRAME AND ENGINE CRADLE WAS RUSTED AND CORRODED. THE [VIN] WAS NOTIFIED OF THE FAILURE. THE FAILURE MIL…

THE SERVICE ENGINE WARNING LIGHT FLICKERED AND THE VEHICLE OVERHEATED. THE VEHICLE WAS REPAIRED BY REPLACING THE HOSE. THE CONTACT ALSO NOTICED THAT THE ENGINE CRADLE/SUBFRAME WAS RUSTED WITH HOLES AND COULD FRACTURE. THE VEHICLE WAS TAKEN TO OVER THREE INDEPE…

Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.

Recalls for this year

• 06V432000 POWER TRAIN

Own a 2006 Chrysler Pacifica? What happened to yours?

Loading comments…

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.

Every year of the Chrysler Pacifica →