My 2018 is one month shy of eight years in-service and at 94k miles (so, almost out of battery warranty). It popped a U0412 a month or so ago. I think it might have been due to hitting a severe bump in the road and jostling a harness connector. It happened immediately after hitting the bump and went away within a few starts. I’ve had no other problems. But it planted the seed that I can’t trust this car not to drop an unconscionably large bill on my lap, not to mention having to once again dive into another time-and-life-sucking blackhole of dealing with underinformed service techs and the unsympathetic Stellantis politburo.
So, I just went to the dealer yesterday to consider upgrading to a 2025 Pacifica Hybrid. I left emptyhanded. I have very complicated feelings about it all. At the dealer, I felt depressed, like I was at the vet to have a beloved pet put down.
My kids and my dogs grew up in my 2018. It is a rolling memorial to a dog who passed years ago and liked no place on Earth more than my van. My living dogs love it just as much. My kids affectionately nicknamed it, and when they grew up, it was the first car they ever drove. I intended to keep it around as my utility vehicle after I’d thoroughly worn it out, like so many of us used to do with old pickup trucks.
But this recall changed all that. Now I get in it and wonder if today will be the day it springs a new code or goes into limp home mode, leaving me at the mercy of another impossibly aloof and self-superior service writer. And unlike the geriatric trucks I kept around after buying a new car, I don’t get to choose if I fix inadequacies with my rolling computer: Stellantis and/or the DMV decides that. No one could brick my rusty ’76 F100, but now multiple parties can force me to pony up or park my Pacifica.
At the dealer, I should have been the perfect buyer. I have more than enough money and credit to buy a new one and I loved my old one. In fact, I’ve had a Chrysler or Jeep in my garage since the early 90s. I should be a Stellantis loyalist. It should have been a no-brainer. But staring at the sheet of paper with the numbers, I just couldn’t square paying another $50k for precisely the same car I already had sitting in the parking lot. If they’d introduced an all-wheel drive PHEV, I’d have sailed off the lot with a new one (I live in snowy mountains, so the 2WD has been a huge limitation). If they’d made good on a BEV for 2026, I might have been enticed by the novelty. But instead, I was being compelled by their quality issues to buy what felt like an imposter van that offered nothing new.
But the insurmountable barrier to buying a new one was that, between getting my 2018 and now, I have lost all faith in Stellantis to take care of me as a customer, thanks to uncountable poor service/support interactions (and the many I’ve read about here). I was willing to endure the teething issues of a driving an all-new technology, but I needed a partner in that experience I could trust -- and I have found the opposite.
So, handing them $50k for a new van and opening the door to another round of support nightmares just felt like it would be indulging in Stockholm Syndrome.
Additionally, they offered me a measly $10k for my $16k van (an industry standard practice, to be sure). But in this case, I felt unusually aggrieved by the pittance, because I would only consider trading to avoid having to potentially sell a time bomb to another decent human being.
So, I left dejected.
Now I’m considering a Rivian R1S. And if you’re thinking I’m jumping from a low-end frying pan into a very expensive fire, you’re probably right. But Rivian is well known to be the good partner I was hoping to find in Stellantis. I may be disappointed with the R1S one day, but at least I know they actually care about their customer’s experiences and they are passionate about making electrified vehicles. I’d rather take a chance with an innovative ascendent company than a tired old behemoth whose heart just isn’t in it.
I wish Stellantis the best. They have at least a little DNA of one of the three great American auto companies. There has been quite a lot to like about their design esthetic in the last 30 years. And they hold the rights to the iconic Jeep brand. I hope they can solve their quality issues and embrace modernity instead of fighting it. But more importantly than anything else, I hope someone in their leadership decides to focus on developing customer trust. Without it, Chrysler will soon become nothing more than a historical reminiscence.
. At least I still have XE1 for the transmission.
