Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid Review – Radio Problems – Beware!!

We purchased our Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid February 20^th, 2018 from Huntington Beach Chrysler.   I needed a mini van to hold all of the kids in the carpool I am in for my youngest son.  I wanted a rear view camera and a Bluetooth radio.  Our older van I had bought a new radio with Bluetooth, because I wanted that feature and loved it. I used it every day!  So I knew I wanted that on my new van.

The very next day I noticed a problem with the radio.  The Bluetooth never remembered my phone.  Also sometimes the FM radio would work, sometimes it wouldn’t.  Sometimes SXM would work, sometimes it wouldn’t.  Then the radio would randomly reboot.  It was very frustrating.

I called the Uconnect line and they said it sounded like the radio needed a hard reboot and I needed to go to the dearlership for that.  I brought the van into Chrysler Tuttle Click on February 23^rd at 8:30 am and picked it up the next day only to find that nothing had been done at all.  They said I needed a new software updated that wasn’t available.  (2 days)

I waited awhile, but the problem of the rebooting had stopped, but the other problems persisted. I brought it back on March 8^th (1 day) asking them to at least try to hard reboot it or find some sort of situation. Seemed more like a short than a software problem.  David was very helpful.  He had them check it out more thoroughly and said that it looked like there was a problem with the radio and I would need a new one.  I thought it had been ordered.  It was not ordered because they needed to run more tests on it first.  So I had to bring it back on the 14^th, .  David wasn’t sure how many tests they would need to run to get the radio approved, so he got me a rental and I left it there until the 16^th.  (3 days)

The radio was ordered and it was finally installed March 27^th. (1 day)   I was so glad to get it installed before our spring break trip.  The FM radio and SXM worked consistently as did the CarPlay 99% of the time.  However the Bluetooth still didn’t work. I would connect the phone, then after the car was turned off for more than 20 minutes it would forget there had ever been any phone connected.  Then during our trip the next week, occasionally the rear view camera wouldn’t work. That seemed to happen 1-2  times a week.

I had gotten a notice in the mail about the software update, so I was hopeful that things would finally get all fixed.  The rear view camera was not working more often and I really missed the Bluetooth so I really wanted to get things resolved.

I knew I needed to bring it back in, however I have the carpool situation and drive almost every day for that, so it is really challenging not to have the van available to pick up the kids.  I waited until May 4^th because a child was going to be out of town from the carpool for a few days and the kids would fit in my husbands car.   I dropped the van off Friday morning around 10 AM, hoping to have it back by Saturday.  It wasn’t ready until Monday at 4:30. (4.5 days)  I had a dinner party that night, so was not able to travel the 40 minutes it would take me to go and pick up the car and return in time to be ready for the guests to arrive.  So I had to pick it up Tuesday.  I had high hopes.

I got the Bluetooth to work the second time I turned the car on.  Then the third time I turned the car on, the radio started rebooting, about every minute.  It has done this each time I have driven it since then.  So no radio, no back up camera, no Bluetooth – nothing!!! Just irritating rebooting, over and over and over again.

My van has been in the shop for over 11 days to get the radio fixed.  Even the new one that was installed didn’t work correctly.  It takes 80 minutes of my time to drop the van off and then return later to pick it up.  I don’t have the time to be bringing my brand new van to the shop.  A new van should WORK!!!!  This is why I bought a new van, paying over $40,000, so I could drive carpool AND have a rear view camera and bluetooth radio.  Nothing TOO crazy.  Bonus I had a hybrid van – I do love the way it drives and like that it has good gas mileage.  If the radio worked I would say that it is a great van.  However the radio is something you pretty much use every drive, so it really effects my feelings about it!

I am at the point where I just want to return the van and get something else. I have little hope that this is an issue that can actually be fixed.   As I have researched there are many people struggling with similar issues.